To Top It All Off, She’s Angry With You

(I work in a self-serve ice cream store. The machines and toppings are all out front so customers can help themselves without our assistance. Your price is determined by the weight of what is in your bowl, not by separate ingredients. One of our most popular toppings are huge hazelnut pirouline sticks. This is a story told to me by my manager and my assistant manager. My assistant manager has just finished serving a mother and her two daughters, who look to be about seven and ten. She waits to see that they are seated and do not need anything else and then goes to the back to cut up strawberries. No sooner than five seconds after she gets back there, my manager comes bolting out of the office, yelling:)

Manager: “They’re stealing toppings! They’re stealing toppings!”

(My assistant manager follows her out to the front, where they are greeted by the girls standing right near the jar of hazelnut sticks. They are each clutching one. Their mom is busy texting.)

Manager: “Girls, stealing is very wrong.”

(The girls say nothing but move to put the sticks back.)

Manager: “No, you can’t put them back now because you touched them, but don’t let me catch you stealing again, okay?”

(The girls stay silent, but the mother comes over.)

Mom: “What’s going on?”

Manager: “Well, we just caught your daughters stealing toppings from us.”

Mom: “Oh? Well, I can pay you back for the toppings. How much?”

Manager: “Oh, you don’t need to; they literally would’ve only added a penny or two to your purchase. Please don’t let it happen again, though.”

Mom: “No. I insist.”

(She took two dollar bills out of her purse and literally threw them into the now-stunned face of my manager, and then she stormed back to her table. My manager stood still for a moment and then put both dollars into the tip jar and headed back to their office. Later, as the family was leaving, my assistant manager heard the mom say, “We are NEVER coming back here again!” At first, she thought she was saying this to the children as a punishment, but then she realized that the lady was saying it to her, angry because we reprimanded her children for doing something wrong!)