I work as a deli clerk at a grocery store. The customer points at a salad in the display case.

Customer: “Does this salad have egg in it?”

I look thoughtfully at the salad for a moment and then reply in a perfectly friendly voice.

Me: “I will check the ingredients list in the back for you.”

Customer: *Looking horribly offended* “Not if it’s going to be too much trouble.”

She walks away, white as a ghost.

The NEXT DAY, the attention of the entire staff in the deli department was brought to a formal complaint made by a woman. In it, she had explained that when she had asked for an ingredients list, the clerk had rubbed her temples, sighed heavily, and told her she would HAVE to check in the back if it was THAT important to know.

I suppose you can’t underestimate the power of a person having a really bad day?

I’m right at the beginning of a six-hour shift on a very busy Saturday. I’ve served a few customers when a woman comes up with her two kids. The eldest is walking but the youngest is standing in the trolley. You can hear him before you see him.

Child: *To me* “This is ours. This is mine and this is mine.”

He continues in this fashion.

Mother: “Shush, she knows.”

Child: *Ignoring her* “Hey, lady, how are you?”

Me: “Good, you?”

Child: “I helped shop; I’m buying things. Mummy, can I go play?”

Mother: “You’re not helping anymore?”

Child: *Thinks about it* “No, I’ll help. I’m a man in the making.”

The mother and I both start laughing. The kid can’t be older than three so he sounds like a mouse.

Child: “Yeah, I’m a man in the making; did you hear that?”

He asked that over and over for the rest of the transaction. It was about the funniest thing I’ve ever had happen at work; I was smiling for the rest of my shift.

This story is part of our feel-good roundup for August 2020!

Read the next feel-good story here!

Read the feel-good August 2020 roundup!

I’m working at the self-checkout at our grocery store. I’m working with the sweetest old lady who everybody loves, both our colleagues and customers. We’re having a nice day until I hear a mother talking to her child.

Mother: “No, [Kid], don’t you touch that!” *Points at my colleague* “If you keep doing that, that lady is going to be very, very mad at you!”

The boy looks over, embarrassed. My colleague frowns at me and then calmly walks over. She kneels next to him.

Colleague: “Don’t you worry, sweetie. I won’t get mad at you. I’m very sweet and nice, and you don’t have to be scared of me.”

She shoots the mother a glare.

Colleague: “If you touch that, your mom will get mad, because she’s responsible for you, not me.”

She smiled sweetly at the kid before giving him a high-five and walking back to me. This is why I love her!

This story is part of our Best Of August 2020 roundup!

Read the next Best Of August 2020 story!

Read the Best Of August 2020 roundup!

I’m a till supervisor in a large store of a major UK supermarket chain. It’s around closing time on a Sunday and my colleague calls me over to his till where a couple is having trouble paying.

Colleague: “Their card is not working; is there anything we can do?”

Customer: “It’s probably because the card is bent and the white line is damaged.”

Me: “No, the chip isn’t working; we’re not allowed to swipe your card and I don’t think it would work anyway since your card is damaged. Sorry.”

Customer: “Oh, okay, we’ll leave it, then.”

The customers start to walk off, leaving their shopping trolley behind.

Colleague: *To me* “Hey, that bag they’ve got; they haven’t paid for anything that’s inside it!”

Me: “You’re sure?”

It’s a large store so the exit is kind of far. I start following and I call the security guard on one of the store mobile phones I carry. I can see him.

Me: “Yeah, the couple coming down now with the [Other Supermarkets] bag haven’t paid for whatever is in that bag.”

Two guards stop them as I get closer and grab the bag. The customers — who I should probably call shoplifters at this point — start to struggle.

Customer #2: “We’ve paid for that!”

Customer #1: “This is a violation of our rights!”

The security guard started pulling meat out of the bag under a coat. Once they saw me, they gave up saying they paid and just took their coat out of the bag and quickly left. It’s likely that they knew the card wouldn’t work and had zero intention of paying. The guard told them not to come back.

One of my first jobs is at a local bakery department inside a supermarket. After a couple of months, the manager is badly injured on the job in a way that winds up needing surgery and rehab, so she is out for a very long time.

None of the other women in the department want the extra responsibility, so I end up handling schedules, sales, orders, etc. It’s very stressful and it means I’m always on the 5:00 am shift doing extra work, and the assistant store manager makes a big deal of saying how much she appreciates it, and how much of a lifesaver I allegedly am, every day. 

After a few months of this, one of the other department heads pulls me aside and tells me that, per company policy, I am actually entitled to an extra dollar-fifty every hour I am performing the duties of a manager. Looking it up, I see he’s right. Like most young people making minimum wage, that extra buck-fifty means a lot to me, so I go to the assistant manager about it. 

Contrary to how she’s acted — as if I’m a hero — to date, suddenly she becomes cold and combative. First, she insists I’m wrong, even when I show her the employee handbook, and then tries to argue that I don’t qualify, which I very much do. Naively, I am shocked by her abrupt 180 from how supportive and appreciative she’s been.

Finally, she angrily says, “It’s not even a big deal! It’s just a dollar-fifty! That’s nothing!” 

“That’s an extra twelve dollars a day for me,” I reply, “and almost fifty dollars a week. Nearly two hundred dollars a month. That’s my heating and my telephone bill, easy.” 

She scoffs but relents, and she makes a big deal out of making me fill out paperwork requesting the extra money I am owed, acting as if I am being greedy and unreasonable the whole time. Thereafter, she was very chilly and snide to me. It really opened up my eyes to how too many managers regard their employees as valuable until they know their worth, though I have been fortunate in the years since to work with some great managers and senior staff elsewhere. 

When I left the company to move away a few years later, still “temporary acting management,” I learned that they were just planning to have one of my coworkers fill in as manager rather than hiring someone, so I made sure to tell her about the extra money. She was very surprised and said nobody had mentioned anything to her. Hopefully, she followed through. 

Let this be a lesson, folks; always stand firm and don’t let yourself be guilted out of what is rightfully yours. You deserve it.