I’m working the customer service counter at work. A woman (friendly, joking with me) and three teenagers come up to me.

Woman: “I’ll get some cigarettes.”

Me: “No problem, which ones?”

She looks at her phone and reads it out. Again, not that uncommon, Canada recently changed the packaging requirements for every brand, they all look identical now, so you need to know the exact name.

She lists off the brand, size, etc., all the info I need, and as I am heading to the correct drawer, I hear the words that make me stop dead.

Woman: “I don’t know, I don’t smoke.”

Me: “I’m sorry, I can’t sell them to you then. I would need to ID the person they are for.”

Woman: “Are you serious? They’re for my girlfriend, she’s having a rough day, I said I would pick up some smokes for her!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but once I ask for ID, I need to see it and once I know that they are not for the purchaser, I need to see the ID for the one they are for.”

Woman: “Even if I go to another store?”

Me: “I have no control over other stores. I just cannot legally sell them to you now that I know they are not for you.”

Woman: “This is f****** ridiculous, she’s thirty-six years old!”

Teenager: “Mom, it’s the law, she can’t sell them to you because she has no proof that they are not for someone under nineteen. For all she knows you could be buying them for one of us.”

Woman: *Still complaining.* “Fine, we’ll go somewhere else. It’s still stupid.”

I couldn’t hear all of what that teenager was saying to her after, but before they were out of earshot he was still trying to explain to her that it was the law and I was only doing my job.

Not five minutes later a gentleman came in asking for the exact same cigarettes, paying cash. I have zero doubts that he was her husband, but I can’t prove that. He didn’t say that they were for anyone else, he was polite, paid, and went on his way.

At my job we have to try to upsell to every customer. This is something that we hate more than the customers (trust me – we do), but we have to do it to keep the managers happy, and therefore keep our corporate overlords happy.

Customer: “I’ll take combo four with a coke.”

Me: “Would you like to go large on that?”

Customer: “No. If I wanted to go large, I would have asked for a large. Do you have to upsell every time I order something?”

Me: “Yes, actually.”

Customer: “Seriously?”

Me: “Yes, seriously. I’m supposed to say something like “I’m just making you aware of all your options so that you can get the best service” or something like that, but neither of us are stupid enough to believe that. Trust me, I hate upselling.”

Customer: “Then don’t do it.”

Me: “Sadly I have to; part of the job.”

Customer: “Then quit.”

Me: “Quit my job?”

Customer: “Yeah, have some principles!”

Me: “So, principles are gonna put food on my kids’ plates while I am looking for a new job?”

Customer: “Not my fault you’re stuck in a dead-end job. Either quit, or do your job without moaning about it!”

Me: “Noted, sir. That’ll be $4.89.”

Next time I’ll just stick to the corporate zombie script. God forbid a customer moans at a fast food worker and expects a human being on the other end.

My checkout’s card reader is broken so we have multiple HUGE signs up in my lane saying it’s cash only.

Customer: *Presents card.* “Amex, please.”

Me: “Sorry, ma’am, this checkout lane is cash only. My coworker in the next lane can take care of you.”

I am about to transfer her purchase code to my coworker’s checkout so she doesn’t have to scan all her items again, but she doesn’t move.

Customer: *Slowly dawning.* “Wait, is this cash only?”

Me: *Staring at the big signs everywhere that say so, including one right next to the customer’s head.* “Yes, ma’am.”

Customer: “And that’s for everyone?”

Me: “Yes, ma’am.”

Customer: “So… not just for me?”

Me: “No, ma’am. It’s for everyone.”

Customer: “Are you sure?”

Me: “Am I sure that the ‘cash only’ rule isn’t singling you and only you out of all of our customers?”

She thinks about it a moment.

Customer: “Yes.”

Me: “No.”

Customer: “Oh… well okay, then.”

She pays at my coworkers lane, but I see her hanging around for my next customer. When she sees that they also pay in cash, she seems satisfied and finally leaves.

When I was a kid, our whole family went to a sporting goods store. We all needed new things of different sorts: my sisters needed some winter clothing, I needed some football stuff, my mom needed some hiking boots, etc.

Dad was “the money”. He wasn’t buying anything for himself, so he just hung out near the cash register while the rest of us shopped for all the stuff that we needed. It took over an hour.

Eventually, we brought all the stuff up to the cashier. It cost quite a lot (the equivalent of over $1,000) seeing as we had a lot of stuff. At this point, my dad turned to the cashier with a smile.

Dad: “Any chance of a ‘waiting discount’, since I’ve been so good, waiting here for an hour?”

The cashier smiled back and gave him a 10% discount — a significant amount since the total was so high.

As my dad put it later: you can always ask. The worst that can happen is that they say no.

I work as a cashier at a discount grocery store. We have an employee who is super nice and friendly to everyone. She’s worked at the company for many years. She is also taking care of her elderly mother and working full time. 

One day, she is checking out a regular customer and I overhear the conversation.

Regular Customer: “Hi, [Coworker], how are you?”

Coworker: “I’m doing well, and you?”

Regular Customer: “Good. [Coworker], are you okay? You look so tired today.”

Coworker: “Well, Mom fell again last night, and I had to take her to the emergency room. We were there for five hours. I didn’t get home until 3:00 am. Luckily, Mom is fine.”

Regular Customer: “I’m glad to hear that. Take care of yourself and your mom.”

The man standing in line behind the regular customer has heard the whole conversation.

Coworker: “Hello. How are you? Did you find—”

Customer: *Cutting her off* “Look. I don’t give a d*** how tired you are! I don’t give a d*** about your mom. Your job is to ring my groceries up. Do it!”

She was shocked by this but rang up his groceries. The man took his bags and left without another word.

My coworker turned her light off, went to the break room, and never came back.