I work the registers at a big box store. Our registers have a screen that sometimes pops up when coupons are scanned, basically saying that it isn’t valid and asking if we want to accept it anyway.

One day, this terrible woman comes through my line. I scan her items and all of her numerous coupons. Almost all of them go through just fine, but one coupon gives me that screen. As a courtesy, I click the button to accept the coupon and then finish the transaction. After the receipt prints, she stands by the end of the register to look at it. I don’t think anything of it, checking out the next customer in line, who leaves.

She then comes back up to me.

Me: “Can I help you?”

Customer: “Did that coupon go through?”

Me: “Yes.”

Customer: “Okay, because I saw that screen that said it was denied. Can you show me where on my receipt it’s listed?”

I look and I can’t find it, which doesn’t mean it didn’t go through. There are a lot of coupons and it’s possible it’s just part of the dollars off at the bottom. I try to explain this, but she does not like that. She keeps trying to hand me the receipt and have me point it out. Meanwhile, my line is building. Finally, she comes up with this gem.

Customer: “I don’t actually care about the money; I just want to make sure you’re doing your job right.”

If I was doing my job “right,” I wouldn’t have accepted that coupon at all. The screens said it was denied, so I had no obligation to approve it.

She kept needling me about the coupon and I tried to send her up to guest services for help. I tried telling her that I couldn’t do anything for her from my register; I don’t have return powers and even if I did, it has to be done at guest services. I pointed out that my line was building, and the woman behind her said that [Customer] had every right to make sure she was charged correctly. By this point, I was literally in tears.

Thankfully, my register was right by the self-checkouts, and the lovely woman manning the self-checkouts that day noticed me crying and came over. She sent me into the back with a manager and took over.

My manager let me sit in the break room until I calmed down, and thankfully, I didn’t get in trouble for any of it. I don’t know what happened with the customer, but I never saw her again.

The coupon was literally for fifty cents off a large purchase.

On more than one occasion, I’ve seen or heard about customers being horrible during medical emergencies.

Once, a colleague collapsed near the end of my checkout. He honestly looked dead; his face was grey and his lips were blue. Customers were kicking off when they had us move checkouts away from him and blocked that exit. There was another exit; they only had to turn right instead of left.

Another one I didn’t witness but it made the local newspaper. Someone collapsed and had a heart attack in a restaurant with a salad bar. People were stepping over them to get to said salad bar.

I am checking out at an outdoor retailer, and I hand over my dividend card to get credit for the purchase.

Cashier: “Huh, [My Last Name]. I’ve only ever seen that name once. That was my fourth-grade teacher, but she left to have a baby.”

Me: “Oh, yeah? Did you grow up in [Town]?”

Cashier: “Yeah, how’d you know?”

Me: *Waves* “Hi, I’m the baby!”

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I was once shopping at a store when some woman stomped up and demanded that I help find a certain item for her.

Me: “No, I don’t work here, so I wouldn’t know if they sell that or not.”

Woman: *Snarling* “You’re just lying in order to get out of working! Help me or I’ll call a manager.”

Me: “Go ahead. You know, employees here wear vests with nametags; I’m in a T-shirt and jeans. You’d better check your attitude if you’re going to get any help whatsoever.”

She screams at a passing manager and tells him to fire me.

Manager: *Confused* “I don’t know him, so he doesn’t work for us.”

She cursed at both of us for bad customer service and stomped out of the store while shrieking that she was never shopping here again.

Manager: *To me* “You work retail?”

Me: *Chuckling* “Yep!”

Manager: “I think she could smell that all over you!”

We shared a good laugh.

I was at a store with an ex once. I had just gotten off work at a dining facility on the local military base. My ex and I were standing in the candy aisle debating which bulk candy we wanted. A soldier walked up to me.

Soldier: “Where is [item]?”

Me: “I don’t know. I’m looking at candy to buy.”

Soldier: “Oh. It’s just that you look familiar.”

Me: “That’s probably because you saw me at dinner two hours ago.”

He left me alone after that.