My friend and I have come to a local Italian ice shop after a morning of ultimate frisbee. The shop is known for its extensive list of flavors that changes daily.

Friend: “Hi. I have a proposition for you. Can I have a medium Italian ice with every flavor?”

Me: “I can’t believe you’re doing this.”

The employee’s eyes get huge.

Employee: “I can do my best.”

The employee tops off my friend’s order with all eleven flavors for the day, each with an equal scoop.

Employee: “It’s a little messy, but here you are, sir!”

Friend: “This is awesome. You guys don’t have name tags. What’s your name?”

Employee: “It’s [Employee].”

Friend: “Well, thank you, [Employee]. You’ve truly made my day with this.”

He then tipped the employee half the cost of his ice, and we continued on our way.

This story takes place several years ago, before our store is able to switch over the POS to accept the chip on debit/credit cards. Every cash register has several layers of tape over the chip slot, a small sign saying, “No chip reader,” on the machine, and the screen of the machine says, “Please SLIDE card,” with the word slide actually being in all caps. Of course, this doesn’t stop people from still attempting to insert their cards. But this one lady takes the cake.

She is attempting to insert her card, but the tape is stopping her, of course. 

Me: “Ma’am, you actually have to slide your card here; our systems just aren’t set up to accept chip payments yet.”

Customer: “Well, my card has a chip and I use the chip everywhere else I pay. I don’t see why I can’t just use it the same way here. This is stupid and just confusing. How was I supposed to know that you can’t take the chip?”

Me: “I agree, ma’am, the process can be confusing. We tried to make it a little less confusing by blocking off the chip reader and posting a note saying we don’t accept chips. But if you will just slide your card right here for me, we can finish up your transaction.”

She then starts to peel the tape away from the chip reader in an attempt to insert her card.

Customer: “This is just all wrong. I don’t think you know what you’re talking about. Everywhere accepts these chips; it is an absolute law that all places of businesses have to accept the chip.”

Me: “Actually, ma’am, that is not true. The law is more of a compliance issue that says that because we do not accept chip cards, if anything fraudulent happens then the non-compliant company is held liable for all charges instead of the credit card company. Our company is still a little behind, although I have heard that corporate does plan on implementing a new system soon that would be in compliance. However, if you want to purchase your items today, I’m going to have to ask you to remove your card from the chip slot and slide the magnetic strip on the back of your card, please.”

She finally attempts to swipe her card but does it so roughly that the machine swings around while she’s halfway through swiping causing an error. 

Me: “Ma’am, you’ll have to realize your card, please. The machine moved just a little bit which caused an error in processing.”

Customer: “No, I already swiped my card; you’re just attempting to steal my money.”

Me: “I can assure you, I would not risk losing my job just in an attempt to steal $15 from you. Also, I have no clue how to even do that, and lastly, your account is not charged until a receipt prints out. If you want, I can hold the machine steady for you while you slide your card again.”

She then proceeds to pull a $20 out of her wallet and fling it across the counter at me.

Customer: “Here, just take it in cash, and if I see money missing from my account later, I will be coming back up here and having a talk with your manager.”

Obviously, she never came back to speak with a manager.

A middle-aged man has swiped his credit card to make a purchase of about $500. He’s already been fairly rude throughout, and I’m trying my hardest to be polite.

Me: “Okay, sir. Now I need to see your card and ID.”

The customer flips over his ID, so I can read the name. 

Me: “Okay, now I need to see your card.”

Customer: “Why do you need to see that?”

Me: “To be sure the names match, sir.”

Customer: “What card?”

Me: “The one you swiped.”

Customer: “I’m not dumb.”

Me: *Totally shocked* “Sir… I never said you were.”

Customer: “Yeah, but you’re talking to me like you are! You need to say credit card. I have a lot of cards! See?!”

The customer holds his ID and credit card literally two inches from my face.

Customer: “See? See?! Is that good enough for you?”

Me: “Yes, sir. Just trying to protect your identity.”

I quickly total out, and the man casts an annoyed look to the customer behind him.

