There’s Just No Ap-peas-ing Some People

I was in the army reserves and worked as a cashier at a big chain retail store. I got deployed, came back, and got my old job back as a cashier.

The store was having a special on canned peas — three cents a can. I think they were trying to get rid of overstock. A woman came to my register. She had two carts full to overflowing with canned peas.

Me: “If you know how many you have, you don’t need to unload all of them.”

She just huffed at me and proceeded to put hundreds of cans in the belt.

Customer: “I want them all bagged.”

They were in those flat cardboard boxes, so I bagged them all. About three-quarters through ringing them up, she glanced at the screen with the price. She proceeded to scream at me:

Customer: “The sign said two cents a can!”

Normally, I would just change the price. But since she had made me scan each one and I would have to go back and recount and change each one individually, I called the department to confirm that they were, in fact, two cents. No, I was informed that the sign said three cents. Keep in mind, she had like 200 cans, so it was only about $2 more than she had thought, and the cans were normally around fifty cents.

Me: “Ma’am, the sign says they’re three cents.”

She started throwing a hissy fit. Other customers were staring at her in disbelief.

After a little bit of this and going back and forth and her calling me names, she picked up a can of peas and threw them at me. She missed and almost hit another customer in line behind me. She then picked up another can and threw it again. I was prepared this time and caught it, which pissed her off more.

Remember, I had just gotten back from a combat deployment. I saw red and thought about jumping over the counter at her, but I didn’t; instead, I just walked off my register. A manager had heard the commotion and took over.

I sat in the break room for a minute to get control of myself. Another manager walked in and berated me for walking off my register. At that point, I threw down my name tag, flipped off the manager, left the store, and didn’t come back. I joined the active army shortly after.