We’re Experiencing Secondhand Exhaustion

I work at a secondhand store. We offer folks a discount based on how often they show up. They can even sell things to us for some spending money.

I have dealt with this customer before. He was generally pleasant on my first encounter with him, yet I know of horror stories from my girlfriend (who also works here) and the rest of the staff.

The customer comes up to the register after having sold some things to us, and he also has things to purchase.

Customer: “So, how would I go about finishing out this frequent shopper card today?”

He holds up a card with two spots missing to get a discount on his whole purchase. It normally isn’t an issue to help folks along if they’re really chill with us or are spending a lot of money as is.

Me: “Well, sir, it’s usually one stamp per customer per visit, but we can see what we might be able to do here.”

He doesn’t give me his payout slip to scan. He gives me two books to scan and kind of has a grin on his face.

Customer: “So, it’s ‘usually’ just the one stamp per visit? What if I do it in multiple transactions?”

Me: “As I said, it’s typically one stamp per visit. However, let me see how much we have here.”

It’s a minimum of $20 for a transaction to receive a stamp.

I ring up his first items and they total out to $19.06. I notify him that we have not yet cleared that threshold.

Me: “All right, sir. We’re not quite there yet. Would you like me to scan one of these other things in to get us where we need to be on the first transaction?”

Customer: “Well, hold on. What do you mean?”

Me: “Sir, this total is ninety-four cents short of receiving a stamp. If we were to add in one of these other items, I could give you a stamp, and then I can give you your final stamp to apply the discount on the next transaction.”

He proceeds to produce a $1 bill and place it with his first two things.

Customer: “All right, that should get us to $20.”

This is where things start to really take a turn for the bizarre.

Me: “I would still need to scan something else to get us over the threshold, and I would need a source of payment to pay for the rest of the total.”

[Customer] still insists on pointing out the $1 bill as being what gets him over $20. I explain that he isn’t buying a $1 bill from me and that I still need to know how he’s going to finish the transaction.

We go on like this for almost two minutes until I decide it may be best to just call our manager up.

[Manager] is always amazing at what he does, and therefore, I know I can at least get out from under this mess and growing line. (Thankfully, I am the second of two cashiers here right now.)

As soon as [Manager] gets to the register, [Customer] decides to switch his approach. [Manager] requests that I void out his two other items and do his payout. Easy. That gets done. Then, we get back to the $19.06 dilemma. [Manager] gives me the okay to stamp the card for his transaction, which [Customer] pays for with his credit card.

Then, he places three more items onto the counter for his second transaction, which all total over $20.

Customer: “All right, so what about a second stamp?”

Manager: “Sorry, sir. It is one stamp per customer per visit.”

Customer: “So, I wouldn’t be able to get this finished out and apply the discount today?”

Manager: “I can give you a second card, but we won’t be able to finish that one.”

[Customer] proceeded to pay for his second transaction with his credit card and produced a third stack of four items that totalled $42 and likewise paid with his card

[Manager] ended up giving him a coupon to use on a later visit as a peace offering for any confusion. [Customer] thanked us both for our patience, and I got to escape from the register for a while.

My girlfriend thinks he might have been playing dumb to get one over on us. However, this guy always comes across as that kind of dude that wants you to do things his way. Even when he sells stuff, we can never seek him out. He always tells us to let him browse and he’ll come to find us when he’s ready. The way I describe him there makes him sound like some mastermind, but really, he comes across as out of touch.