This takes place during the romaine lettuce recall that affected the entire country. When we receive our shipments of lettuce during this time, customers snatch up the lettuce faster than we can stock it. I have this conversation about once a day for the entire recall.

Customer: “Where is all the lettuce?”

Me: “That’s all we have, because of the romaine recall.”

Customer: “But only romaine is not being sold. All the other lettuce is fine. Where is it?”

Me: “That’s all we have. There’s a shortage of the other types of lettuce because of the recall.”

Customer: “No, there’s not!”

Me: “Yes, there is. Romaine is one of the most popular lettuces out there. That’s why a good two-thirds of our bagged salads are no longer being sold. What’s left has to be shared with every store and every restaurant in the country. There’s not enough supply to meet the demand. Everyone has to share what lettuce is left.”

The customer grumbles and walks over to the iceberg lettuce and reads the sign.

Customer: “There’s a limit?”

Me: “Yes. You can only buy two heads of iceberg lettuce right now.”

Customer: “Why?”

Me: “It’s to prevent people from taking all of the lettuce before other customers have had the chance to buy some.”

This is one of the reasons why I believe everyone should have to take Economics 101 every ten years or so. Supply and demand is not that hard a concept.

Related:
How To Romaine Calm

I’m a manager at my job, and I’ve gotten a new member on the team. We don’t click. At all. I won’t go into the details, but he rubs me the wrong way.

It’s been a long week, and I’m complaining about him to my mom over dinner.

Me: “And he’s totally unprofessional. I know that we don’t really deal with customers — that’s someone else’s problem — but still, I expect a degree of politeness in the workplace.”

Before my mom can answer, the doorbell rings and we get up to open it.

Coworker: “Hello, neighbour. I’m [Coworker]; I just moved in across the roa—“ *sees me* “THE F*** ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”

Me: “I should be the one asking that, seeing as I’ve lived here since I was born.”

Coworker: “Well, s***.”

Still, we accepted his greeting and introduced our families to each other. The only wrinkle was that at one point I had to pull him aside and sternly warn him to never again flirt with my mom or my wife, but other than that, the evening was cordial.

Starting on Monday, we began carpooling to work.

By the next week, I could stand him.

By the end of the month, we were friends.

When he got transferred to a different branch three months later, I was sad to see him go.

I am a female in my twenties. I am on my bank mobile app reviewing purchases and withdrawals from the last few months when I notice a couple of charges on my debit card that I don’t recognize. After determining that they came from two online stores that I have never visited, I decide that I should cancel the card and get a new one issued. The charges only total about $6, but I know thieves will sometimes test a card with a small purchase to see if it works before making a larger one.

I drive to the bank and ask the teller about how to get a new card, and they direct me to a specific manager’s office.

Me: “Hello, I was told you could help me get a new debit card issued. There have been some fraudulent charges on—”

Manager: *Interrupting me* “Are you sure they were fraudulent?”

Me: *Pauses* “Yes? I reviewed where the charges came from and I don’t recognize them.”

Manager: “You must just not remember. Happens all the time. I’m sure you went on a shopping spree with your friends and forgot about something that you bought.”

I am definitely not the type of person to go on random “shopping sprees” with my friends nor forget what I purchased, and it irks me that she is stereotyping me in this way, but I try to remain calm.

Me: “Um, no. These charges came from online stores that I have never even heard of. If you bring up my checking account, I can show you. One was on [date] and another was on [date].”

Manager: “We can’t refund those. We can only refund you if the purchase was made less than thirty days ago. If you really thought someone was using your card, you should have come in sooner.”

Me: “I understand that. The charges were only about $6 and I didn’t notice them until very recently, so if I can’t get reimbursed that is fine. I just want to cancel this card and get a new one.”

Manager: “It’s gonna be a long process to get a new one, you know. You won’t have a debit card for several weeks until the new one comes in. Are you sure you didn’t just forget you bought something? This is going to be a lot of trouble over only $6.”

Me: “Yes, I am positive. I have other credit cards I can use, or cash. It’s not about the $6. I do not want more, larger fraudulent charges showing up on my bank account, so I would like a new debit card.”

She eyes me for a moment longer, as if waiting for me to realize I’m making a huge mistake.

Manager: “Fine, I will cancel your card and order a replacement. Your new card will be mailed to you.”

I eventually received and activated my new card without any issue, and I thought this was the end of it, until about a year later. I received a parcel in the mail from my bank, and I was surprised to find it contained another debit card… with my old card number and an updated expiration date. The card, it seems, was never cancelled, so I’ve apparently had two open debit cards attached to my bank account for over a year. Luckily, it doesn’t appear that any more fraudulent charges were made, but I will be calling my bank tomorrow and demanding to speak to anyone ELSE who can cancel my old card.

I’m the visuals coordinator for my store; basically, I’m in charge of marketing and making sure the store stays nice and displays stay filled throughout the day. I’m out on the sales floor straightening up for a good portion of my shift. I deal with customer questions on a regular basis, and I always do my best to help them with what they need. However, I’m actively discouraged from “taking sales” — i.e. getting too involved in helping a customer pick out items — as that would take away from my actual job, and it’s what the sales associates are there for anyway.

I’m refolding clothes on a display, and a woman comes up to me to ask a question.

Customer: “Excuse me. Where are your jeans?”

Me: “Oh, they’re right over there! There’s signage on the display that will tell you about all the different styles we currently offer.”

As I talk, I’m pointing to a display of all our jeans, clearly visible not twenty feet behind this woman. However, after following the direction of my pointing, she just glares back at me.

Customer: “What, you’re not even gonna walk me over there?”

Me: “I’m actually working on an important project at the moment, but if you’d like some help picking out jeans, I can call a sales associate to work with you!”

We wear walkie talkies for just such occasions. The woman just glared at me for a moment longer, huffed, and walked off in the complete opposite direction from the jeans.

Okay, lady.

I pop into my doctor’s office for an appointment I made a few days ago. I’ve been coming to the same clinic for years; while the receptionist staff are pretty rubbish, the doctors are always good.

I approach the receptionist.

Me: “It’s [My Name] to see [Doctor].”

Receptionist: “Hmm… looks like you missed our appointment.” *Condescendingly* “You should really try to attend on time; we have other people waiting.”

Me: “No, my appointment is at 8:30. It’s only 8:15. I have the appointment letter here.”

Receptionist: “Actually, it tells me your appointment was changed. We did send you a letter about this.”

Me: *Checking my appointment letter* “This letter is dated yesterday and has my old, correct time on. When did you send the new letter, exactly?”

Receptionist: “…”

Me: “Because I’d like to know how this new letter was going to magically get to me.”

Receptionist: “I will see if the doctor has time for you.”

After a long wait, I did eventually get seen. A day later, the letter telling me my appointment time had changed arrived. It was dated the day of the appointment.