(I am a supervisor at a well-known wholesale warehouse that is membership based. You have to pay annually to shop there and the register will not ring up orders without scanning a valid paid membership. As an employee, I get a free membership that does not expire. This particular day we are short staffed on supervisors so it is just me and one other guy. We are both exhausted from running around all day helping members and employees with problems. I am required to take a lunch by my fifth working hour so I go, leaving my coworker by himself on the front end. I forgot my lunch that day (per usual) and go grab a rotisserie chicken from the deli. Once I get to the register and wait (a new cashier is on the register) I realize that I ALSO forgot my membership card that day and despite the fact that I am an employee, the register simply won’t ring up my food without that card number. I quickly run to our computer and look up the number manually and hastily write it down on scrap paper as my 30-minute lunch always goes too quickly. I run back to the line, which is five people deep by then and apologize to everyone. The new cashier then manually keys in my handwritten membership number.)

Cashier: “Um… the register says that your membership is expired… You need to pay 55 dollars to renew.”

Me: “Impossible. Employees get free memberships. They don’t expire unless you quit or get fired.”

Cashier: “What do I do?”

Me: “Well, technically I am off the clock so I can’t help. Let me call [Coworker] and see if he can figure it out.”

(Due to my break, my fellow supervisor is busy running around and it takes him a while to hear my calls. Meanwhile the line behind me grows so I decide to try to talk the employee through the procedure until FINALLY my coworker arrives to help.)

Coworker: “I think you wrote down your membership number wrong in your hurry to eat your lunch. Let me go get the correct number.”

(A manager sees the struggle on the front end and comes down to help out with the rush and quickly voids the current transaction, which I couldn’t do since I was off the clock, and my coworker runs over with my ACTUAL membership number, which works. At the end of the transaction I turn to the growing line behind me and apologize to the waiting members.)

Lady: *behind me in line, with a smile* “HEY, I have a joke… How many supervisors does it take to ring up a CHICKEN?”

(Everyone else in line laughs and I run off with my chicken to the employee break-room.)

Another Member In Line: “You’d better be eating that whole thing!”

(I work for a well-known tax company. We are about to have a huge blizzard overnight into the next day. A state of emergency has been called and several businesses, including ours, are closed for the day. We’re about to leave for the night when the phone rings.)

Me: “Hello, thank you for calling [Office]. This is [My Name] speaking. How can I help you?”

Client: “Hey, my work gave us the day off tomorrow because of the storm. I’d like to come in and have my taxes done.”

Me: “…”

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(I work for a well-known fast food breakfast chain. A 30-ish man steps up to the counter.)

Customer: “I would like a small coffee with extra, extra cream and extra, extra pumpkin spice, and three sugars, please.”

(I’m working at the coffee station so I get to work on it. Note that the default for any flavor unit in a small coffee is two. It’d be two sugars, two creams, two pumps of pumpkin, etc. For every “extra” a customer asks for, we put an additional unit. For his order, I use four creams, four pumps of pumpkin goo, and three sugars. And in a small coffee, this takes up more than half the cup. I give the man his coffee after I’ve finished it. Moments later he returns.)

Customer: “Excuse me… It’s not even hot.”

Me: “Oh, well, the cream and pumpkin are refrigerated so it’s not going to be that hot. Would you like me to use less?”

Customer: “NO! I want extra, extra cream, extra, extra pumpkin, and three sugars!”

(I make the coffee with three creams and three pumps this time with three sugars. I give him the coffee and he tastes it.)

Customer: “Look, this is ridiculous. It’s lukewarm. I need to see a manager.”

(I sent my manager over and watched the customer flail around explaining how terrible I was. The manager made him a coffee with one cream, one pump, one sugar. The guy seemed satisfied and left. The manager looked at me and shrugged.)

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(It’s fall, time for pumpkin and pumpkin spice everything. I run to the store to get canned pumpkin, and I’m having trouble finding it. I look in three aisles I think it might be in, as well as at the ends of some aisles in case it’s in a special pumpkin display. No luck, so I’m getting frustrated. This store always has excellent customer service, so an employee stops to help.)

Employee: “Can I help you find something?”

Me: *speaking very fast, I’m so frazzled by now* “Yes, please! I’m looking for canned pumpkin. I’ve looked with baking, canned vegetables, and canned fruit, but I can’t find it.”

Employee: “What is it you’re looking for?”

Me: *speaking at a normal pace* “Canned pumpkin.”

Employee: “Can… what?”

Me: “Pumpkin.”

Employee: “Can you spell that?”

(He pulls out what looks like his phone, or a hand-held computer, to try to look it up. I spell it and he types in “pumping.”)

Employee: “I don’t know…”

Me: “Like just a can of pumpkin. For pumpkin pie.”

Employee: “I don’t know what that is.”

(All of a sudden, I see it up the top shelf.)

Me: “Oh! There it is! Thank God. Thanks for your help.”

(As I rushed away, he went over to look at this mystery item he’d never heard of. Not sure how he’s gotten through life never hearing about pumpkin, in this pumpkin/pumpkin-spiced obsessed society! I appreciate his efforts to try to help me!)

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(It’s Valentine’s Day 2014 and a massive blizzard has struck, with snow coming down and the streets becoming increasingly dangerous. I’m supposed to work from one pm to close, but my manager gives me a call around noon.)

Manager: “The roads are pretty slick and there aren’t many customers in, so don’t bother coming in right now. I’m sure corporate is going to let us close early because of the snow, but I’ll give you a call around four to let you know.”

Me: “Sure thing. I’ll be ready if you need me. Stay safe.”

(At four, my manager calls again.)

Manager: *annoyed* “So, despite the storm, every other store in the plaza closing early, and us having virtually no customers for the past three hours, corporate is insisting we stay open. I’m really sorry. Could you come in at five so I can have a dinner break? It’s going to be just the two of us tonight. I told [Coworker] to stay home, but I need another person, and you live much closer than she does.”

Me: “I understand. It sucks, but what can you do? I’ll be in in an hour.”

(I leave early due to the slick roads, but even though I only live 15 minutes away, it takes at least twice that time to get there. For the next four hours, my manager and I putter around an empty store, only having two customers the whole night. After we officially close, I’m leaning on the counter while my manager counts the registers. We haven’t even made $100 for the whole day.)

Manager: “So, think it was worth corporate dragging you in here?”

Me: “I work barely more than minimum wage, and they paid me more for four hours work than we made in that time. The only two customers we had were heading out to celebrate Valentine’s Day and were only here because her dress ripped. Add in your salary, heat, and electricity, and I’m pretty sure they would have been better off setting a bag of cash on fire.”

Manager: “At least you got paid?”

Me: “Not enough to cover my funeral if I die getting home.”

Manager: “Yeah, I know. Considering corporate HQ is in New Jersey, you’d think they’d understand that no one in their right mind shops for clothes during a New England blizzard.”

(That winter ending up being one of the worst, with over a foot of snow coming down every week. Thankfully, corporate wised up and let us close, but I’ll never forget their initial idiocy.)

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