I have a coworker that is always looking for a side hustle to make extra cash. She is in several multi-level marketing programs. We drink a lot of sodas and bottled water in the office. While the city has a recycling program, it only collects once a month. To avoid the cans and bottles piling up in our small office, I take them to an automated recycling center that is on the way home when we fill up our bin. 

Coworker: “Hey, [My Name]. Where do you take the recycling?”

Me: “Oh, it’s a place on [Road] near my house.”

Coworker: “Do they pay you for it? I heard some of those places pay.” 

Me: *Shrugging* “A little. Just a handful of change, usually.”

Coworker: “How much do you get?” 

Me: “I don’t know. I never counted it up.”

Coworker: “But how much do you get paid for our recycling?!”

Me: “I really don’t know. A quarter, maybe.”

We went around like this for a bit before she dropped the subject. From that day on, she brought large trash bags to the office and emptied the bin into them at the end of each day. She’d also run up and down the street during her lunch to fish recyclables out of the city trash cans. 

Then, she’d take her hoard to the center to get her hard-earned pocket change… after spending $10 on trash bags and driving twenty minutes out of her way to drop them off.

This story is part of our Recycling roundup!

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I have just gotten off work at a grocery store. I am almost home before I remember there was an item I needed to buy. I stop at a competing grocery store since it is closer than going back. I am still wearing my store-specific colored apron and name tag with the store name on it.

I am walking to get my item when I am approached by a customer.

Customer: “I am looking for [item]; where is it?”

Me: “I’m not really sure. I think they are over on aisle five.”

I get my item and am on the way to pay for it.

Customer: “You were wrong. It wasn’t there and you wasted my time. Now where is it?”

Me: “Again, I’m really not sure.”

Customer: “Can you go find it?”

Me: “This isn’t my store.”

Customer: “I don’t care what store you work at; you should know where everything is since they are all laid out the same.”

Me: “I don’t work h—”

Customer: “Now you’re just being lazy and rude. I want your name; I am going to complain to your manager.”

I held out my name tag so she could clearly see that it had another store name written on it. She glanced at my name and trotted off to the front desk.

As I was in line buying my item, I saw her there, talking to a manager and pointing at me. The manager looked at me quizzically and I just shrugged my shoulders. He shook his head and gave me the “I hate my life” look.

(I’m the manager at a buffet restaurant. We have tables for small parties and large parties. Large party tables — ten and more people — require a charge of gratuity added to the payments. A family comes in with eight people. They are very rude with the hostess, so the hostess grabs my attention.)

Me: “How can I help you guys today? What seems to be the problem?”

Customer: “We want this larger table since we are large people.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but if we do give that twelve top to you we will be required to charge a 15% gratuity to your checks, due to us having to compensate the loss of a large party to the servers.”

Customers: “I guess we’ll go somewhere else.”

(I bow my head in respect.)

Me: “If that is your decision.”

(They leave, but then one of the males returns — the husband.)

Husband: “I’d like to talk to you.”

Me: “Yes, sir, I have a reservation I’m assisting at the moment. If you could please wait—”

(He interrupts me even when the other reservation customer is right there.)

Husband: “You just lost a large group of customers. You just lost a lot of money.”

Me: “I understand that, but you did not agree with our policies, and you voluntarily walked out on your own.”

Husband: “I am a man of God!”

(I am taken aback a bit.)

Me: “Oh? I also am a Christian. I don’t get how that is relevant.”

Husband: “I am a man of God! And I curse this establishment!”

Me: “Is this really happening?”

A customer comes up to the drive-thru window to pay. She starts to hand me her money and then yanks it back.

Customer: “Does your food come from China?”

I hold back a deep sigh.

Me: “No, ma’am.”

Customer: “Are you sure?”

Me: “Yes, ma’am.”

Customer: “How sure are you?”

Me: “Your total is $8.96, ma’am.”

She gives me a twenty. I start to mark it with our fake bill detector, as we do with all bills $10 and up. I like to draw smiley faces on mine.

Customer: “Yeah, you wish it was fake.”

I don’t say anything or look at her, but involuntarily I scrunch my face in a little “WTF does that even mean” face. I guess she sees this, because…

Customer: “You know, you don’t need to be making all those negative gestures. I bet your shift leader would love to hear about all your little… negative gestures.”

I hand her the change, which also has a smiley face on the ten, and smile at her, nice and bright.

Me: “Have a great night, ma’am.”

Customer: “Yeah, that’s what I thought!”

She zooms to the next window. I walk up to the front to get a cup of water and see my poor manager leaning out the window talking to this woman, nodding her head, saying, “I’m so sorry,” etc. The woman gets her food and leaves.

Manager: “Wow, what a b****. What did that woman say to you?”

Thank God my managers are awesome and know that the customer is NOT always right!

It’s 2:56 in the morning on a Monday night, and we close at three. I’m the manager on duty when the phone rings.

Me: “Thank you for calling [Store]. My name is [My Name]; what can we do for you tonight?”

Customer: “Say your name for me one more time?”

Me: “It’s [My Name], sir.”

Customer: “Well, my name is [Customer], and I know [Regional Manager] of [Our Restaurant] Eastern, and I’ve got two free pizzas coming for me.”

Me: “I’m sorry, could you repeat your name for me?”

The customer does, spelling out his last name.

Me: “Thank you. Okay. There are two problems with this. First, we’re a franchise store, and we don’t have a regional manag—”

Customer: “No, you don’t understand. The regional manager for all of [Restaurant] East.”

Me: “As I was saying, we don’t have a regional manager. We’re a franchise store. There are only two stores on the east coast so far, and they’re owned by the man who opens this store four days a week.”

Customer: “Well, that’s—”

Me: “Sir, the second problem is that I have a wall chart with the name and email of everyone on the corporate staff, down to the assistant level. There’s nobody by the name you’ve given anywhere on there.”

Customer: “I think you’re mistaken.”

Me: “I think you’ve fundamentally misunderstood our corporate structure.”

There’s a bit of a silence.

Customer: “Whatever. I suppose I’ll just have to order something and get it refunded later.”

Me: “That’s absolutely your prerogative. What can we do for you tonight?”

He went on to show a complete lack of any knowledge of our store, the kind of food we sell, our prices, or our menu. After providing excellent customer service, I took his card information, and the delivery went out — but not before he tried to sneak the name of our owner out of me. I put a note on the wall about his name and address.

The part that gets me most is he could have just Googled it or come in one day; the owner’s name is in the lobby like four times. And no, we never did hear back about that “Regional Manager.”