I caught an elderly customer who fell down at my register. The line behind him was huffing and puffing with impatience while his wife, another customer, and I got him situated on the wife’s walker seat.
People were complaining that I was taking too long helping him. It was really a sad thing to witness, and it made me so angry that people would be so callous to an old man.
Nearly every time I go into [Store] in my work clothes — black work pants, a company-branded (not [Store]!) T-shirt and usually a company-branded hi-viz vest — I get stopped by some lady asking me where something is.
One day, I’m in the store and I’m minding my own business walking around with a shopping trolley buying some bits. I hear this lady shouting, “Excuse me!” at me from behind, but I ignore her because I have a feeling that she is under the impression I work there, and I don’t want to deal with that.
After a couple of times of her calling for me, I turn around to find a furious-looking woman.
Woman: “You don’t have any frozen peas.”
I give her a confused look.
Me: “Yes, I know.”
This seemed to enrage her further.
Woman: “WELL, WHY NOT?!”
Me: “Ehh, because I don’t work here?”
Instead of apologizing, she muttered what I believe was, “For f***’s sake,” and walked over to her husband.
Woman: *Angrily, to her husband* “He doesn’t have any frozen peas and he doesn’t even work.”
I feel for anyone who has to deal with the general public on a day-to-day basis, but I’m so glad I don’t have to anymore.
I was introduced to Not Always Right after witnessing this exchange and asking for clarification.
Customer: “The customer is always right!”
Coworker: “There is an entire website dedicated to proving you wrong.”
Earlier this year, I was in a pharmacy that was having a sale on makeup, with all the sale items together on one table. I had an armful of products and was searching through the rest for particular colours, moving things around, putting some things back when I found something I liked better, etc.
A woman who was part of a middle-aged couple came into my aisle and stood a few displays away behind me, complaining to her partner about the pharmacy and how she couldn’t find something.
I was focused on what I was doing so I wasn’t really listening to their conversation; my brain just registered some kind of sarcastic white noise that was getting increasingly louder and more passive-aggressive.
Her partner was quietly trying to hush her as she continued to exaggeratedly sigh and moan to him.
Woman: “This pharmacy’s employees are terrible. Gah, I need helllp!”
From the time she’d walked into the aisle, she had just stood there and never attempted to go find an employee or whatever it was she was after.
Finally, she very loudly and exasperatedly bellowed:
Woman: “Does she even work here?!”
I was startled by the outburst and turned around to look at her, finding her looking shocked and turning red because that was the exact moment when she realised that, no, I didn’t work there and wasn’t some employee ignoring her, and also the moment when I realised that the whole two minutes or so of sighing and nasty comments were actually aimed at me.
Flustered, she grabbed her partner’s arm and marched past me without making eye contact, still complaining about the pharmacy and its “terrible service,” though now in the erratic tone of someone trying to convince themselves they hadn’t just done something embarrassing.
I was dressed in all black (not anything like the employee uniform, but not out of the realm of possibility that I could work there) and I can understand how she might have thought I was restocking or sorting the sale table, but what a way to go about it instead of just asking, “Excuse me, do you work here?”
It is two days before leaving my job as a retail cashier at a well-known clothing store during the Christmas rush.
Customer: “Hi. I want to return this watch my dad got for my daughter. It’s kinda ugly. Not her style.”
Me: “Sure thing. You have the receipt?”
Customer: *Hands me the receipt* “Yes, but I don’t have the card it was paid with.”
Me: “That’s all right; the receipt and watch are all I need.” *Proceeds with the return transaction* “All right, you’re all set!”
Customer: “Well?”
Me: “Well, what?”
Customer: “I told you I don’t have the card. Where’s my cash?”
Me: “Ma’am, you didn’t say you want cash. And even if you had, I can’t refund a card purchase with cash. There’s not even an option in the system for me to do that.”
Customer: “Unbelievable! This is what’s wrong with your generation. You’re so rude and entitled.”
Me: “Your generation raised mine. Have a nice day.”
The customer looked startled, huffed, and principle-waddled out.
