Putting The Littering In Glittering

(One of our cosmetics counters has a fine, cosmetic-quality glitter on sale after the holidays. One customer buys a dozen large containers. As she is leaving the store, she trips, her bag flies out of her hand, and three of the containers shatter on impact. Our maintenance tries to clean it up with a broom, but the glitter spreads, settling into the grout cracks of the tile over a wide area. They call me, the store manager, down to see if the cleanup was sufficient.)

Me: “Well, if all the glass and tripping hazard is cleaned up, it should be okay, just a little extra sparkly.”

Customer: “It’s not okay!”

Me: “Excuse me?”

Customer: “It’s not okay! You can’t just leave that glitter there! It’s so bad for the environment.”

Me: “It seems fine. Besides, I don’t even know how we would clean it up…”

Maintenance: “I mean, I could get into the grout with a cotton swab to clean it?”

Me: “Yeah, we aren’t doing that.”

Customer: “No, look, my friend found an article on how bad glitter is for the environment on Facebook. Let me find it. Hold on! Here. Read that. That’s how bad glitter is for you.”

(I skim the article to humor her, then thank her and leave with maintenance.)

Maintenance: “So, you want me to clean the grout?”

Me: “Nah. I don’t know how we could hurt the ‘environment’ inside a mall any more than by wasting cleaning supplies and throwing the glitter into the watershed. It’s just sparkle grout now.”