Customer: “Can you believe they hire cashiers this stupid?”

Me: “Here you go, sir. Have a splendid evening.”

Customer: “Yeah, whatever.”

I take a deep breath and look nervously at the customer behind him.

Customer #2: “Oh, good girl! You handled that really well. I may be dumb, but at least I’m not an a** like that guy!”

I am pushing in shopping carts when I hear breaking glass and something sharp cuts into my ankle. I yell in surprise and look up at the customer there, who is watching me with a blank look. I notice a pile of glass from a Coke bottle at her feet.

Customer: “Oh! I was right; it was glass! Well, at least I wasn’t hurt!”

I am a cashier at a hobby store where the store manager is not really the best at scheduling. He frequently makes mistakes, and then just brushes it off with an “Oops! Oh, well!” attitude. Here are a few instances.

Instance #1:

I am looking over our daily schedule — basically, a sheet of paper that shows who will be working in each department for the day, when they come in or leave, and when they are supposed to take their breaks. I notice that the scheduled Customer Service Manager (CSM) for the day is someone who was supposed to have had their last day of work over four days ago as they were transferring to a different college further away.

One of my coworkers is standing nearby.

Me: “Hey, did [CSM] decide to stay with us a little bit longer?”

Coworker: “No, her last day was Saturday.”

Me: *Jokingly* “Well, she’s supposed to be our CSM for today. Think we should call and let her know?”

Coworker: “Wow, maybe [Store Manager] was looking at last week’s schedule by accident.”

Me: “Yeah, I’ll call and ask him.”

I get him on the phone. 

Me: “Hey, who is supposed to be our CSM today? You have [former CSM] listed.”

Manager: “Yeah, that’s right.”

Me: “You know her last day was Saturday. We had a going-away thing for her last Wednesday. Are you sure you’re looking at the right schedule?”

Manager: “Yeah, it’s the right schedule. I guess I forgot. Oh, well, you’ll just have to call another manager anytime you need an override.”

Instance #2 happens when I’m not present.

Often times, the manager forgets to make a daily schedule, even though by company policy one is supposed to be made before the store opens for business every day. On this particular day, a daily schedule was not made; if one had been made, then this situation could have been prevented.

It’s time for a cashier shift change, but so far, not a single closing cashier has shown up. Most of the morning shift cashiers have after-work obligations — kids, another job, night school, etc. — and need to be off work by a certain time in order to fulfill those obligations. The morning shift cashier is starting to get antsy as she literally needs to leave in the next ten minutes in order to not be late for her second job.

The store manager has been saying that a certain person should be there but finally decides to go look at the schedule to see which person he actually scheduled, as he thinks it might have been someone else. Instead, he discovers that he didn’t schedule a closing cashier at all.

His only option is to pull a worker from the floor and attempt to teach them how to run the register for the evening. This is made difficult by the fact that our registers operate quite differently from normal registers. We type in prices and departments for each item we sell instead of scanning them in, and it also requires memorization of the sales advertisement each week, which floor people normally only know the sales for their department

Apparently, it was chaos that evening, as it turned out to also be uncharacteristically busy. 

Instance #3:

Our manager has been scheduling the new CSM to come in an hour to ninety minutes AFTER the store is opened for the day. Company policy states that a CSM is to be at the front of the store before the store opens. Our manager keeps forgetting that he is scheduling her late, but one day, she finally comes in almost an hour early so that she can be almost in compliance with company policy for once. As she’s walking in the door, only five minutes before the store opens, the manager notices. 

Manager: “Hey, if I have you on the schedule for nine, I need you to make sure you’re actually getting here a good bit earlier than that so that you can be up here when the store opens.”

CSM: “Yeah, okay.”

Later, she says to me:

CSM: “I guess he forgot that he had me scheduled to come in at ten?”

Me: “Why didn’t you say anything to him, then?”

CSM: “I’m just tired of wasting my breath on it.”

These are just a few that stand out, and this just covers his ineptness at scheduling. How he still maintains his store manager position baffles me.