Those Blades From The Helicopter Parents Sure Do Blow Away Smoke!

An angry older woman skips the line to storm up to me at the customer service desk and demands the store manager. I call him over while I serve the customers actually patient enough to wait their turn. The manager arrives and introduces himself.

Customer: “I should call the police on you! I caught my son with cigarettes, and he said he got them here! You should all be ashamed!”

Manager: “I’m very sorry, madam. We always ID for tobacco purchases, so I can’t explain why that happened. Maybe he was carrying a fake ID?” 

Customer: “And now you’re accusing him of having counterfeit documents?! I am reporting you to the Better Business Bureau and complaining on your Facebook page!”

Manager: “Do you know when he made the purchase? We can check the camera footage and see if we can figure out what happened.” 

She gives us a short window when her son was here this morning, and from the terminal at the customer service desk, [Manager] is able to isolate the purchase.

Customer: “That’s him! See?! You just sold him the cigarettes without any issue!” 

Manager: “Ma’am… first of all, we can all see that he clearly presented ID, but second of all, if that is your son, then he’s an adult.”

Customer: “He is an adult when I say he is!”

Manager: “How old is he?”

Customer: “That’s not the point! The point is that you sold them to him, and you didn’t even get my permission! I do not allow him to smoke!”

Manager: “Ma’am, if he’s over twenty-one, which he clearly looks to be based on the video, then he doesn’t need your permission to buy cigarettes — or anything for that matter. He’s an adult, and we have done nothing that the Better Business Bureau can do anything about.”

Customer: “Then I am still going to blast you for this all over your Facebook page! I’m going to complain on every post! You need to do something to make sure this doesn’t happen again!” 

Manager: “[My Name], can you go get some popcorn from the snack aisle, please?”

Customer: “What?! Why? I’m not asking for popcorn!”

Manager: “Oh, no, it’s not for you; it’s for us. If you’re going to go on to [Store]’s Facebook page to complain that we should have called you for permission to sell cigarettes to your twenty-one-or-over-year-old son, then those comments are going to be very entertaining.” *To me* “[My Name], get the family size. I have a feeling I’m going to be reading them for a while…”