I’m a cashier at a large grocery store. A woman starts loading her groceries on the end of the belt and I’m watching her, waiting for the items to roll down the belt so I can reach them.

Customer: “Oh, wow, you have very pretty eyes.”

Me: “Oh, thank you!”

Customer: “What color are they?”

I hesitate for a moment.

Me: “They’re blue-ish.”

Customer: “They look green.”

Me: “No, ma’am. They’re definitely blue, but sometimes they look more grey.”

Customer: “Oh, you have those kinds of eyes that like change color sometimes?”

Me: “Yes, ma’am.”

Customer: “My niece has eyes like that. The ones that change colors. Scares the daylights out of me. I think she’s possessed. I hate her eyes.”

Me: “Oh.”

I quickly changed the subject back to her groceries in order to hide my surprise.

At our store, we get a lot of Spanish-speaking customers, so my coworker decides he wants to learn to say a few things in Spanish.

Coworker: “So, I already know the word for chicken is ‘pollo,’ but what’s the word for turkey?”

Me: “‘Pavo.'”

Coworker: “And what’s the word for ham?”

Me: “‘Jamon.'”

Coworker: “C’mon?”

Me: “No, ‘jamon.'”

Coworker: “Gum on?”

Me: “Noooo…”

I write it down on a piece of paper for him.

Coworker: “Hah, ‘jam on’! That’s so cool!”

Me: “Jam on?”

Coworker: *Doing air guitar* “Yeah, it’s like, JAM ON, BRO! WHOO!”

He stuck his tongue out like Gene Simmons, raised his right arm, and made a “devil horns” gesture while grabbing his crotch with the other hand.

I just facepalmed.

I’m reporting myself here.

I rushed to the store the other night, in a bit of a panic since they weren’t too far from closing and I needed a few things urgently. After quickly grabbing my things, I got to the cash register and the cashier started ringing through my items. It was at that moment that I realized I’d left my wallet at home.

As someone who suffers from social anxiety, I felt myself getting panicky as I asked the cashier if it was possible to suspend my transaction so I could run home and get my wallet. I figured that if I ran carefully on the icy roads, I might make it back in time before they closed, but I was feeling the anxiety build and my entire body was shaking.

That’s when the cashier took a look at the time, took a look at me, and asked me if I had Swish, a Swedish mobile app to transfer money instantly. I nodded yes since at this point I was fighting tears. They immediately whipped out their wallet, paid for my groceries, gave me their number and the total, and asked me to just transfer the money to them. I pulled my phone out and did so while thanking them profusely with my breathing finally going back to normal.

I’ve always talked about how much I hate living in a tiny town, but at times like this, I’m grateful for it; the cashier most likely saved me because he’s seen me pretty much every single week for the past five years. I’ve got nothing but gratitude to that cashier who helped me out when it would have been well within his right to deny me service and ask me to sort payment out some other way.

Thank you, cashier, for rescuing an anxious and panicky girl in her thirties and restoring some of her faith in humanity.

I work in a grocery store and it is the day of the Super Bowl. We have a lot of sandwich, fried chicken, and chicken wing orders, all of which were called in at least two days before. We have only the bare minimum amount of chicken to get through the rest of the day, so we are sticking firm to our policy requiring twenty-four-hour advance notice for orders.

About thirty minutes before the game starts, a group of four young men is standing in the produce area seeming to discuss something. One of them approaches the hot case.

Me: “Hi, can I help you?”

Customer: “I am having a party for a hundred people. What do you recommend?”

Me: “The only thing that I could recommend you should have ordered yesterday.” 

The customer just walked away, but my coworker heard his companions telling him that I was right.

This story is part of our Super Bowl roundup!

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This story is part of our July 2020 Roundup – the best stories of the month!

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I am working at the service desk at a grocery store. The service desk also deals with international money transfer services.

Me: “Hi, how can I help you?”

Customer: “Yeah. My dad sent me money; I need to pick it up.”

Me: “Okay. Do you have your ID?”

The customer hands me an ID. I note he looks to still be in high school. I look at the ID and notice that it’s expired.

Me: “I’m sorry, but I need a valid ID. But with [Bank], you can call up the person who sent you money and have them put in a test question so that an ID is not needed.”

After telling him this a couple more times, he leaves. He returns a couple of hours later with a test question, which is “What’s your brother’s name?”, answer “[Brother].” I fill out all the necessary info and give him his money.

Customer: “Oh, hey can I also get a pack of cigarettes?”

Me: “Sorry, but since your ID is not valid, I cannot sell you cigarettes.”

Customer: “Oh, well, actually, you know what? I do have an ID!”

He hands me an ID and the name says, “[Brother]”, apparently a twin brother.

Me: “I’m sorry. I can’t sell you cigarettes.”

Customer: “Why not?”

Me: “This ID says, ‘[Brother].’ And the test question said this is your brother’s name. This is your brother’s ID.”

Customer: “Oh… yeah.”

He then collected his stuff and left, defeated.

Related:
No ID, No Idea, Part 38
No ID, No Idea, Part 37
No ID, No Idea, Part 36
No ID, No Idea, Part 35
No ID, No Idea, Part 34