I was ringing out customers in my store’s outside garden center. There was a lull in activity, and a lady had stopped to ask me a few questions about plants. As I was chatting with her, a little old lady came up behind me and tapped my arm.

Me: “Yes?”

Old Lady: “Are all your ferns this expensive?”

Me: “The price is listed on the tag, but otherwise, yes.”

Old Lady: “None of them are on sale?”

Me: “Our stuff doesn’t go on sale until August.”

Old Lady: *Wringing her hands worriedly* “They’re so expensive! I could get them somewhere else cheaper.”

I assumed she was just making a statement.

Me: “Okay.”

I went back to the customer I had been helping before as we discussed the care of her plant. The old lady stood behind me, still staring with this same worried expression on her face like her cat had just run up a tree.

Lady: *Still wringing her hands* “They’re so expensive…”

Then, it clicked that she was probably looking for a deal.

Me: “Okay.”

She paced back and forth for a while after that in the garden area before going, I assume, to look at the prices of plants before eventually wandering back out.

I’m waiting for the day someone can give me a valid argument as to why, if they can buy something cheaper somewhere else, they don’t just get it there.

We’re short-staffed and my manager says he will try to find some help. He comes out of the warehouse with a coworker who I can only describe as not fit for customer interactions. I take my manager aside. 

Me: “He works in the warehouse for a reason. He’s not great with customers.”

Manager: “He’s all we’ve got.”

Me: “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

A customer then approaches said coworker with a potted plant.

Customer: “How do I plant this?”

Coworker: “Green side up.”

My manager ran over and I held back my laughter.

I have my fair share of plants, and I don’t NEED anymore. A fact reaffirmed when watering the whole household takes the better part of the afternoon. But the only thing that motivates me more than a passion for horticulture is pure, unadulterated spite

Caller: “I want to ask about houseplants.”

Me: “That’s my area! How can I help you?”

Caller: “Can I get the price for [very specific plant]?”

Me: “That’s [price].”

Caller: “No it’s not, it’s only [a fifth of that price], and you have it in [size we don’t have it in].”

Me: “No, we never have [plant] that low. We only have one left in stock at [size]. I can hold the last for you through the afternoon, to see if you like it?”

Caller: “Don’t bother, you don’t know which plant you’re talking about. I’m coming down there later, I’ll find it, and get this sorted out.” *Click.*

Well okay then. I flag my coworker, say I’m going on break, and oh yeah, buying this plant. Last I heard, he begrudgingly accepted the two-week waiting period until we could get more in… at a larger size and higher mark-up.

The plant was Sansevieria cylindrica, or “Starfish” if you’re wondering.

I don’t know about anybody else, but any time I tell the customer their total and they look at me confused or irritated, dread just washes over me.

I work at a place that sells gardening supplies. Over Memorial Day weekend, we had a lot of big sales on our gardening stuff. For one of them, all of our dirt and mulch was $2 per bag. Usually, those are somewhere between $2.50 to $5 depending on the brand. The sale ended a few days after Memorial Day, and our dirt went back to the usual price.

This happened shortly after Memorial Day. A man came up to the register to buy some bags of dirt.

Me: “Okay, those are going to be $4.56 per bag.”

Customer: “They’re supposed to be $2.”

Me: “We had a sale over Memorial Day weekend that just ended. They’re $4.56 now.”

Customer: “They just doubled in price overnight? That’s unreasonable.”

Me: “No, they were on sale. That’s their normal price.”

Customer: *Unhappy* “I was in here a few days ago, and they were $2. Someone took it down, but there was a sign saying they were $2.”

Yes, really. I keep trying to politely reiterate that they had been on sale and that’s why they were more expensive now than they had been a few days before. I had to tell a few people that during that week, and this was the only time I had a problem. The guy started ranting to his wife about how my store just raised the price, and they left. I swear, the guy wasn’t even listening to me while I was trying to explain that we didn’t just raise the price that day because we felt like it.

The garden center where I work is kind of weird; you can get some things in a large, covered greenhouse area and the rest is in the parking lot.

A lot of people buy dirt, but they usually just buy that at the register. I’m not in the greenhouse area, so I have less of an idea of exactly what the breakdown is. Some trees and plants are in the parking lot and (I’m assuming the more expensive stuff) is in the greenhouse.

I am walking to take my break when a customer with a half-full cart of stuff asks me:

Customer: “Is it okay to just go through the parking lot to look at the things outside? The garden center is closed.”

This kind of throws me off for a second. How would anyone think it would be okay to go outside with their groceries unpaid for?

Me: “You can leave your cart to go out and look or pay for what you have and then return with any outside items and finish shopping.”

The look I got for that idea! It was like she just couldn’t see what the problem was.

I’m not sure if the locked door was preventing her from getting into the garden center or was stopping her from exiting the garden center into the parking lot. I suspect the latter.

Shoplifters have it easy enough as it is; definitely don’t want to start giving people permission to run around the parking lot with full carts of merchandise!