Our store usually puts up our sale tags the night before a sale to keep us from staying late or having to come in early the next day and ruining payroll. This often causes some confusion at the register, but we always fix to the advertised price, even a day early. We also know full well what products are on sale and what their prices are. We’re preparing for our end-of-summer sale, which includes 10% off many of our higher-end brands of dog food, but none of them are anywhere near $100. A customer comes up to the till.

Me: “That’ll be [price].”

Customer: “What did [Expensive Food] ring up as?”

Me: “It rang up as originally being [price], but took [amount] off for this cycle’s sale.”

Customer: “The tag said [price $10 lower].”

Me: “Okay, let me check the price list.”

Customer: “It must for the sale you’ve got. You have to give it to me at that price.”

Me: “I understand that, but I need to check on the price. We have a list of the upcoming prices up here.”

After looking, I see that, while the product IS going to be on sale, the price difference is nowhere near the $10 and, in fact, the price from the current sale cycle is lower than that of the following cycle. I explain this to the customer, but he only insists further. I see the manager walk by and ask her what to do. In order to get the guy to shut up, she allows me to change the price to $6 below the original non-sale price, with the $4 from the current sale still being taken off.

Me: “Okay, that’ll now be [new price].”

Customer: *looking smug* “That’s better.”

The customer pays and starts on his way but looks at the receipt and sees what he feels to be an issue. To be fair, our receipts have a weird way of printing sales and discounts at the bottom of the receipt, rather than paired with the item itself, but they have the item number tagged along with the discount amount.

Customer: “This still isn’t right.”

I know exactly what the issue is.

Me: “Okay, let me take a look at it.”

Customer: “See? You charged me [price adjusted for discount]; it should be [lower price].”

Me: “Well, yes, I understand that, but it took that discount off down here; it shows at this black bar.”

Customer: “Well, I still don’t see how that changes anything.”

Me: “Okay, you bought [Food] originally at [price], which we marked down to [lower price], and then you bought [clearance item] at [price], which totals [amount]. Add in the tax, and you get [ total].”

Customer: *Cutting me off* “See?”

Me: *continuing* “And then we took the remainder of the cost from [Food] here at this black bar.”

The customer then just grabbed the receipt and walked off grumbling that it “still doesn’t make any sense.”

I am working in the organic food section of the market, and there is this customer who is going through the specialty peanut butter while muttering to himself.

Me: “Can I help you with anything, sir?”

Customer: “Do you have any expired peanut butter in the back? There’s none on the shelf.”

Me: “Excuse me?”

Customer: “You never have any expired food on the shelves here! I want to buy expired peanut butter!”

Me: “Sir, it’s against the law for us to sell expired products.”

Customer: “I don’t care if it’s illegal! Get the manager for me!”

I track down the acting store manager and the customer seems to recognize him.

Customer: *To me* “He won’t help me.”

Manager: “Can I help you?”

Customer: “You don’t have any expired peanut butter! You never have expired peanut butter!”

Manager: “We aren’t allowed to sell expired food.”

Customer: “I’ve already called your corporate office about this! You should let customers buy what they want!”

Manager: “If you weren’t asking for something that would cause us to break a law, then we would sell you what you want. But store policy and federal law prohibit us from selling expired products.”

The customer goes back to rummaging through the peanut butter for a minute.

Customer: “Does this stuff sell well?”

Manager: “Yes, it sells moderately well.”

Customer: “Who buys it?”

Manager: “Local college students.”

Customer: “That’s bulls***! College students can’t afford to pay ten dollars for peanut butter!”

Me: “Sir, I’m a college student, and I can afford to spend almost six dollars a day on coffee.”

Customer: “That’s bulls***! You probably don’t make enough here to do that!”

Manager: “Sir, unless you’re going to buy something that hasn’t expired, I suggest you leave. I will not sell you expired product, and I will not allow you to speak to my employees like that.”

Customer: “I’m gonna report you to your corporate office for denying a customer’s request!”

Manager: “You do that.”

Apparently, that wasn’t the first time he had come into the store looking for expired food.

When I first got hired at [Sub Chain], I always heard complaints from the other employees bashing the owner of this particular one and calling her nasty names. I always thought that they were just exaggerating or being lazy because most of them were teens — despite being fresh out of high school myself.

About a year in, I realized they weren’t wrong when I was made to work with them. This is the thing that finally broke it for me and made me quit.

I only hear the manager’s half of the phone conversation. Her father was in the hospital prior to this for other health conditions and has had heart attacks before.

