My fiancé and I are shopping for a new mattress. We are in our early twenties, which I do believe plays a role in what happens. The store is not currently busy and there is a group of salesmen talking with each other. The manager greets us and asks what we’re looking for. He calls over one of the salesmen to help us, but the salesman doesn’t look very happy that he was asked to help us. He doesn’t ask any questions and takes us over into an area with mattresses in a very high price range.

Salesman: “We have some mattresses over here. You can take a look and find me if you have any questions.”

Fiancé: “I’m sure these are great, but they are out of our budget. We’re looking at around $300 to $500. Would you mind showing us some of those, please?”

He looks annoyed and points to a different area of the store.

Salesman: “You can find our budget mattresses over there.”

He walks away and starts talking with his coworkers again. We look around for a bit, but we are put off by his attitude so we decide to leave.

Salesman: *Smugly* “Leaving so soon?”

Me: “Yes, we were planning on making a purchase today, but we’re going to [Competitor] and will be purchasing from them, instead.”

His boss did not look pleased. We went to [Competitor] and they were nothing but nice, and they didn’t treat us differently for not being able to afford a high-priced mattress. I get that they make commissions on sales, but any sale is better than no sale.

Customers regularly drive into areas they are not supposed to be and have to ask how to exit the lot. This time, however, the customer has just pulled out of their space.

Customer: *Annoyed tone* “How do you get to the exit?”

I begin to answer and turn my head about fifteen degrees toward the exit. There are five large signs with arrows that say, “Exit This Way,” in my immediate sightline.

Me: “Uh…”

I recovered and explained how to get out, but the disconnect of realizing that they would have seen the signs if they had turned their heads slightly caused my brain to shut down for a moment.

My parents and I are in a popular ski town and we walk into a restaurant around dinnertime. We are currently the only people there and the weather outside is pretty cold. Our waiter seats us at a table right next to the door.

Dad: “Actually, would you mind seating us further away from the door since it’s cold outside, please?”

The waiter rolled his eyes, picked up our menus, walked to a different table, threw the menus on the table, and then stormed off.

It dawned on us why the place probably was dead around peak dinnertime. We all took one look at each other, shrugged, and decided to go somewhere else for dinner.

I own a small acreage divided into two pastures. One is my horse pasture and I lease the other parcel to a neighbor every summer for his cows. Each cow and calf is called a pair.

I am explaining this to a guy who is visiting.

Guy: “How many cattle will be in the pasture?”

Me: “Ten pairs and a bull.”

Guy: “What’s the bull for?”

Me: “…”

I am currently working in the afterschool program attached to the school where I work. Parents are charged $13 a day for a total of three hours of care. We include snacks, help with homework, and an activity with the kids. We have a no-school day coming up where all the teachers still come in for staff meetings and training. We have a particular mom who likes to complain about everything, and her kid isn’t well-behaved. She thinks $13 is too much for a total of three hours. 

Mom: “So, you are closed next Friday? That must be nice for you. Silly that they’re giving you a day off and making us find separate childcare.”

Me: “Actually, we still have to come in. We’ll be having meetings and training all day.”

Mom: “Don’t know why they’re closing for an entire day. I have a full-time job, you know. I need someone to watch my kid. Actually, would either you or [Coworker] watch her for me?”

Me: “Sorry. Again, we don’t have the day off. We still have to come in. It’s still a full day for us.”

Mom: “Ridiculous. I have no idea what I’m going to do.”

She leaves and I turn to my coworker. 

Me: “If she thinks $13 is bad for three hours, she wouldn’t have been happy when I told her I’d charge her more than that for an hour to watch her kid.”