nemo2342

Well, now that the funny update is out of the way, it's time for today's "Aren't you glad you don't work in retail?" story:

Tonight around 6:45pm or so (15 minutes before I got off) I was at the customer service desk, having just helped a couple of customers (one brought back some bad meat, and the other wanted to redeem his CoinStar voucher), when a man came up with a shopping cart containing a couple of items. I figured that the man thought I was checking people out at the desk (which I refuse to do), so fearing the worst I smiled and asked him how I could help him. He thrust a pack of cigarettes at me and told me that he wanted me to bring him a carton of that particular brand. Still smiling, I asked the man which line he would like me to bring them to, and he informed me that if I didn't have the cigarettes this time that he was just going to "leave this shit here and never shop at [my] store again".

So I went and looked for the brand he wanted, even though I pretty much knew we didn't have that kind in stock. I was, unfortunately, right, and the only thing I could do was return and apologize to the man that all I had left was a single pack of that particular brand. He snarled at me that one pack wasn't good enough, and roughly shoved his shopping cart at me as he started to storm out.

I was kind of expecting him to do something stupid like that (I mean, it only takes so many hints before I figure something bad's going to happen), so I was able to step out of the way and catch the cart before it knocked over anything. I then turned to the man, raised my voice, and said "I hope you have a nice day, sir!" to which he replied "Well, I hope you don't!". I have to admit, that was a first for me. Normally the customers just ignore you when they want to be assholes. However, I managed to quickly recover my mental balance and shouted (just before the guy could leave the store) "I'm sorry you feel that way sir!".

At no point did I punch the man repeatedly in the face, like I wanted to do.

However, there is a bit of karmic justice in the world. I found out (after the man had left, of course), that the cigarettes the man had wanted were sitting in the back of the store, as they had just been unloaded from the grocery truck. If he had been a little bit nicer, and not in such a hurry to make a scene, I might have remembered to check there for him. But I guess that's his loss, now isn't it? ;)

You know what the best part of this story is? This particular jerk happens to be the father of one of the cashiers (and sadly that poor girl was working tonight on the register that was closest to the customer service desk). I must resist the urge to use her personal information for revenge (besides, I think the guy is too old for me to sign him up for the Army anyway).