(I work as a grocery clerk for a supermarket near Seattle. I am walking down an aisle while pushing several shopping carts back up to the front of the store. There is an elderly woman standing in the middle of the aisle with her own cart, and there isn’t enough room for me to squeeze past her unless she moves forward three feet, to a wider spot in the aisle.)

Me: “Hi. Would it be possible for you to move your cart a little bit, so that I can fit by? Just to the wide spot would be awesome.”

(The customer stares at me for a moment, frowns, and steps into the wide spot with her cart.)

Me: *smiling* “Oh, thank you! That’s perfect!”

(I start to walk by her with the carts, but before I am completely past her, she speaks.)

Customer: “I think you should move for the customer.”

Me: *startled* “Huh?”

Customer: “I’m the customer. You should move for me. Not the other way around. I shouldn’t have to move for you.”

Me: *turns to look at her* “But I couldn’t go around you if you didn’t move your cart.”

Customer: “Exactly. You should have gone down a different aisle as soon as you saw me! It was extremely rude of you to come down here, and you need to learn some manners!” *glares*

Me: “Sorry?”

Customer: “Hmph! So rude!” *turns away*

(Perplexed, I hurried up front to the cash registers, where I described the incident to one of the cashiers. About then, the customer appeared at the checkstand, still glowering at me. Fortunately, my shift was over, so I walked away and punched out without having to serve her.)

(I have just moved more than halfway across the continent for a temporary job. No matter what, I will be leaving this city after two months. Because I am so far from home, there are no locations of the regional grocery store I typically use, so I have gone to a local chain. I am checking out.)

Cashier: “Do you have a rewards card?”

Me: “No.”

Cashier: “Would you like to sign up for one?”

Me: “No, thank you, not today.”

Cashier: *forcefully* “And why not?”

Me: “I just don’t usually shop here.”

Cashier: *indignant* “Well, where do you shop?”

Me: “Um… in Kentucky?”

(I went to this store several times during my stay, and the cashier always seemed upset that I wasn’t a member.)

(I work in a call center for a clothing store. A customer calls and gives me a very long-winded description of how we made an error on her previous order and reshipped it and included a prepaid return label to send the error back. When her elderly husband went to the post office to return the item, he forgot the label, and instead of returning home to get the UPS label we sent and returning it to the correct shipping company, he just paid $20. Now she wants us to refund that.)

Me: “Yes, um, no. We did everything we could to alleviate the error but the prepaid label should have been used.”

(We negotiate lower rates with some carriers and don’t pay for stupidity.)

Friday Morning: “Congratulations, you passed the phone interview. You start on Monday!”

Friday Afternoon: “No, wait, we want to have another phone interview on Monday, instead.”

Monday Morning: “Congrats, you passed the second phone interview. We want you for an in-person interview tomorrow. We’ll phone you by this afternoon with a time to come in tomorrow.”

Monday Afternoon: *nothing*

Tuesday: *nothing*

Wednesday Morning: “Hi, can you come in for an in-person interview in two hours?”

Wednesday Noon: “Congratulations, you passed the in-person interview. You start tomorrow.”

Wednesday Afternoon: “Sorry, we caught up on our backlog of work and don’t need you anymore. But if we do need you, would you be willing to be on call?”

(I’m checking out an elderly man.)

Me: “Now, what’s your bag preference?”

Customer: “I have no preferences; just give me paper!”