I’m working at a booth in an indoor farmer’s market when a customer comes to the table and stares at me. There’s a few moments of silence.

Me: “Um, can I help you?”

Customer: “Can I speak to someone real?”

Baffled, I redirected him to the owner, who apparently sufficed.

I work at a local farmer’s market. Our main products are two types of sweet corn: yellow and mixed. It is near the end of the season, the last day of the market, and we have been selling the last corn of the year.

Customer: “Where’s the yellow corn?”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, we’re all out of yellow corn for the year. If you’d like, we have fresh mixed corn; otherwise, I’d suggest trying the grocery store across the road.”

Customer: “No! You must be hiding the corn! I demand to speak to your boss!”

My boss isn’t working that morning, so I call over my supervisor, another young woman.

Customer: “Where’s your yellow corn? You’re hiding it from me!”

Supervisor: “I’m sorry, sir, we are all out of yellow corn for the season.”

Customer: “You’re lying! I’m going to drive out to the farm and find it myself!”

He stormed off. We found out later that he had actually driven to the farm, parked in a cornfield, and started searching for yellow corn himself. He didn’t find any.

Our business makes egg-free cakes and pastries, and we put this on a sign on the product. We’re selling them at the markets when a customer comes in.

Customer: “I want the free egg.”

He kept pointing angrily at the sign while we all tried to work out how to tell him.

This takes place during certain health crisis restrictions. Everyone has to wear a mask, there are designated lines and distancing rules, etc.

My husband and I stop at a fresh product market to buy some strawberries. There is a sign that says, “No picking through strawberries,” which I assume means that you can’t pick through the baskets.

My husband picks a basket, careful not to touch any others, and while I collect a few other things, he looks more closely at his selection.

Several of them are moldy.

Husband: *To an employee* “I’m sorry to do this, but is it possible to give you this one back and pick a different basket? A bunch of these are moldy and you can’t tell from the top.”

Employee: “No, we have a sort of ‘you touch it you buy it’ policy.”

Husband: “But these are rotten and there’s no way to tell without picking it up.”

The employee just shrugged while putting out new baskets of berries. 

I get trying to reduce cross-contamination, but it’s not an excuse to bury old produce and trick people into buying it.

I was working at a farmer’s market. The vendor next to me was selling carrots for $1 a bag — pretty good price, excellent produce. A customer whined, “[Big Box Low-Price Grocery Store] has them for $0.79!”

[Vendor] looked him in the eye and said, “I crawled on my hands and knees in the mud to harvest these. They’re a dollar!”

The customer meekly paid and took the bag of carrots.