I get into the queue for the cashier at the supermarket. As I get closer to the end of the queue, I notice that there is a woman with her trolley pointed into the line. My British instincts kick in and I say to myself:

Me: “This woman is trying to jump the queue. No way.”

The person in front of me moves to a new queue, so there is the person with their stuff on the belt and this woman. So, of course, I move to the belt while this woman moves her trolley. She gives me a look of utter astonishment as I move to put my stuff on the belt, and she starts talking at me in German. Unfortunately, my German is utter pants as my work is in English, so I try saying:

Me: “The queue starts over there.” *Indicating that she needs to walk around*

This woman isn’t having that and starts ranting in German.

Me: *Politely* “My German isn’t so good.”

I turn away and put my two items on the belt. I think this will be the end of the matter and now it’s up to the person behind me. No, the woman moves her trolley before I can get behind the person in front, so while my stuff is on the belt first, she is now in front of me. She starts loading her things.

I try to move in front of her, but she is blocking the way with her trolley on one side and herself on the other. No matter; my stuff will get scanned before hers. She is muttering under her breath, clearly about me, but I just giggle. This makes her angrier.

The cashier is slightly confused when I hand over the money, but because she isn’t talking to me, I miss the amount. It turns out I looked at the wrong label, as my note isn’t enough to cover the cost, so I need a bit more cash. The woman in front of me gives a giant tut as I get some more money and receive my change while she moves forward so I can grab my things.

As I pack them into my bag, I hear:

Woman: *Very loudly* “B****!”

I turn around and give the very British response of:

Me: “Excuse me?!”

Woman: “Shut up!”

She started ranting to the cashier. I tried to explain my side of the story quickly before deciding, “I’ve got my stuff and I am wasting my time,” and walking off.

Related:
In Line And Out Of Line, Part 24
In Line And Out Of Line, Part 23
In Line And Out Of Line, Part 22
In Line And Out Of Line, Part 21
In Line And Out Of Line, Part 20

I just started my job at a grocery store. I’m nineteen and had a horrible home life growing up, so I tend to freeze up when people start yelling at me. It doesn’t help that I’m incredibly short and dainty-looking, so people think they can get away with it.

I’m serving a man who has been increasingly creepy the whole time. I don’t really know any of my coworkers yet, or I would signal someone for help. I just ignore him as best I can.

Me: “Your total is $123.45. Do you have a [Store Loyalty] card today?”

Creep: “That doesn’t sound like enough numbers for your phone number, sugar.”

Me: *Pauses* “Your total is $123.45. Is that cash or card?”

Creep: “I’m not leaving until I get that number, cutie.”

It’s pretty quiet in the store, and the other checkout operator has gone to find us a box of bags. The self-checkout attendant is too far away from me and is helping someone, so there’s really no one to call for help. I carefully hit my assist light button with my knee to not draw attention and keep repeating the man’s total. He is getting increasingly angry with me for not playing his game.

I have a manager on today that I have never worked with before, and my coworkers jokingly referred to her as The Enforcer this morning. I assumed it was because she is a bit of a hard-a** about her staff. Out of nowhere, this very tall woman appears at the end of my checkout with pink hair and a nose ring.

Manager: “Hi, [Definitely Not My Name]! I’m [Manager]. Nice to meet you!”

She says all this with the brightest smile on her face and in the sweetest voice I have ever heard coming from someone who looks like she could snap me in half with one hand. She turns to look down at my customer — she has a good inch or two on him — and her entire face drops and her eyes and voice turn to steel.

Manager: “Not my first time meeting you, though, is it, [Customer]? Do we need to have another chat?”

The creepy guy just puts his card into the reader and pays before scurrying out as quickly as he can. I am in awe.

The manager instantly switches back to her previous sweet manner.

Manager: “Sorry about that, boo. He is the absolute worst, but they won’t let me ban him. The good news is that he is petrified of me — enough that even if I’m not in the store, just ring your bell and ask them to get me as soon as he starts acting up. He usually cuts it out then. Also, I know your name is [My Real Name]; I just didn’t want him to know that. Anyway, how are you liking it here?”

