I take my daughter to one of the shops where you stuff a bear and buy clothes for it. We are looking at the options when a man pushes past us, luckily missing my daughter. I ignore him and continue helping her pick the empty bear. We stand in line and wait for the stuffing machine when I notice something odd. The man from earlier is stood in the line without a child.

The line moves along slowly. The woman on the stuffing machine eyes the man carefully and goes into her routine about the special hearts, etc., and asks if he wants to help push the button, as she would with the children.

He declines and awkwardly stands there as she goes onto her spiel about the “birth certificate.” This whole process takes a while and the man gets more agitated as it happens.

Store Associate: “Would you like to make a wish?”

Man: “Look. It’s a gift, okay? I just want this done.”

Store Associate: “Not a problem. Your bear is all done. In future, you can pick from any one of the premade bears if you like.”

Right next to the empty ones were premade bears of every type. Perhaps if he wasn’t in such a rush he would have noticed them!

I work in a small, locally-owned toy shop in a little college town; however, we have a lot of down-to-earth people and families.

A couple comes in with three kids and immediately the kids go crazy, wanting to show their parents every single toy in the store.

It’s a small store but it’s broken into three distinct sections, rooms connected by walkways. We have a card rack next to the cash wrap that has all sorts of cards.

As the wife is being dragged by her kids around the store, the husband comes up to me.

Husband: *Quietly* “Don’t let my wife see; we are big Star Wars fans.”

And he slides me a card with Chewbacca on it that says, “You’re my chew love,” and cash to pay for it. I quietly make small talk with him about the weather and ring him up. I finish just in time as his wife and kids walk around and then grab their dad to go beg and ask for toys.

I’m chatting with the mom and she sees a card on the card rack.

Wife: “This would be perfect for [Husband], but don’t let him see this.”

She slid me cash, finished the transaction, and winked. It was the exact same card.

They finished their shopping, purchased a few toys for their three kids, and walked out, both chuckling to themselves about how clever they were.

This story is part of our Best Of February 2021 roundup!

Read the next Best Of February 2021 roundup story!

Read the Best Of February 2021 roundup!

I work in a children’s toy store that specializes in stuffed animals. I am checking out a guest after having had nothing but a polite and fun interaction with them.

Me: “All right, it’s just gonna prompt for a donation on the PIN pad first!”

Guest: “What does it go to?”

I launch into my well-rehearsed speech about our current campaign.

Me: “[Foundation] donates to—”

Guest: *Interrupting* “Because if it’s going to any abortion clinics, I don’t want to donate.”

I’m temporarily caught off-guard by this. Again, I work in a children’s store. There are at least four HUGE children’s charity groups I can think of right now that I would like to assume come to mind first. I have also not had any problems with the guest leading up to this to indicate this might be a problem.

I am sputtering and trying not to agree with them, while also not making any statements on behalf of [Store].

Me: “Well, they donate through [list of well-known charity groups], as well as local charities. They also donate upwards of [amount of product] each year—”

Guest: “I just don’t want my money going to anything like that. You never know these days.”

They donated $3.

It’s Christmas Eve in a large, chain toy store. Usually, we have a price-match guarantee, but we don’t price-match on Christmas Eve or Black Friday. I am working at the customer service desk. An irate older woman customer approaches me.

Customer: “Excuse me, can you price-match [Major Retailer] on this doll?”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am we can’t price-match on Christmas Eve.”

Customer: “Well, it says you have a price-match guarantee.”

Me: “Yes, ma’am, but not on holidays.”

Customer: “Well, [Major Retailer] only has the black doll; I don’t want to get my granddaughter the black doll.”

She says this with such great scorn that I am flabbergasted.

Me: “Let me get my manager.”

Manager: “Is there a problem?”

Customer: “I need to price-match this doll.”

Manager: “I’m sorry I can’t price-match on Christmas Eve.”

Customer: “Well, I never!”

She storms out.

Manager: “What a b****.”

It’s around the holiday season, and my regional manager and I are standing near the back of the store talking about some plans for the store. We happen to be near a display of Star Wars toys, and I notice a plastic lightsaber that’s new. They are the type that when you flick it, the coloured plastic shoots out to turn the lightsaber “on.” I grab one off the shelf to try it out, but nothing happens. It’s a blue lightsaber, meant for a Jedi.

Regional Manager: “Let me try.”

It works with one swing.

Me: “I’ve always leaned more toward the dark side anyway.”

I took one of the red lightsabers off the hook and tried it out. It worked perfectly. I tried the blue lightsaber again later. It still didn’t work for me.

This story is part of the Star Wars Day: May The Fourth roundup!

Read the next Star Wars Day: May The Fourth roundup story!

Read the Star Wars Day: May The Fourth roundup!