You Cart Make This Up

I work at a popular dollar store where the most consistent big spenders are the crafters and seasonal decorators.

Around the start of July, I come in for my shift at 12:30pm, and there’s a transaction already in place at my manager’s till. The strange thing is, she doesn’t just have one cart, doesn’t just have two (which does happen often enough), she has three carts, full to the brim with Fourth of July decorations, assorted party supplies, and some candies.

It doesn’t end there. After I clock in, my manager calls me over to help him scan her ridiculously large order to finally get it done with, so I’m pulling things off the cart and stacking them as best I can for him to get to them. The upside(?) is she doesn’t want anything bagged really, so I can set it straight-up in another cart we have for her already rung-up items and we don’t have to use so many plastic bags.

But she’s still shopping for more.

She’s grabbed another cart and is browsing the store AGAIN, and my manager is thoroughly concerned, but he’s not going to outright decline her service based on the chance she may not be able to pay.

He comments to me she seems a little loopy, and while I can’t make that judgment, she was quite insistent on ‘giving all her money out to people who need it’ while buying mostly party decorations, that she wanted our names and addresses so that after the transaction she could send us personalized gift baskets as thanks – we both declined.

After she noticed my nametag, made a comment about naming a child after me…? Imagine growing up to ask who you’re named after, and it’s a cashier just above minimum wage your parent saw one day.

We’re still scanning her next cart – luckily, the self-checkouts are adequate for most everyone else coming to checkout, and I can dart to my register when I need to. Her fourth cart is driven up to us, and she asks us where we put her stuff that is ‘paid for’ – meaning ‘rung up’, although we feel unease that she’s already calling this stuff paid for.

Eventually – a long eventually later – we’ve got everything rung up for her. My manager totals up the purchase. She tries her card.

It goes through! None of us have to go through the ordeal of restocking four carts’ worth of items that couldn’t be paid for!

Of course, that’s not the end. She has four carts’ worth of stuff, and it’s got to get to her car. And she says she doesn’t do well in the heat, so she asks if one of us can help her load her car.

My manager volunteers, but after she goes out to her car to open it up, she comes back in… asking if we’ve seen her car keys, because she’s lost them.

So we thoroughly check all the checkouts, counters, displays near checkout, cart she was nearby while waiting – nothing. We continue looking over it again, even checking behind the counters in case it slipped over. They’re nowhere to be seen inside our store.

So the woman tells us she’s got a plan – call her friend to pick her up and take her home, grab her spare car keys, and come back to take everything home. We have enough free space at the time to hold four carts, and she did already pay for it, so we hold it for her.

She keeps walking out front, coming back in for a bit, walking out to see if her friend is there yet, coming back in… she looks a little worse each time coming back in, because she REALLY doesn’t do well in the heat. She looks bad enough after a bit my manager fetches her a chair from our office and a free bottle of water to stay hydrated, and she’s sitting by the front waiting.

Finally – her friend is here! She gets up and heads out, and all we’re waiting for is her to get back and pack up her stuff.

…And forgets to take her water bottle, in addition to a half-drunk strawberry milk she’d been sipping. We toss the milk – we’ll happily replace it with one that isn’t spoiled – and hold the water.

After a bit more waiting, she’s back – with her keys! My manager helps pack her car as he offered before, and she comes back in to sit in the cold after a bit, and she’s finally all set to do with her order (and we don’t have to hold four carts of stuff for her anymore).

And after she left, my manager reprinted her receipt just as proof it actually happened. It was taller than I am – a few inches shy of 6 feet – and well over $700. None of the items she bought were over $1.50.