Offering Them A Display Of Reality

(I was an assistant manager for a popular discount store a few years back. Our store is relatively small compared to the others around the city, so most of the time, it’s only one manager with, at most, two cashiers in the store. We sell gift bags for almost all occasions and we carry a lot at a time with only maybe twenty feet for the whole display, so many bags would get mixed together and become a mess. There are many times where I have to redo the display a few times a day, especially during big holidays like Christmas or Easter. One day, I am making my rounds in the store and notice there are gift bags thrown everywhere, for the second time that day. I don’t know why, but for some reason, this day is popular to buy gift bags. For me, it’s easier to remove everything and start from scratch, so that’s what I do. I take down all the bags that are mixed up, put them in a small pile, kneel down, and get to work.)

Me: *sorting through gift bags*

Customer: *comes up, picks a bag off the display, looks it over, then throws it in my pile*

Me: *already frustrated at having to, yet again, redo the display that day* “Ma’am, that gift bag doesn’t belong there.”

Customer: *turns to me* “Well, yeah, but I’m not putting it back. That’s your job. What, are you too f****** lazy to do it yourself? Do you not have anything else to do?”

Me: *sighs and stands up* “Ma’am, I don’t mean to be rude, but this is the second time I’m doing this display in three hours. I have two cashiers that are still fairly new to the job, and I am the only manager on duty as of the moment. My to-do list is pretty packed.”

Customer: “Yeah, well, it’s called f****** job security.”

Me: “No, it’s called being a decent human being and picking up a mess that you created.”

Customer: *becoming red* “You can’t talk to me that way! I’m the customer! I’m the reason you still have this job!”

Me: *trying not to laugh* “Ma’am, this is a nationwide, popular store that sells everything for [price]. I’m sure the company won’t lose business over one item not being bought, to which I mean your gift bag that you had.”

Customer: *still red, aggressively picks up the gift bag and returns it to to the display* “I’m telling your supervisor about this!”

Me: “Sure thing. My store manager is in tomorrow from ten to six. You can call the store then.”

Customer: *walks away* “You bet your a** I will!”

(The customer never called the store the next day. Whenever I told my store manager about the incident, she just laughed about it.)