Painting A Picture Of What Will Happen If They Don’t Leave
I’m an assistant manager in a hardware store. A customer comes in looking for a particular kind of paint, in a particular color, with a particular finish. It’s an odd combination.
The high school kid helping him is new — it is his very first day in his very first job — and he can’t find it. He fetches the more senior employee who has been assigned as his mentor.
Mentor: “I’m sorry, sir, but we just don’t carry what you’re after. It’s an odd combination.”
Customer: “I want to talk to a manager.”
That’s me! As soon as I walk up, I ask the mentor what the deal is rather than the customer. He quickly and efficiently explains that the guy is looking for a type of paint in a particular color with a specific finish. I know the product line pretty well, and I know we don’t carry that, which I explain.
Customer: *Annoyed* “I want the phone number for your corporate office!”
At least he didn’t demand that I “look in the back”!
As I am writing the number down on the back of a business card, this guy looks me in the eye and says:
Customer: “The reason you don’t have my paint is that all of your employees are mentally r****ded.”
Yes, he called my employees a disabled slur, right in front of them. I hand him the card.
Me: “You’ll want to talk to [Corporate Representative]; he’s in charge of security. Now get out of my store.”
He doesn’t want to leave, so I literally yell at him the entire length of the store, with the entire world watching, until we are at the front door. This is where he decides to make his stand and refuses to leave.
I pick up the phone, dial for information, ask for the non-emergency number of the police department, write it down on a notepad, hang up, and start dialing again. I am looking him right in the eye the whole time.
I will FOREVER treasure the look on his face when he realizes that if he doesn’t leave, he’ll be going to jail.
He then steps right outside the door to keep making his scene with people coming in.
Me: “Sir, if you keep doing that, I’ll call mall security, who will likely beat you with nightsticks before they haul you away.”
That wasn’t bluster; it was fair warning. They are the WORST security company I’ve ever worked with.
I have no idea if he called corporate or not because I did. I gave [Corporate Representative] a full report and was told I’d handled it correctly. I love working for people who have their employees’ backs, and the LAST thing you want to do in one of our stores is be abusive to employees because it will be the last thing you do in one of our stores. We’ve gotten restraining orders.
