My mom goes to the deli and orders a certain type of turkey but forgets to ask for it to be sliced thin. As the girl behind the counter starts slicing it, my mom speaks up.

Mom: “Oh, could you make sure to slice that thin, please?”

The girl keeps slicing and does not acknowledge that she heard anything, so my mom, thinking she must be too far away for the girl to have heard her properly, gets the attention of another deli worker walking by.

Mom: “Could you ask her to slice that thin, please?”

Girl Cutting Turkey: “I heard you!”

Mom: “Maybe let me know that, then!”

I have just gotten off work at a grocery store. I am almost home before I remember there was an item I needed to buy. I stop at a competing grocery store since it is closer than going back. I am still wearing my store-specific colored apron and name tag with the store name on it.

I am walking to get my item when I am approached by a customer.

Customer: “I am looking for [item]; where is it?”

Me: “I’m not really sure. I think they are over on aisle five.”

I get my item and am on the way to pay for it.

Customer: “You were wrong. It wasn’t there and you wasted my time. Now where is it?”

Me: “Again, I’m really not sure.”

Customer: “Can you go find it?”

Me: “This isn’t my store.”

Customer: “I don’t care what store you work at; you should know where everything is since they are all laid out the same.”

Me: “I don’t work h—”

Customer: “Now you’re just being lazy and rude. I want your name; I am going to complain to your manager.”

I held out my name tag so she could clearly see that it had another store name written on it. She glanced at my name and trotted off to the front desk.

As I was in line buying my item, I saw her there, talking to a manager and pointing at me. The manager looked at me quizzically and I just shrugged my shoulders. He shook his head and gave me the “I hate my life” look.

It’s March 2020 and I’m shopping for my weekly groceries at my local supermarket. It’s easy to tell that people are freaking out; many people are wearing rubber gloves and almost everyone is keeping silent and has a frown on their face. I’m feeling rather down about it all, until I notice one particular shopper.

This man must have entered the store, seen everyone with gloves, and thought to himself, “Shoot! I didn’t bring gloves! Gotta do something quick!” So he improvised a solution by grabbing some of those flimsy plastic produce bags and putting them on over his hands! 

I stop in my tracks, watching him flap around, trying to keep the bags from floating off of his arms, and doing an impressive dance to keep from dropping heavy cans of soup with the slippery bags on his hands. I barely manage to keep from laughing in front of him, but I have a grin on my face for the rest of the time I am in the store. 

Thank you, random produce-bag man, for giving your fellow shoppers something to smile about when we needed it most! I hope you and your family stay safe and healthy.

I work behind the salad bar which is incredibly popular in our store. The employee in charge of maintaining it goes home around 2:00 pm. I leave an hour afterward, and since I’m also trained to take care of it, I don’t mind restocking it or cutting something for customers as needed. Today, I’m just finishing cleaning up and about to head up front as it is around 2:55 pm.

A woman approaches the salad bar, wanders back and forth for a moment, and then pokes her head in the gap in the bar.

Customer: “Excuse me? Do you have any more iceberg lettuce?”

Our lettuces and such are shipped to us already cut. When we run out of the precut, we are allowed to pull heads of lettuce off the floor to cut in place of it. Naturally, this takes extra time.

Me: “Oh, I don’t know if we have any already cut, but let me check in the back for you really quick.”

I run into the back, quickly shuffle through our supplies, and find that we are, indeed, out of the cut lettuce. I head out of the cooler to ask the woman if she would like to wait a moment while I cut some fresh lettuce for her only to find that she is nowhere to be seen.

Me: “Huh… Guess she didn’t want it that badly.”

I go to finish cleaning up. It is now around 2:57 pm. Suddenly, the woman from before charges up to the salad bar, head of lettuce in hand, and practically flings it at me. Catching it, I turn to her but she cuts me off.

Customer: “I don’t think your manager would be very happy with you if you didn’t do your job!”

Biting my tongue, I plaster a grin to my face, mutter a “Yes, ma’am,” and hurry to cut the lettuce for her. She then thoroughly trashes the salad bar I just cleaned before she approaches me again.

Customer: “I really appreciate you doing your job!”

She turns around and walks away, muttering to herself.

Customer: “Lazy kids taking hard-working adults’ jobs.”

I am 24, work two jobs, and average 46 hours a week between them. Gritting my teeth, I nodded with a “Have a nice day, ma’am” and bit my tongue again as she walked away.

Noting the time, I hurried to clean up the mess she’d made so I could punch out on time. Part-timers aren’t allowed more than 29 hours in a week anymore, and we get in trouble if we’re over even a little bit.

Yes, I made it on time and got praise from my supervisor the next morning, who said that he wouldn’t have handled it as well.

There has been a lot of panic buying taking place across all food shops. As a result, all major retailers have bought in rationing, meaning customers can only buy a certain number of each item to try and make sure everyone can get their items. An angry-looking man comes to my till. He has a bag from our competitor, who is on the opposite side of the road to us, and he is only buying one loaf of bread from us.

Customer: “I can’t believe this. [Competitor] would only let me buy two loaves of bread! Only two! I want three! So I had to come here to buy a third! Absolutely ridiculous!”

Me: “I’m sorry about that, but we’ve all had to bring in limits due to all the panic buyers, and—”

Customer: *Interrupting* “Well, why don’t they do anything about them, then? Huh?”

The customer pays and storms out.

Next Customer: *To me* “But they have… by introducing the ration limits.”

Me: “Tell me about it.”