I went on to find out that this woman was universally loved by almost everyone in the store for just being a ball of sunshine and laughter who was always willing to lend a hand. She also tolerated absolutely no abuse toward her staff whatsoever and would go toe to toe with the store manager for us any day of the week. She is EXACTLY who I want to be when I grow up.

I was at the store, buying the weekly groceries for my family. Ahead of me in line to check out was a lady with a toddler in the seat of the cart. The toddler was looking around, and he happened to spot a case of cookies in my cart.

Toddler: “Look! Mama, Mama, look! Cookies!”

The lady turned and looked, then glanced up at me and gave a nasty sneer before turning back to her son.

Lady: *In a sickly sweet baby voice* “Oh, I’m so sorry, baby. I’d love to get cookies, but unlike some people, we can’t afford them. We have to save our money, unlike some people, so we can’t just get whatever we want.”

She continued in that vein as the line crept forward, even after her son had obviously lost interest and tilted his head back to stare up at some stray balloons near the ceiling. She kept going on and on, each time putting special emphasis on “some people” as she went. She finally trailed off when she got to the belt and started unloading her cart, and I hoped that would be the last of her passive-aggressive nastiness.

Unfortunately, once she’d unloaded everything and headed up to the check stand when the cashier started scanning, she immediately launched into it again.

Lady: *To the cashier* “Have you ever had to live on a budget? Some people haven’t, and it shows. They’ll just buy whatever they want without even thinking about it. Don’t you think it’s sad how some people are just so thoughtless?

The cashier didn’t say anything; she just sped up scanning until she could give the lady her total. The lady finally stopped talking once she paid, collected the last of her bags, and started pushing her cart away.

Cashier: *Quietly, once I get to the check stand* “I’m so sorry about that.”

Me: “It’s fine. Some people have just never learned manners.”

The lady, who for whatever reason had chosen to pause a short distance away from the line and just stand there, obviously stiffened, but when she turned to glare back at us, neither I nor the cashier was looking at her, so she eventually just turned and stomped off in a huff.

I work as a cashier in a large chain grocery store. We sell ice, located in a large freezer near the front of the store next to the registers.

It’s slowing down in the store and I have some return items at my till that need to go back. We can either bring the items to customer service so they can return them to the shelves, or we can go return them directly. The item I have is located in a nearby aisle, so I decide to return it directly.

Our large ice cooler is located at the end of this aisle. As we have been having a heat wave lately, our ice is sold out again today.

As I turn up the aisle and pass the ice cooler, I hear a woman close the cooler door and comment out loud, “Oh, there’s no more ice!” I continue walking and return the item to the shelf. As I turn around, the woman is standing directly behind me, blocking my way out of the aisle, and glaring daggers directly into my eyes.

Customer: “Did you just ignore me?!”

Me: “Pardon? Did you need help with something?”

Customer: “Did you. Ignore. Me?”

Me: “No, not intentionally? I was returning an item to the shelf. I’m sorry you had the impression I was ignoring yo—”

Customer: “There’s no more ice in the cooler.”

Me: “Yes, we are all sold out of ice.”

Silence. She looks at me blankly and does not say anything else for seconds, seemingly unhappy with my answer.

Me: “We don’t have any more ice. We are sold out.”

Customer: “Well, where am I supposed to get my ice from?!”

Me: “You could try [Gas Station] across the street; they usually have some.”

More silence. She’s still glaring at me.

Customer: “I came here to buy ice.”

Me: “We do not have any ice in stock at this time.”

She waves her hand at me and turns to leave.

Customer: “Don’t be so rude!”

I really didn’t think I sounded rude, and I was genuinely confused when she came up to me asking if I ignored her. She didn’t address me directly at all before she confronted me — no “Hey” or “Excuse me” to get my attention. Although I did hear her say, “Oh, there’s no more ice!”, it sounded more like an observation out loud rather than asking an employee if there was more somewhere else.

A customer approaches me holding an item.

Customer: “Why is there so much sodium in this?”

It was a container of Morton’s Salt.