Some People Bring Themselves Down

(I work as a barista in a coffee shop. Every Tuesday and Thursday, we have a teenager come in and order the same drink: a half-and-half coffee. This customer has Down Syndrome. She is the sweetest person ever and all of the staff are extremely polite and enjoy her presence. It is Tuesday evening, around five pm. A woman yapping loudly on a cell phone strolls into the restaurant and proceeds to order. It all goes smoothly until she goes to collect her coffee and takes notice of the girl.)

Woman: “Oh, my God, a f****** [slur]! How do you let people like this in your shop?”

(I go speechless, having never met such an inconsiderate a**hole in my life, and simply stand there, stunned.)

Woman: “I mean, I can’t believe those crazy f*****s aren’t locked up in an asylum like they should be!”

(She is quite loud, and by now the whole cafe is dead silent and glaring at her with looks of pure disgust. The girl is visibly upset and tears are pouring down her cheeks. This woman continues her ranting when a middle-aged male customer approaches her.)

Male Customer: “Excuse me, ma’am. Your name doesn’t happen to be [Woman] does it?”

Woman: *looking annoyed* “Why, yes, it is. And exactly who the f*** are you?”

(The man smiles at her, but there is a fire behind his eyes.)

Male Customer: “My name is [Male Customer], and I’m the CEO of [Small Local Company]. If I recall, you just applied for a position at our office last week. In fact, I was just going over to the office to review your application, but now I see I won’t have to do that. Watching you be completely rude and undeniably terrible to that girl made my blood boil. I can say, with one-hundred-percent certainty, that you will never work for my company, ever. You’d be a major embarrassment to our image, and I can’t have that on my plate. Now, I recommend you apologize to that poor little girl and then get the f*** out of this coffee shop, because I don’t ever want to see your piece-of-s*** face again.”

(The woman’s jaw is on the floor. She mutters a quick apology and runs out of the store, not even bothering to pick up her coffee. The manager has come out of his office.)

Manager: “That was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. Take an employee discount!”

(The teenage girl was given a free coffee and our store T-shirt!)