This Mom Is All Bark And No Byte

(I’m working in the electronic department when I overhear a woman saying, “You can get whatever you want, since we just sold our house!” near the game case. She comes over to me a moment later asking for help.)

Customer: “We would like the [Game Console], the 500 GB one. Wait. Is that a 1 TB?”

Me: “Yep, and it comes with the same game! You get a lot more space with the 1 TB.”

Son: *to mother* “I want the 500 GB one!”

Customer: “No, you’re going to get the 1 TB one. You can get the higher-quality one! It’s fine!”

Me: *unlocks the doors and grabs the console* “Would you like any other games at all today?”

Customer: *to son* “What headset did you want?!”

Son: *pointing at a cheaper one* “This one!”

Customer: “No! You’ll get the more expensive one! I told you we sold the house! You can get what you want!”

Son: “Yeah, I want this one!”

Customer: “NO! You’ll get that one.” *pointing to a headset that is $10 more underneath the one her son wants*

Customer: *to me* “Get him that one!”

(I unlock the headset for her, and as I’m about to hand the headset to her son…)

Customer: *to son* “No, have her put everything in the cart and push it for us!”

Son: “What?!”

Customer: “You heard me! Have her put everything in our cart, and she can push it for us!”

Husband: *who was off in another aisle* “Wait? What are you making her do?!”

Customer: “I’m making her push the cart for us!”

Husband: “Uh… No?” *to me* “We’d also like to get a three-month online card for it.”

Customer: *to me* “And push the cart, too!”

(I put the items in the cart for her, move the cart a foot over to the next aisle, and grab an online card for them.)

Me: “Would you like to pay for this all back at our counter, or up front today?”

(If she takes it up front, I’ll have to walk the console up there.)

Customer: “Back here, obviously!”

(The husband pushes the cart to my counter, which is really only a few steps away. I’m ringing up items when the protection program window pops up; it’ll do it for each item. They are in the middle of a conversation, so I don’t want to interrupt.)

Me: “Sorry… Would you like the extended protection plan on any of your items today?”

(I am ignored.)

Me: “I’m sorry.”

(The woman stops and glares at me.)

Me: “Would you like the extended protection plan on any of your items today?”

Customer: “NO!”

(I finish ringing and bagging her items — minus the console and TV because they don’t fit — and she inserts her card. It’s waiting for her to sign, but she’s busy talking to her family so she doesn’t see it.)

Me: “I’m sorry, looks like it needs a signature to process your card.”

Customer: “Ugh.” *signs*

Me: “All righty, thank you. Have a good rest of your—”

Customer: *to husband* “She needs to put a paid sticker on [Console]!”

Me: “I’m sorry, we don’t have paid stickers.” *the consoles don’t fit in our regular bags* “If you’d like, I could put it in our larger bags that we used for Christmas… Let me see if I still have some… Oh, I do!”

Customer: “Whatever.”

Me: *bags it up* “Thank you and have a wonderful day!”

(I was ignored. Again.)