Sometimes You Wish You Could Give People The Boot Instead Of A Shoe

I used to work in a clothing store, in the women’s shoe department. It was my very first day. It was a Saturday, and to boot, there was a sale going on. When it got busy, people had to wait in line to get their shoes of interest scanned to see if the shoe sizes they wanted were there. I didn’t know any better, and people kept coming up to me and asking for shoes. I got so stressed and overwhelmed.

This lady came up to me with a shoe.

Customer #1: “I need this shoe scanned.”

Me: “Ma’am, you’ll need to wait in the line to get your shoe scanned.”

As she was leaving, [Customer #2] asked for another shoe scanned. I had been helping her already, so I scanned it. Customers didn’t have to wait in line again if they had already waited before.

Customer #1: “Why did you scan her shoe?”

She tried seeming all sad, and she got passive-aggressive about it.

Customer #1: “Whatever, I guess I don’t matter. I guess I’m not important.”

I cut off her rant and explained that it was my first day working there. I felt so intimidated that I got the shoe for her. When I gave her the shoe, she decided to apologize.

Customer #1: “Oh, I’m sorry I was rude to you.”

She sounded genuine when she said this, but people just take stuff so personally. She was in her sixties, and she was acting like an insecure middle schooler when a guy doesn’t like her back.

I know that it wasn’t that bad what she did, but I was so overwhelmed, and that was the tipping point for me. I went to the back of the store and I cried for twenty minutes.