Manager: *Through tears* “I just found out my dad had another heart attack and he’s not doing well. They don’t think he’s going to make it. I’m leaving to go be with him. You need to find coverage or [My Name] will be here alone until twelve.”

Now she is angry, crying harder, and screaming into the phone.

Manager: “What?! No, I can’t ‘just finish my shift’! My father is in the hospital dying!”

The manager hangs up and leaves. After that, because the boss can’t find anyone to come in, she has to come in herself to “help” — all she does is ring out customers — and this is what she says.

Boss: “I can’t believe she just left like that! She’ll be lucky if I don’t fire her for walking out!”

Me: “Um… her dad is in the hospital; he could be dying. You seriously expect her to stay at work for what could be the last time she can see or even talk to her father?”

Boss: “I don’t care. She has a job to do. She should have finished her shift before going to see him. It would only have been six hours.”

I take off my gloves and start heading for the door because I seriously can’t work for someone THAT heartless.

Boss: “Where are you going?”

Me: “I’m leaving, you’re a heartless f****** c***.”

Boss: “How dare you talk to me like that?! I’m your boss!

Me: “No, you’re just a b****. I quit. Look in the mirror and you’ll see why all your stores are short-staffed.”

After a while, I did go back to that shop for some food and to see some of the coworkers I liked. I found out that the manager also quit, and the boss didn’t tell anyone else why she was there alone that day apart from “they both walked out.” My old coworkers were appalled to hear why we both walked that day.

It’s been a pretty busy night, and because our times are so high, my manager tells me to serve the orders off screen as soon as I have them memorized, rather than when they’re ready. I see a medium coffee on screen and serve it off.

Due to a promotion, we have been selling iced coffee almost every order. I just hand out the next order and go to make it, assuming it’s iced. The order taker in the back is also notorious for getting orders consistently wrong and I’m having a visibly bad day, but I try to smile and be as accommodating as I can.

There is a loud car honking and then a knock at the window.

Me: “Is there something wrong?”

Customer: “Is that my coffee?”

Me: “Yes, is there something the matter? Too little milk?”

Customer: “I asked for a hot coffee. Not Iced.”

I can’t confirm it without going to the back, and since people have been disgruntled over the rise of price in medium and large hot coffee, I ask for the receipt just to confirm orders didn’t get mixed around.

Me: “Could I just see your receipt really quick? She may have rung it in as an iced and I just want to check to ma—”

Customer: *Abrupt and angry* “Look, I just paid the girl in the back $1.50 for a hot coffee, not an iced! I don’t need to show you my receipt! Now make my coffee!”

Me: “Sure.”

It turns out we don’t have enough hot coffee for a medium.

Me: “I’m sorry, it turns out we are out of hot at the moment. I can make this iced coffee just like the hot you wanted and refund you the difference?”

Customer: “What do you mean?! No, I’m not going to wait. Just give me my money back. How the h*** don’t you have any coffee?”

I go get the manager for the refund and get the next order. Now the manager is angry that the customer took her name and that I didn’t keep up on coffee. About ten minutes later, we get a call from the same customer.

Manager: “That was the lady who wanted the coffee. She said you were really rude to her, the line took too long, and you made it wrong and asked to see her receipt? She wants to file a complaint against you.”

Me: “That lady was ruder to me, honking her horn and knocking on the window like she deserved all the attention of the store. And if making sure she didn’t get over- or undercharged is rude, I guess I was. It took too long because it’s busy and she needed to argue with me over a simple request thinking she was the queen of being right.”

Manager: “Calm down. I’m sure she just exaggerated some parts, and I’m sure you were wrong to her.”

I got defensive and started to argue since I was tired, hungry, and irritated from a bad day. I ended up going on break early to calm down. I got back and laughed at it because if she hadn’t argued, she probably would have gotten free iced coffee or pies for the inconvenience.

I am seventeen, living away from home during high school. I contract the flu, so I go to the pharmacy and they prescribe me Tamiflu.

Because I am out of state, my insurance doesn’t cover it. The woman behind the counter says it will cost $100. I am already emotional because I am sick and away from home. I know my mom would pay for the medication, but it would be tight. I start crying by the counter.

The lady who filled my prescription hands me tissues and says she is sorry, but she can’t do anything about the cost. I fill the prescription and sit down in the waiting area.

A couple of minutes later, the woman comes over to me and says, “I went looking in our database, and I found a coupon for your medication. It will only cost you $40.”

I will never forget her kindness in my time of need.

This story was included in our May 2020 Inspirational Roundup.

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