It’s a busy day at the grocery store, and I am running super late for my break. My manager has come over to force my line to end at the last current customer, and I am finally free to walk to the break room and have something to eat.

I get no more than a few feet away from my checkout when a woman in another line grabs my arm.

Customer: “Stop wandering around and get on a checkout! Look how busy you are!”

Me: “Ma’am, please don’t touch me. Also, I literally just clocked out for my break.”

Customer: “A break? A break?! Look how busy it is! They shouldn’t let you take a break until all the customers have been served!”

Me: “Please take any staffing issues you have up with my manager. Now, if you’ll excuse me—”

Customer: “Don’t walk away from me! Serve me right now!”

Me: “Ma’am, I am clocked out. It would actually be against the law for me to serve you right now.”

Customer: “I don’t care! Break the law, or I’ll break you!”

Me: “Wow, first you touch me, and then you threaten violence? Yeah, that’s enough to get you kicked out.”

I see a line of shocked faces from several nearby customers.

Me: “You all heard that, right?”

Customers: “We did!”

Me: “You’re taking up my valuable break time, but I will be more than happy to spend it watching security escorting your entitled rude a** out of the store. So… am I going or am I staying?”

The customer, obviously not expecting my confidence — not to mention the support of nearby customers — backs down, steps back in line, and looks at the floor.

Me: “Wise choice.” 

I took my break. I still reported the incident to my manager, who looked at the CCTV later and took an image of the customer in case we have an issue with them again.

I’m working at the register when an older lady comes up to me.

Customer: “Do you have brown sugar in a can?”

I am very familiar with the products and their locations, but I have never before heard of brown sugar in a CAN.

Me: “Have you bought it here before?”

Customer: “Yes, just last week.”

Me: “Do you remember the brand name? The color of the label?”

Customer: “No.”

Somehow, the retail gods break from the heavens and lay their knowledge into my noggin at that moment.

Me: “You don’t mean Heinz Beans with Brown Sugar, do you?”

Customer: “Yes, that’s it!”

Easily the most vague and misleading request ever.

Customer: “I’ll take a pound of ham.”

I put it on the scale, measure it out, and bag it up. The customer snatches the bag and then whips out their own mini-scale from their bag!

Customer: “If you conned me, you’ll be in trouble!”

They place the bag of ham on their scale, and it comes out to 1.02 pounds.

Me: “Oh, thanks! My scale must need to be recalibrated. I’ll make sure you get less ham next time, don’t worry!”

The customer scowled at me and was about to open their mouth to say something, but then they thought better of it and just stormed off.

I mean, who brings in their own scale?!

I work at a grocery store as the grocery department manager. During lockdown it has been absolutely insane for grocery stores all over the country. We’re out of a lot and it’s taking a while for things to get back in. We’re finding alternatives to give our customers SOMETHING to buy, even if it’s not their usual choice.

One of these is water. When crap really starts hitting the fan, the first thing to go (after toilet paper) is multi-pack water. It becomes increasingly hard to get our brand in, so I get with my Coke/Dr Pepper/Pepsi vendors and have them bring in the national brands.

The next day, an angry customer approaches me and speaks  loudly with an accusatory “GOTCHA” tone.

Customer: “So I see you guys have no problem profiteering off of this emergency!”

Me: *Genuinely confused.* “What do you mean?”

Customer: “Yesterday your water was $2.99. Today it’s $6.99.”

Me: “Well, sir, this isn’t the water we norma—”

Customer: “I can’t believe you guys would jack your prices up like this. I’m calling the…” *He turned to his wife.* “Who is it?… The… Better Business Bureau?” *He turns back to me.* “The better business bureau!”

Me: “Sir, you can call whoever you want. We haven’t changed our prices. Our cheaper brand of water is unavailable for the foreseeable future, so we brought in the national brands, so we’d have water for you to buy.”

Customer: “Well why isn’t it the same price as yours?!”

Me: “If you came in here wanting ground beef, and we were out of ground beef, you wouldn’t expect me to sell you filet mignon at ground beef price, would you?”

Customer: “…”

Me: “The national brands have always been this price, sorry it’s more expensive than you’re used to, but it’s the only water we can get in right now.”

He bought our limit of two and walked away without another word.

I work at a local grocery store. After graduating from college, I accepted a job and am going to be moving out of state in a week. I am not working this day, but my mother needs some groceries picked up and I decide to go get them for her. The parking lot of our store is on a slope and we often have issues with runaway carts hitting cars. It usually isn’t a big deal and people will leave a note indicating what happened, with their contact number.

As I’m packing up the car with my bags I look over and see a kid riding the cart down the parking lot. I noticed he was going full speed towards a pretty beaten down car that happens to belong to one of my coworkers. He hits it full force and leaves a sizable dent in the driver’s side door. His mother appears out of nowhere, looks around, and quickly takes the cart to the area where we store them.

I’m sitting in my car watching this happen thinking: “Please leave a note. Please don’t make me say something.”

Sure enough she gets back to her car and opens the driver’s side door.

Me: “You are going to leave a note, aren’t you?!”

Lady: “What?”

Me: “Your kid hit that car and left a mark. You need to do something about it.”

Lady: “Mind your own business! It’s not even noticeable and I don’t have paper or a pen to write my information down on!”

Me: “If you’re not going to say something then I am.”

At this point I lost it. Mainly because I only had a week left working there and because I realized I was at the store, but not wearing my work attire and had dreamed of a moment like this for years.

Me: “You’re good with teaching your kid it’s okay to damage someone’s property and not take responsibility for it?! What kind of person does that?! What kind of role model are you being? You need to go in the store and tell someone!”

Lady: “Leave me alone! I’m leaving!”

At this point I get out of my car and start walking towards hers.

She gets in, rolls the window down, flips me the bird, yells “F*** you!” and speeds off.

I got a picture of her license plate and told our store manager and the employee what had happened. His insurance took care of it, likely at the cost of hers!