I’m a firm believer in brain-vomiting every positive thought I have (when appropriate). This mostly results in complimenting strangers I’m almost guaranteed to never see again.
One day, as I’m working at the grocery self-checkout, I see a woman with a sun tattoo on her arm. The tattoo is the crest of a fictional kingdom from a movie I love.
Me: *In passing* “I love your tattoo!”
Customer: “Thanks! I love you!“
By far my favorite customer experience of the day!
I work in a grocery store as a cashier. It’s around 9:00 pm when a woman comes through my lane.
Customer: “Can I get some vodka?”
Me: “Sure. Do you want it from behind the counter or from the liquor aisle?”
Customer: “The aisle.”
Our store closes the gates on the liquor aisle when the desk person goes home, so an employee has to open it. I tell her to come with me so she can pick it herself since I’m not old enough to drink and don’t know much about alcohol. On the way there, I notice that her balance is a bit off, but I just think she has a medical condition.
Me: “Okay, which one do you want?”
Customer: “Whatever is cheapest.”
I start looking for the cheapest when my coworker comes up to me and whispers in my ear.
Coworker: “She has come in before and tried to get alcohol, but she didn’t have any money, left, and didn’t come back.”
I mull this over while I am still looking for the cheapest vodka. I find it, but we only have one.
Me: “It looks like we only have one of the cheapest.”
Customer: “I need two.”
Me: “I could grab the next cheapest or a bigger size?”
Customer: “Just grab me the next cheapest.”
I start looking for the next cheapest. She is leaning on the card display, and my coworker is still there but off the clock. My manager comes over.
Manager: “I will not be selling to you. You clearly have had too much tonight.”
Customer: “I’m fine. Just sell me the vodka.”
Manager: “You ran into me on your way over here, and you can barely stand.”
Customer: “I’m fine.”
Manager: “I don’t think so.
Since my manager said she is refusing the sale, I put the vodka back and close the gate. I go back to my register to check out the people who were waiting.
Customer: “I’ll just get my driver to come in and buy it for me.”
Manager: “I don’t think so. I’m not comfortable selling alcohol to you.”
Customer: “Fine.”
I’m assuming she had a friend drive her here, but no, she meant her [Rideshare] driver. We have a lotto machine and a fridge up front for pick-up orders, and they have about a two- or three-foot gap in between them. The woman is walking very slowly toward the front, using her hand to steady herself. She gets to the gap and falls into it.
Manager: “Are you okay?”
Customer: “Yeah.”
My manager helps her out of the gap, but the woman stays on the floor for a minute before getting up. My manager helps her outside to her [Rideshare] driver.
Me: “Wow.”
Next Customer: “I know.”
In my defence, I have never seen a drunk person before except on TV. If I had known she was drunk, I would have called my manager up sooner and maybe we could have avoided some of this.
I work in a grocery store, decorating cakes in the bakery. A lady brings in a picture of a baptismal cake covered in fondant.
Customer: “I’d like you to make this for me, please.”
Me: “Ma’am, we only work with buttercream and whipped cream here. We don’t have fondant.”
Customer: “You can just use buttercream, then.”
Me: “I can do that, ma’am, but I can’t make buttercream look like the fondant in this picture.”
Customer: “I have faith in you that you can make it look the same!”
I tell her over and over that I can’t make it look the same, but she just keeps saying that she has faith in me.
I work on the cake, and I do a great job on it. When the lady comes to pick it up, I hide in the back while my coworker gives it to her.
Customer: *Disappointed* “Hmm… It doesn’t look like the picture!”
This is my father’s story. He’s the kind of man who always checks his receipts after a purchase before leaving the store. If he finds an error, he tells the cashier. He does this even when it means he is supposed to pay more than he did. This causes the employees who have been around for a while at our local grocery store to be very trusting of him.
He takes some studies later in life. He studies on the subway on his way home, and then he stops by the grocery store to shop. While he is there, he notices one of the newer employees keeping an eye on him, but he doesn’t give it much thought. As he goes to pay, however, the new employee comes up.
New Employee: “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Dad: “I am? Did I drop something?”
New Employee: “No! I mean, aren’t you going to pay for what you have in your backpack?”
Dad: *Confused* “My backpack? I don’t have any groceries in my backpack.”
Cashier: “[New Employee], it’s fine.”
New Employee: “No, I saw you put something in your backpack! You need to pay for it.”
Dad: “I didn’t put anything in my backpack.”
New Employee: “Yes, you did! I saw it!”
Cashier: “[New Employee], it is fine. He didn’t put anything in his backpack; he said so. That will be [total].”
New Employee: “No, he did! I didn’t see what it was, but it was about this big.” *Shows with her hands* “Open up your backpack so I can take it out.”
Dad: “No. I am not letting you mess around in my bag. I keep my expensive college books in there! Some of them have very fragile pages.”
Then, it dawns on him: the book he read on the subway. He had forgotten to get it back into the backpack, so he did it while he was in the store.
Dad: “Oh! Do you mean this?”
He opens the backpack and shows her the book. It’s the correct size.
New Employee: “Yes! Oh…”
The cashier repeats the total and he pays. As he goes to pack, he also checks the receipt.
While he does so, he overhears the cashier and the new employee talking. The new employee says the cashier should trust her, and the cashier then explains exactly what he is doing right now with the receipt and how he has come back to pay more when they’ve made errors.
My dad confirms there are no errors today.
Dad: “Thank you, and I’m sorry for confusing you. It is a good thing to prevent theft. Have a nice evening!”
A customer comes to the customer service desk, looking distraught. I am with my manager.
Customer: “I demand that you fire your security guard immediately!”
Me: “What happened, ma’am?”
Customer: “Your security guard is a bigot! He wouldn’t let me bring my child into the store! I had to leave her outside with my husband!”
Me: “I’m sure that’s not what happened, ma’am. We don’t discriminate against anyone shopping with us.”
Customer: “That’s what happened! You need to fire him!”
My manager steps in, knowing this is not the kind of thing you can resolve at the customer service desk.
Manager: “Ma’am, let’s go speak to the guard and we can figure out what’s going on here.”
Customer: “You better! My child will be traumatized for years because of this!”
They both head off toward the entrance and I continue my duties. A few minutes later, the manager comes back, shaking his head.
Manager: “She neglected to mention that her child is a cat.”
