This Is Soda-Pressing, Part 3

I’m a cashier for a regional store chain. We fundraise for charities several times a year, and we are required to ask the customer at the end of the transaction if they would like to donate. If we don’t ask, then the customer gets the two-liter soda that’s at our register.

I start scanning the customer’s items: she has two separate transactions, with the last one being WIC (government assistance).

Customer: *Extremely persistent* “You never asked me to donate, so I get this soda.”

Me: “We aren’t required to ask until the end of the transaction, ma’am.”

Customer: “Well, you never asked!”

Me: “Ma’am, I’m not done with your transaction. I will ask you then so that it doesn’t interfere with my scanning.”

I finish scanning the items in the first transaction. I speak sort of passively due to irritation.

Me: “Would you like to donate a dollar toward [Charity]?”

Customer: “Oh, no, thank you.”

It irritates me that she doesn’t bother to donate after creating a fuss about not getting the soda. But she has a plan.

I start with her next order. She starts telling me how she gets the soda since I didn’t ask, and I explain again how I don’t ask until the end. The WIC system messes up, so I call a manager over to fix it.

Customer: *To my manager* “She didn’t ask about the donation, so I get this soda.”

Manager: “Ma’am, she hasn’t finished the transaction.”

Customer: “But she never asked! So I’m supposed to get the soda!”

My manager finishes processing the WIC.

Manager: “Fine, you can take it. It isn’t very good anyway.”

We gave her the soda, and the lady walked out with a disgustingly smug look. My manager was just as ticked off as I was, and she told me not to worry about it since she knew it wasn’t my fault.

Related:
This Is Soda-Pressing, Part 2
This Is Soda-Pressing