The Complaints That Arose

I work in the floral department of a grocery chain. One night, I am closing and a woman comes to the counter carrying a handful of single, long-stemmed roses of different colors from our front cooler.

Customer: “How much are these?”

Me: “They’re $5 each.”

I don’t even get the chance to tell her the cheaper options before she goes off.

Customer: “Are they on special or anything? They’re not even that great looking. They weren’t even in water.”

I just went through and groomed them and gave them fresh cuts, and the large buckets they were in were half-full of fresh water. They are all separated by color.

Customer: *As she’s going to put them back* “They aren’t even good colors. They’re like, for Valentine’s Day!”

It was almost Christmas, but those colors of roses were the most common colors, and people usually only buy them for everyday romantic occasions anyway.

Before closing, I went to the front cooler where I could see drops of water forming a small puddle on the floor in front of the roses, and all the different colors she had picked out were put back with purple roses.