I am one of those people who looks younger than I actually am. This is not usually a problem, except when I try to buy a bottle of wine one day at my favorite liquor store. There is a new employee working there, the owner tells me, and he wants to test her with younger-looking customers.

The moment I step in, the new employee watches me like a hawk, even going into the same aisle as me. When I approach the counter, she grabs the bottle of wine and puts it behind the counter.

Me: “I was going to purchase that.” 

New Employee: “You look underage. I can’t sell this to you.”

Me: “I can prove I’m of age. Look, here’s my driver’s license.”

New Employee: “It’s probably a fake. I’m going to have to confiscate that.”

Me: “[Owner]!”

Owner: *Coming out of the back* “Is there a problem, [My Name]?”

Me: “Apparently, I’m too young, and she wouldn’t even look at my driver’s license. Now she thinks she can confiscate it.”

Owner: *To the employee* “[My Name] is one of my best customers. If you would just look at her license, you’d see she’s of age. And we don’t confiscate IDs, even if they are fake. That’s the cops’ job.”

The employee rings me through and tells me the total with gritted teeth.

New Employee: “And don’t come back!”

Owner: “[New Employee]! My office, now!”

The last time I went in there, the employee gave me a dirty look. The owner told me he gave her a warning and retrained her about treating customers with respect.

I’m working the till when a customer comes up with a name-brand greeting card. The card scans for $2.00.

Customer: “The sign says ninety-nine cents.”

I’m new and we are busy, so I override the price to ninety-nine cents. The guy comes in a couple of weeks later with the same statement, so I override the price again. The third time he comes in, I have gone to that section to check the sign.

Me: “The sign says starting at 99 cents.”

He shut up, paid the full price, and never pulled that on me again! He knew I was a new hire and was scamming the store.

I’m checking out a customer at the register when a man comes in and makes a beeline for the soda fridge we have in the next-in-line area. He then walks off into the store.

Me: “Sir, you need to pay for that.”

Customer: “It’s okay. I’ll pay when I leave.”

Me: “No, you need to pay for it first.”

Customer: “Don’t worry; I promise I won’t drink it.”

His girlfriend comes in.

Customer’s Girlfriend: “What’s going on?”

Customer: “She says I have to pay for the soda before I can start looking around.”

Customer’s Girlfriend: “Seriously?! They don’t even do this at [Local Grocery Store Chain]!”

I let them go, since I’m still with a customer at the register and I figure that I can just have somebody keep an eye on them. As they go further in the store, I hear the girlfriend say that they should “report it to her manager”. The woman I’m checking out tells me that I was right and that she’ll back me up if they do get my manager.

I do seek out my manager on the floor and ask him if we’re allowed to let them do that — take a soda and let them pay for it later — and he says that it’s not ideal, but it’s better to avoid a fuss. I see them on the floor, too, but make a point of giving them a wide berth.

At a later point, the man comes to the register to check out, and he has clearly drunk out of the soda. He puts down his items and the first words out of his mouth are:

Customer: “So, are you single?”

He keeps hitting on me through the whole transaction. Thankfully, nobody, customer or otherwise, is nearby, so I can get away with not even trying to be friendly. I’m not rude, mind you; I just say everything through gritted teeth. At the end of it, my manager comes by just as I’m saying, “Have a nice day.”

Me: “Yeah, this guy just started hitting on me.”

Manager: “What?!”

Customer: “Sorry, sorry, she was just being so mean. I had to try and loosen her up a little! She’s such a b****, am I right?”

My manager then takes him into the vestibule near the register and says something to him — I can only make out the words “very special girl.” Afterward, he comes in, apologizes, and then leaves. My manager then comes to me.

Manager: “Are you all right?”

Me: “Yeah, just mad. He’s that guy I was telling you about.”

Manager: “With the soda?”

Me: “Yeah. It had clearly been drunk out of when he brought it up. And he came in here with his girlfriend, too!”

Manager: “Yeah, I think the girlfriend might have been responsible for these.”

He shows me a bunch of packaging for power banks, earbuds, etc.

Me: “And he drank the soda before he paid for it, too!”

We contacted the other stores to let them know about him and his girlfriend. Thankfully, he had easily identifiable and hard to conceal facial tattoos. But really, the nerve of some people!

A customer comes up to my register with a bathroom rug.

Customer: “Don’t put it on the counter. I don’t want those germs on it!

She expected me to hold it in my hand throughout the transaction. I wanted to say, “So, you’re not washing it before use?”

A woman walks up to my register with her two-year-old and orders a drink. The two-year-old reaches into our tip jar and pulls out a quarter. I protest.

Mother: “It’s just a quarter. I give you people too much already anyway.”

And with that, the mother and daughter just turned and left.