(I am Romanian but have lived in the US for a couple of years now. I am shopping for a dress to wear to a friend’s wedding. I am wearing jeans, a cat T-shirt, a bracelet with my country’s colors on it, and a star necklace. The uniform that the employees wear consists of cargo pants, a button-up shirt, and their name tags.)

Stranger: *taps me on the shoulder* “Excuse me, miss. Can you tell me where I can find plus-size jeans?”

Me: *turning around* “Oh, sorry. I do not work here.”

Stranger: “Oh, sorry. My mis—“

(He notices my necklace and bracelet, crosses himself, and runs away. I am confused but I shrug it off. A few minutes later while I’m talking on the phone with my grandma who doesn’t speak English, the same man comes back with who I assume is the manager.)

Stranger: “There she is. Throw this heathen out of the store!”

Manager: “Sir, I cannot throw anyone out without proof.”

Stranger: “Has she made you stupid with her devil magic? Look at her. No good Christian would wear that necklace and a symbol of those [gay slurs]!”

Manager: “Sir, I simply can’t—“

Stranger: “I am a God-fearing man and I demand you throw this [bad word], [slur] pagan out!”

(Having had enough, I finally speak up.)

Me: “Sir!”

Stranger: “WHAT?!”

Me: “First of all, although it is none of your business, I am in fact Christian born and raised. Second, this necklace is a star, not a pentagram which I assume you thought it was, and my bracelet is the flag of Romania, not any LGBTQ+ flag I’m familiar with. Third, I doubt God would be very happy with a self-described God-fearing man who uses such profane language and takes the Lord’s name in vain.”

(I begin reciting Peter 3:8 and 9 and Luke 6:31. The irate man stutters, trying to find a reply, before giving up and leaving the store with his head lowered.)

Manager: “Wow. Usually, I have to call security for people like that.”

Me: “In my opinion, a good follower of any religion doesn’t use it as fuel for bigotry but to spread morality and acceptance.”

(I’m cashiering at a clothing store. We have a very generous 90-day return policy, which means that for 3 whole months, you can return your item with its receipt and get back exactly what you paid for it, instead of store credit for the clearance amount the item will inevitably drop to. I’ve finished ringing up a customer when she looks down into her purse.)

Customer: Oh no! I had something I wanted to return… I must have left it at home. I guess I’ll have to come back later this week. What’s your return policy?

Me: You have 90 days to return an item.

Customer: Oh really? What if I bought it in January?

Me: Well, it’s June now… so that’s past our return policy. If you bring it in, we can give you store credit for whatever the item is selling for in store now.

Customer: Even if I have my receipt? I don’t get back what I paid for it?

Me: Well, you would if you were inside of our return policy. But since you bought the item six months ago, you’re way past the 90 days. I could only give you store credit for whatever the item is marked down to now. The longer you wait, the less you’ll be able to get back.

Customer: Well, that doesn’t seem right… if I have my receipt, I should be able to get all of my money back.

Me: Well… not if you’re three months past our return policy. If we let you get your money back as long as you have a receipt, someone could bring something back a year later and we’d basically lose that money since the item would be such a ridiculously cheap clearance price at that point. That’s why we have the return policy.

Customer: Well that’s just dishonest!

(At this point she grabs her bag and storms away, leaving me baffled.)

(I work in a clothing store that does custom prints and embroideries. We also sell patches of flags with the country’s names next to them. Although most of them are countries, we have one design that is the Confederate flag, with “REBEL” written next to it.)

Customer #1: “Look, they have country flags!”

Customer #2: “Brazil, Canada, Chile, China… Wow, that’s a lot. But what kind of country is ‘Ree-bell’? I’ve never heard of that one before.”

Customer #1: “I think that’s one of the Mexican countries.”

Customer #2: “Yeah, I think you’re right. It does sound a bit Mexican.” *poorly imitating a Hispanic accent* “Rrree-bell! Arriba!”

(Dear God, why?)

(I work at a clothing store for women’s intimates at a mall. It’s a slow day and not many people are coming in other than to look around. Usually, people are nice, but today was different. I’m a girl and a manager at the store. A man walks into the store with a sack of undergarments for women.)

Me: “May I help you, sir?”

Customer: “Yes, I’d like to return these.”

Me: “Great. Do you have a receipt or the packaging?”

(The underpants don’t really look used, but store policy is that we can’t return them without them.)

Customer: “I have neither. Can I please return them?”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, we can’t take them back without the packaging or the receipt.”

(For the next ten minutes the man keeps asking why I can’t take them back.)

Me: “Sir, there is absolutely no way I can take these back without the packaging or a receipt; there would be no way to tell if this came from our store!”

Customer: “Fine, then bring me a manager!”

Me: “Sir, I am a manager.”

Customer: “This cannot be!”

(Obviously, he thinks women can’t in any way be in charge of anything.)

Me: “Sir, I’m telling the truth, and I can’t take your merchandise without the packaging or receipt.”

Customer: “I will find another manager!”

(The man left the store and headed into the mall like he was going to find another manager out there. I never saw him again.)

(I work at a clothing store where, at the end of our transactions before printing the receipt, we’re prompted to ask the customer for both their email and their zip code. The email is of course for promotional purposes, while the zip code is for demographics, so corporate can see what areas people come from to shop at our store. I’ve just finished ringing up a woman in her late twenties or so when I get to this point in the transaction.)

Me: Alright, and could I just grab your email?

Customer: Oh, no thank you.

(About half of customers ask to skip the email part, so this is nothing new.)

Me: Okay, and what’s your zip code?

Customer: Do you really need that?

Me: Uh… it’s just what I have to ask you.

Customer: Yeah, but I don’t want them sending me stuff.

Me: Oh, I don’t think that’s how it works. They just ask for the zip code for—

Customer: No! They can find my address using the zip code, and I don’t want them sending me anything.

Me: Okay, but—

Customer: My dad works in retail, I know how this works.

(Apparently retail companies have access to all of their customers’ personal addresses through just the use of a zip code, when thousands of other people have the same zip codes… who knew!)