This Manager’s Spine Is So SHINAYYY

I work at a gift shop in a major theme park. An older lady came to my register, and everything was fine. I scanned everything for her order and gave her the total. One of her purchases was the dress of a famous Disney character (Moana).

Then, at the moment when I ducked down behind the counter to grab a bag from the drawer, she blew up on me!

Customer: *Screaming* “You’re going to grab my dress, throw it on the floor, and step on it to ruin it on purpose!”

Me: “No, I’m just grabbing a bag to put your purchase in.”

Customer: “I don’t want it in a bag; the dress will get wrinkled!”

Me: “Would you like a T-shirt box instead? We could fold it nicely and put it in one of those.”

Customer: “No, it won’t fit in my luggage to go home.”

Me: “Okay, do you want it wrapped in plastic? It’ll be nice and firm, and you can just take it like that.”

She got mad at me because, “I thought that you guys were eco-friendly people and loved animals!”, and she refused that suggestion, as well.

Then, I suggested another thing that we usually use to protect fragile stuff. It has two portions: one is white paper, and the other is like a carton but it’s cut in a fishnet-like pattern. I suggested that she could use that to wrap the dress like a treasure from the ocean. She denied that one, as well, for being ugly.

Me: “When do you need the dress?”

This was about a week before Halloween.

Customer: “The day after tomorrow!”

So, shipping wasn’t an option, either.

Me: “I can check to see if we have a brand-new one in its original packaging in the back.”

This set her off.

Customer: “Oh! Somehow you knew my granddaughter has asthma, didn’t you?! You’re going to give her an item that could have dust on it to hurt her or kill her!”

She went on a full tirade on me.

Luckily, my manager and supervisor were witnesses to the whole ordeal.

My supervisor intervened first and tried to calm the customer down. She went off about how “disrespectful, insulting, rude, etc.” I was and called me all kinds of names. My supervisor was trying to help, but to no avail as the lady was getting more and more aggressive.

Not even her husband, who was next to her the whole time, tried to calm her, though he had a look that said, “Why? Please stop.”

Then, my manager stepped in, and she was the BOSS with no mercy. She just grabbed a bag from another register, took the dress, shoved it into the bag, folded the top of the bag, and stapled it shut, along with the receipt. Then, she turned to the customer with a smile that said, “I’ll kill you.”

Manager: “Have a good day!”

The lady got mad and was about to blow up on [Manager], but she shut the lady down, keeping the smile on her face.

Manager: “Leave now, or security will be called.”

After that, the lady just grabbed her stuff and ran with her tired, defeated husband following behind, and I was told to get a break to calm down and recover from this incident.