(I work in a movie theatre. It is reasonably busy today, and we have three lines operating: a line for just tickets where I am the cashier, a line for online pre-bookings, and a line for tickets and candy bar. The line for just tickets is significantly shorter than the other two.)

Customer: “Hi! I’d like one ticket to [Movie].”

Me: “Here you go; you’ll be in [cinema]. Have a nice day.”

Customer: *in hushed tones* “Dear, would I also be able to have a small Coke Zero?”

Me: “I’m afraid you will have to queue in the line on the far side.” *gesturing*

Customer: “But it’s so long!”

Me: “I know, but all those people over there are also wanting tickets and candy bar. It would be unfair to serve you before them, from the incorrect line.”

(She disappears, and I serve the few people left in the queue. Then I go to assist with the candy bar and online pre-bookings queues. I notice she has stepped in the front of the online bookings queue, which has also thinned out, to have a go with another cashier. I intercept.)

Me: *leaning over the counter near the online pre-bookings queue* “Hi, was it just the small Coke Zero?”

Customer: *she thinks she’s hit the jackpot, and smiles gleefully* “Yes, just the Coke, no ice.”

Me: “Great, just in the candy bar queue there. Thanks.”

(She finally moved into the correct queue, grumbling.)

(I work at a REALLY busy movie theater with huge lines that go out the door because of this crazy Star Wars release. I am on register in concession next to my friend who starts coughing because of the popcorn fumes. Her coughing eventually gets so bad that I send her to the backroom to drink some water. The man she was just helping starts yelling at me 20 seconds later.)

Man: “Um, hi, excuse me! Yeah, can you just finish up this transaction here? I have somewhere to be.”

Me: “Sorry, I can’t actually touch her register; it’s policy.”

Man: *starts yelling louder, livid at this point* “So, you’re telling me that I have to miss my very expensive movie because some girl is dying?!“

Me: *highly annoyed* “No, no, of course not. You can leave your line and hop on the end of mine.” *there are another 60 people in my line*

Man: *storms off without buying his food* “Un-f******-believable”

(I’m working at the movie theater, taking tickets at the door, when a very angry-looking woman in her fifties comes up to me.)

Me: *steeling myself* “How may I help you?”

Customer: “We wanted to see [Movie], and we sat down, and this wasn’t the movie we wanted! You sent us to the wrong theater, and [Movie] has already started.”

(I’ve been a bit scatterbrained today and I think that maybe I have made a mistake.)

Me: “I’m very sorry about that; I must have misread your ticket. If you take it up to the box, I’m sure they’ll exchange it for you.”

(The lady stomps off and returns about twenty minutes later with her husband.)

Customer: *waving the ticket in my face, which is not for the movie that they wanted* “We wanted to see [Movie]! This is the wrong ticket!”

(My coworker has been known to print the wrong ticket before, but she is fairly new, so I assume it has happened again.)

Me: “I’m terribly sorry, but if you take that ticket to the box office, you can have it switched out for your movie.”

(About half an hour later, my manager comes out looking disgruntled.)

Manager: “Some people are such a**holes! Did you get a couple in their fifties through here?”

Me: “Yeah, the ones that got sent to the wrong theater?”

Manager: “They weren’t in the wrong theater. I was in box when they got their tickets, and they definitely didn’t ask for [Movie]. They were trying to scam us out of free movie tickets because they didn’t like the beginning.”

Me: “They didn’t like the beginning? Are you kidding me?”

(My manager threw up her hands and walked away.)

(In high school, my friend and I have a Monday off of school and want to catch a matinee showing of a movie. We catch this particular film close to the end of its theater run, and since it is a weekday afternoon, there are only a couple of other people in the theater. About halfway through the movie, the screen suddenly darkens, then starts to brown in the middle, before very obvious bubbles appear and the picture disintegrates. We turn up to the projection window and see smoke in the projector room, so my friend and I rush out to find an employee. The first person we see in a theater uniform grabs my friend’s arm:)

Employee: *demanding* “Are you trying to sneak into [R-Rated Movie]?!”

Me: “What? No! It looks like our projector might be on fire.”

Employee: “Return to your theater until I’ve checked on it.”

