Twisted Tales From Two Customers

   I've not been feeling so swift lately, which is not too unusual in and of itself. I have a daughter in public school, a sister who teaches daycare, and a mom who's a nurse. Germ city at my house; I always seem to have something brewing.
   I went to work though, because face it, as yucky as I feel, I just haven't been sick enough to call out from work. Especially since my work is super-strict about call-outs. That seems to be what most people get fired over, calling out to often. So I sucked it up and went to work. Well, this past week, two customers have stood out in my mind. One customer was mine, and one went through a coworker's line. Both were kinda ridiculous, although I believe my coworker's story blows mine right out of the water. So I'll start with hers.

Prayers To The East

   My coworker was working her line when her customer asked her which way east was. Now, she's a bit like me in the fact that she can't tell you what way east is. I can't. I mean, if we had compasses we could, but our work is checking. There isn't a lot of need for knowing which way east is in the checking business. So when the customer got angry and demanded to know which way was east is because this customer apparently needed to know so that they could face that way for their prayers, my coworker was really nice and started calling around to find someone who could tell what way east was. I would have just shrugged and said that I was sorry, so I am taking the time to point out that this was really nice of her. 

   I believe the person at customer service was able to point her east, but when she relayed this information to her customer, her customer was not thankful. My coworker did not get gratitude for going out of her way and out of her job description to help this customer face east for their prayers. What she got was rudeness.

   "I knew which way east was," the customer said, "I just wanted to show you Americans that you don't know everything, like you think you do." And then the customer went to the end of the isle and knelt down and prayed right there, in everybody's way. 

  

  I was going to let the rudeness of this story speak for itself, but I do think that I am going to have my say. This coworker is one of my favorite people to work with, and she didn't deserve to be treated like this. So I'm just going to say this: If I were traveling or looking to relocate, I would not go to a place that I so obviously hated. This is a big world. I can't think of any place that I hate so much where I would treat everyday, average citizens in this manner, but if I ever do find such a place, I won't go there. If, for some reason, I was forced to go there, well, I was raised to be polite regardless. Rude is rude, no matter what reason you think you have, and as I said, I don't believe that my friend deserved to be treated like this. 

Milky Apples

   I was checking, and not feeling too swift, as I have said, and I didn't notice anything amiss with the order. Usually I will notice if there is milk all over something, but I did miss this, and that's my bad. So when my customer was bagging his groceries (my store is a bag-your-own-groceries place) I was surprised when he exclaimed, "There is milk all over my apples!"

   Now, this is not as unusual as you might think. Milk cartons were not meant to be laid on the side, and they will leak out of the top when laying on the side. A lot of people don't know this, but any cashier does, because we are always having to clean up spilled milk. 

   I was already checking out another customer, but I stopped and I got paper towels to clean off the guy's apple bag and explained to him that this is what must have happened. But he didn't want to hear any of it. "There is nothing wrong with the milk container, it's dry." He says, brandishing the milk container in my face. Well, they do tend to be dry when they have leaked out of the top while laying sideways, so I said so, but still, he argued, "No, you must have done it while you were checking."

   Wait, what??? 

   "What do you mean?" I asked.

   "There is milk all inside the bag too, you had to have put it in there while you were checking."

   "I didn't pour milk into your apples," I said, and I am more bewildered than grumpy, because he was watching me the whole time, so I was trying to figure out when he thought I had poured this milk into his apple bag. There was a lot of milk in that bag, but you could tell that the milk had leaked out of the cartoon. You can see through those cartoons and it wasn't as full as it should be. He had to have had the milk laying on it's side on top of the apple bag, so that the milk could drip into the bag. 

   But I didn't argue; like a good little cashier, I offered to refund the money. 

   "No!" he yelled, "I guess you thought I just didn't need those apples!" And he stormed out, without taking the apples. I was a bit befuddled, and the person that I was currently checking out was laughing. 

    Because we checkers always pour milk into our customers' apple bags. It just makes sense.