People Are Getting Crabby About The Shellfish

Years ago, I worked as a seafood clerk at a local supermarket. I had a lady purchasing a lobster.

Customer #1: “Can you deduct the weight of the lobster’s shell from the scale?”

Tare weight, such as bags or other containers, is deducted from the scale so the customer only pays for the product.

Me: “I don’t know how to determine the weight of just the shell. And if there was a way to do that, management would probably frown on such a practice. We do sell frozen, canned lobster meat if that’s all you want.”

Customer #1: “The guy who used to work here did it for me all the time!”

Me: “That may be why he no longer works here.”

She paid for the lobster, shell and all.

Another customer wanted fillets of a fish we only sold whole. This isn’t a problem, as everyone in the department is skilled at fileting, steaking, deboning, and gutting fish.

We would prepare your selection any way you liked at no additional cost, but you paid for the whole fish, as there wasn’t sufficient demand to have them pre-cut in the case, and therefore, we had no separate code for them.

Customer #2: “Why should I have to pay for the whole fish?! I’m only taking the filets home!”

He was still incensed at the notion, even after I explained the policy to him.

Customer #2: “I want to talk to a manager.”

The manager said the same thing I had. I offered to just sell him the fish whole, and he could do the prep work at home.

You can’t please everyone.