(This is presumably because he thinks this is a ploy to throw him off our theater-jumping trail. We go back to our theater, and eventually see someone moving about in the projector room, which is now more visibly smoky. The other three or four moviegoers in the theater are milling about in confusion. After a minute, the lights in the theater snap on to full brightness, but no one comes to tell us what is going on, offer us refunds, or tell us to evacuate, and no fire alarm goes off. We all trickle out of the theater, looking for an employee in the mostly deserted building, and finally find a different employee restocking in the concession stand.)

Me: “Hey, I guess the projector in our theater is down, but we only got to see about half the movie. Since it’s showing in a second theater, could we just go in there and watch the end?”

Employee: “You paid for one ticket; you get one movie.”

Friend: “We only want to watch one movie. That one started about an hour after ours, so it’s probably pretty close to when ours caught on fire.”

(The employee eyes us like we are trying to pull some kind of scam, even though the other moviegoers have gathered behind us and are chiming in in agreement.)

Employee: “If there was a fire in this theater, I think I would know about it.”

(After a couple more failed attempts to get her to find the guy who’d originally checked on the projector, or to go check it out herself, my friend and I just exchanged an incredulous look and left. We figured if they wouldn’t even let us finish the movie we’d started, we weren’t likely to get a refund. That was one of only two theaters in our town, but we never went back, and I saw they’d gone out of business when I visited home from college a couple of years later.)

(I’m taking my friend to see a popular superhero film with an African American lead character on opening night.)

Me: “Hi, I’ll take two adults for the next showing of [Film] please.”

Employee: “No.”

Me: “Oh… Uh, is it sold out? We can hang around and get tickets to the showing after this one.”

Employee: “No, it hasn’t sold out, but in case it does, those seats are saved for the people who this movie is actually for, to make sure they can see it tonight. This movie is for them, not us!”

(My friend and I exchange looks of complete confusion.)

Friend: “Excuse me?”

Employee: *sighs* “Of course you wouldn’t get it. This movie is very meaningful to African Americans! It’s the first time they’ve been the lead in a blockbuster superhero film! We’re white; this movie doesn’t mean anything to us, so the seats in that theater are reserved for the people who deserve it most after waiting so long to see themselves represented on screen. Pick another movie!”

(My friend and I are completely stunned and speechless. The employee then speaks to a customer that has come up behind us, who is African American.)

Employee: “Sir, are you here to see [Film]?”

Customer: “Yes, but I believe these two gentlemen were before me.”

Employee: “No, they’re still deciding what they want to see. How many tickets for you?”

Customer: “Oh, just me.”

(The employee takes the customer’s money and prints out the ticket, all while my friend and I are still rendered speechless by what we are seeing.)

Employee: “I’m so happy to hand you this ticket today. Please accept my apology that it took so long, and know that I sincerely hope it gets better for you all going forward.”

(The customer looks about as confused as my friend and I first were, but he accepts the ticket and walks off to the theater.)

Friend: “Yeah, I think you can get your manager, now.”

(The employee rolls his eyes, goes out back, and returns with a woman who identifies herself as the manager. I explain the situation to the manager, whose expression turns to one of shock and anger.)

Manager: “[Employee], please tell me that isn’t what actually happened.”

Employee: “Yes, it is what happened! This movie isn’t for us; it’s for the African Americans! They need this movie! They shouldn’t have to come in to a sold-out theater and have to wait for another showing for a movie that’s already many years overdue for them because a white person who this movie means nothing to is taking up a seat that should rightfully be theirs!”

Manager: *after a moment of taking in what she’s just heard* “Office.”

Employee: “Wait, what?”

(The manager just stares at the employee until he goes out back again. She then prints out our tickets without charging us and reaches under the desk and hands us each one free movie pass.)

Manager: “I’m so sorry that happened; treating our customers in that way is beyond unacceptable. Please accept my apologies, and my personal promise that you’ll never have any sort of issue with that particular employee in this establishment again.”

Me: “Oh, no, we didn’t get anyone in real serious trouble, did we?”

Manager: “Well, while I can’t get into specific detail, if anyone were to face consequences over this, I assure you that it would have been their own doing, not yours. Please enjoy your movie. I hope to see you again!”