Our store is enforcing strict social distancing measures: mandatory masks, one-way system, hand sanitizer, etc. I am at the customer service desk serving an old man who is wearing a mask when I see a woman enter the store who isn’t wearing one. Since I am the closest member of staff, I call out.

Me: “Excuse me, ma’am? You need to wear a mask if you’d like to shop in-store today.”

She looks at me as if I’ve just cursed her mother and sneers.

Customer: “No way in h*** am I putting one of those on my face! I am medically exempt! My lungs can’t handle them!”

While some states have made lists of medical exemptions for wearing masks, ours has not, and our corporate policy is that everyone wears a mask, no exceptions. 

Me: “Ma’am, I’m afraid I am going to have to insist. You must wear a mask to shop in our stores.”

She just huffs and marches into the store, ignoring me. I call the security guy and relay the information before returning to my patient older gentleman who has been waiting.

A few minutes later, I see the woman storming up to my desk, enraged. The security guard is close behind her.

Customer: “How dare you call security on me?! I have a medical condition! I have bad lungs! I don’t have to wear a mask! I am going to take your name and get you fired! This is harassment!”

Old Man: “Oh, shut up, lady!”

Customer: “What did you say to me?!”

Old Man: “Lady, I grew up in London when it was being bombed by the Nazis. We had to wear heavy masks for days in case they used poison gas; at the same time, I had to clear away rubble from my neighborhood. If you can’t wear a light piece of cloth for twenty minutes, then you’ve never known harassment in your entire God-d*** life. Now f*** off!”

The woman has tried to interrupt this old man but he wasn’t having any of it. When he finally finishes, she starts loudly screaming more obscenities, but the security guard is already escorting her from the building. The old man turns back to me.

Old Man: “For someone with ‘bad lungs’…”

He didn’t have to finish the sentence as we both smiled.

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I am a customer queueing up at the lotto counter, buying just a birthday card. The line is pretty long and the lotto counter is always slow. A second till opens up and an elderly lady walks straight up to it, bypassing about six of us.

Elderly Lady: “Do I really need to queue up?”

Employee: “Yes, you do. There are all these people behind you.”

Elderly Lady: “But all I want is this chocolate bar.”

Employee: “Yes, and you still need to queue.”

Elderly Lady: “But it is such a long line; just put it through now and I can be on my way.”

Employee: “I’m sorry, but you can always use the self-serve tills; they are right there next to this counter.”

Elderly Lady: “Oh, this is ridiculous. All I want is a bar of chocolate. I shouldn’t be expected to wait.”

She then stomps off to use the self-serve tills, muttering under her breath about how useless the staff are. The employee turns to me, as am next in line.

Employee: “I’m so sorry. She does this every single week.”

Related:
Not Even In Line And Out Of Line

I am arranging some food at the grocery store when two elderly ladies come up to me, looking conservative in their long skirts and very simple shirts.

Elderly Lady: “Hello, dearie!”

Me: “Hello! Can I help you?”

Elderly Lady: “I think you can.”

Her voice suddenly becomes more rough and casual.

Elderly Lady: “Where’s the beer?”

Me: “The beer?”

Elderly Lady: “Yes, the beer! All I see is wine around here, but I want beer. Where is it?”

Me: “Uh, it’s in the back near the soda.”

Elderly Lady: “Oh! That would make sense.”

She switches back to the little-old-lady voice.

Elderly Lady: “Thank you, dearie!”

The two ladies trotted off to the back to find their beer. More power to them.

I’d like to make a public service announcement. We have all bought salsa at the store only to be let down when we got home and tried it. But please don’t open the jar at the store, stick your finger in it, sample it, and then try to put it back on the shelf.

Who does that, you ask?

Apparently, some lady at [Major Retailer].

I am shopping when I hear the pop of a jar and turn around to see a finger leaving this lady’s mouth and her tightening the lid of a jar of salsa. Then, I watch as she debates putting it in her cart or back on the shelf — hopefully feeling some moral conflict — but then she turns to the shelf and sets it down.

I hate confrontation because I always feel like I’m a jerk and in the wrong, but I don’t know what happens. It just comes out of my mouth.

Me: “Surely you are not going to not buy that.”

Customer: “Oh, uh… I was just setting it down on the shelf for a second.”

Regardless of whether she was truly just setting it down for a second — but why? — she shouldn’t be taste-testing anything! This is so ridiculous!

Me: “Yeah, okay. I’m pretty sure you went to put it in your cart and then turned around and set it back on the shelf because you decided you didn’t want it. How would you like buying something someone else opened?”

I don’t even mention taste-testing. Eww!

Customer: “I was just setting it there for a second! Just leave me alone and mind your own business!”

Then, she started to curse at me and call me names.

Um…what?!

I talked to my sister after the incident, who told me that as much as she would like to confront the lady, she would probably have just watched her and waited until the lady left, and then she would have taken the jar to an employee. That would’ve been wise because then I would have known for sure that no one else would buy the sampled salsa; for all I know, as soon as I left her, she put it back on the shelf.

But hey, at least she had a mask… We are all so safe.

It has been a long day at work and I just want to buy my chips as quickly as possible, so I run into the local supermarket and stand in line for the self-checkout. I am calmly waiting for the young woman in front of me to finish up her purchases. She has quickly rung up everything but seems to be having trouble with this one item of precut fruit and flags down a worker who happens to be walking by.

Young Woman: “Hi, sorry to bother you, but this pineapple doesn’t have a barcode, and I don’t see an option for it under the produce tab. Am I missing something?”

Worker: *Looks over the item* “Oh, these are supposed to have a printed label by weight already on them. This one must have gotten missed somehow. Let me go get you one.”

The young woman looks to her left at the line of two of us now waiting.

Young Woman: “Okay, that would be great, thank you. I’m just going to pay out my purchase here while you do, and then get back in line so I’m not holding everything up.”

The worker looks confused but nods and walks off. Shocked at this young person’s thoughtfulness, I speak up.

Me: “That’s very nice of you, thank you.”

The young woman just shrugs as she swipes her card and waits for the prompt to sign.

Young Woman: “It’s no big deal. I mean, you don’t know how long something like that might take, and it’s not fair to hold you guys up for my pineapple. I’m in no rush to get home or anything, so I don’t mind waiting.”

She gives me a smile and turns back to sign as prompted when the worker comes back with her pineapple.

Worker: “Here you go, miss.”

The machine has just printed out her receipt and I wonder if she is going to go ahead and ring it up now. She glances at the container and then looks back at us before taking it with a laugh.

Young Woman: “Yeah, it would be something like that. Awesome. Thank you again, and I’m just going to take this to the end while I bag before getting back in line.”

I was so impressed by her selflessness when others would just take advantage of the situation or hold others up for their convenience. I quickly spoke up again and offered to buy her item. She was shocked and uncertain but I insisted and quickly took the item and scanned it before sending it down the belt towards her unpacked items. She thanked me with a wide, sincere smile before quickly bagging her items and wishing me a good evening. Best $3 I ever spent towards encouraging our youth that kindness IS worth it.

This story is part of our Feel Good roundup for September 2020!

Read the next Feel Good roundup story!

Read the Feel Good roundup for September 2020!