It is January 2nd. I am working with my assistant manager. We have had a sign on the door for at least a month saying we, like many other businesses, will be closed on New Year’s Day.

An older woman marches up to the assistant manager.

Customer: “I came yesterday to get my precious dog’s food and there was no one here!”

Assistant Manager: “I am very sorry, ma’am, but we were closed yesterday because of the holiday.”

Customer: “I know! How dare you be closed?! I didn’t know you would be closed and I needed my dog’s food!”

Assistant Manager: “We had signs up on the door to tell you we’d be closed.”

Customer: *Gets angrier, going red in the face* “But I needed the food!”

I hurry away so I don’t get caught in the crossfire. Later, the assistant manager comes up to me.

Me: “She wanted us to open on a holiday just for her?”

Assistant Manager: “Exactly.”

It’s New Year’s Eve, and our store has just closed for the day. It’s two hours earlier than usual, as listed on our sign of holiday hours in front of the store. I’m tidying up and have just returned to the front of the store after cleaning the bathrooms in the back when I see a man standing in the front.

Me: “Sir? The store is closed.”

Customer: “No, it’s not; you close at [usual time].”

Me: “It’s New Year’s Eve. We’re closing early tonight.”

Customer: “Well, you should have a sign!”

Me: “We do!”

I escort the man outside, through the disabled automatic doors that he had forced open in order to get in, and show him the clearly visible sign of holiday hours, specifically the part that says, “December 31st — New Year’s Eve — [Holiday Hours]”.

Customer: “Well, it should’ve been bigger!”

I’ll never understand how the doors being off isn’t enough of a hint.

I work at an anime store where we sell replica weapons from anime. I had a guy come in on Sunday the week before Halloween.

Customer: “My kid wants to be Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7. I want you to try and find him Sephiroth’s sword from the game. I need it to be exact dimensions, and I want it before Halloween.”

We don’t even do custom orders or look up where people can find other anime replicas; we just sell them.

I work for an insurance company, and as we are closed over Christmas, the day after Boxing Day is busy. 

Caller: “Please cancel my policy. It’s taken twenty-seven minutes to get through. And I don’t want your apologies or your excuses that it’s busy. I’m not interested!”

Me: “Okay, sir.”

Caller: “SEE?! THAT’S THE KIND OF ATTITUDE THAT TELLS ME YOU LOT DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS! GET IT CANCELLED NOW!”

When I was eighteen, I was the manager at a mom-and-pop restaurant that was connected to a hotel. The holidays were always super busy with mainly big groups of families who had come into town together for vacation.

A week before New Year’s, I got a call from a hotel guest.

Guest: “Would you be willing to keep your restaurant open until midnight on New Year’s? I want my family to ring in the New Year there. It would be six kids and four adults.”

Me: “Because it’s New Year’s, we will actually close an hour early, at 8:00 pm.”

Guest: *Yelling* “That’s inappropriate! It shows poor work ethic to leave early. How in the world can you think it’s okay to close early so you can all go drink and party when we want to dine there and give you extra business?!”

Me: “It’s not my decision but the owners’. We’ll be closing early because we’re understaffed. Those who work the night shift have to be back in the morning to open the restaurant, and we want to ensure that everyone will get enough rest to work a busy breakfast shift.”

Guest: “You should’ve been smart enough to hire more people on for the holidays!”