'One day, I had a belligerent customer come in': Teenage cashier gets back at impolite retail customer

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 19, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

Some people have never considered that they can go for a shopping trip without bothering the employees. It's never crossed their mind that they could go grocery shopping without telling a teenage employee that the fruit "was better last week." This is the person who whines to a clothing store employee that the "fabric seems cheap". Some customers get a thrill out of whining about unimportant, and sometimes unsolvable, first-world problems. 

Other customers take aim not at the store's products, but at the employees. They think they're better than the poor teenagers working summer jobs, and they're thrilled to tell them this. That's a lot like what happened to u/skullsquarecompasses when they were 16 years old. As an employee at their uncle's clothing store/tailor shop, they had a surprising amount of power. But that didn't stop the store's impolite customers from battering them with insults. It's all part of that evergreen lesson: you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. It's not always easy to be kind, but it almost always pays off. 

Then, read about the forgetful folks who made up the words on the tip of their tongue, like one person who "couldn't remember groomsman, went with dudesmaids instead."

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 9911384832
    via Burgess Milner on Unsplash
  • 02
    Never be ri de to people in small retail shops. Medium When I was 16, I worked for my uncle. He was a tailor, but also had a clothes store next door to his main shop. He let me run the clothes store, which basically involved keeping it clean, serving customers and displaying stock. He ran the business side of it, I was paid to essentially sit there all day. It was a pretty quiet store in a quiet area so it was a pretty
    via u/skullsquarecompasses
  • 03
    cruisy job, great for school holidays. Whenever we got new stock in, I would have to put the price tags on myself. Most of the clothes we sold were men's office work wear - suits, shirts, trousers and the like. Average price for a suit was around $150-$200. One day, I had a belligerent customer come in. He saw that I was quite young, so he took to bullying me around. He would swear and act very impatient,
    via u/skullsquarecompasses
  • 04
    and would call me slow and stupid. I'd dealt with customers before, but this guy was far too much. To the best of my knowledge, I hadn't done anything wrong. He may have been having a bad day, but to me that doesn't excuse the insults. He had come in quite early; usually we opened at 9, but didn't get any customers until much later. It was rare to get any customers before 11. That morning I had gotten a load of new stock in, and hadn't finished
    via u/skullsquarecompasses
  • 05
    putting on the price tags as it was a huge amount of new stock in. So, because of his r deness, I decided that i would charge him much, much more. Either he would decide it was too expensive, or we would make a lot more money. He selected three suits, and I told him they were $500 for the first two, with the third being $700. They were actually around $200. We haggled a bit and I sold them for around $350 for this first two,
    via u/skullsquarecompasses
  • 06
    and $600 for the third. He was quite happy with what he saw as a major victory. I was quite happy I made an extra $700. I told my uncle what happened, and he let me keep a percentage of the money as a bonus. My uncle knew that particular customer and had had issues with him before. Perhaps it wasn't the morally correct thing to do, but it serves to show you shouldn't be r de.
    via u/skullsquarecompasses
  • 07
    Tl;dr guy is r de to retail worker - who sets the prices in the shop, ends up getting ripped off a few hundred dollars.
    via u/skullsquarecompasses
  • 08
    meri_bassai Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them.
    via u/meri_bassai
  • 09
    CatTaxAuditor He wanted an expensive suit to feel good about himself. You gave him what he wanted really. Anything cheaper and he wouldn't get to feel like Mr. Big Shot.
    via u/CatTaxAuditor
  • 10
    Mr-E-Droflah That amazing at 16 you saw the potential to make money from a customer like that. In our store there are still team members unable to make quick decisions and would more so come to me to vent about an awkward customer. I would use this example if you ever pursue sales in any employment you come across!
    via u/Mr-E-Droflah
  • 11
    velocibadgery Perhaps it wasn't the morally correct thing to do, but it serves to show you shouldn't be There wasn't anything morally wrong with what you did. You were simply charging him for your aggravation.
    via u/velocibadgery
  • 12
    keysgone I run a small locksmith shop. One Friday, about a year after I opened the business, both of my employees were out with the flu and I had to pick up my son early from school, as he was also running a fever. I just shut down the shop, and forwarded the phone to my cell so I could stay home with him and schedule work for
    via u/keysgone
  • 13
    the following week. This wonderful gentleman called and needed some work done immediately. I said that I was sorry, but it would be Monday before I could schedule the call. I then made the mistake of explaining that all of my employees were out, and I was staying home with my sick son.
    via u/keysgone
  • 14
    He said "You need to get someone to take care of that kid, and come take care of my problem." I just hung up the phone. Now, this is a small town and I knew the guy by reputation. I resolved that we would never do work for him at all. So for the next year we were "too busy" every time he or one of his businesses would call. Then one
    via u/keysgone
  • 15
    day a woman calls asking if I would mind giving her a quote for some work she needed done. I agreed to do so, and jotted down the address, only later realizing that it was the one of this guys companies. Since I agreed to show up, I did, and took a look at the project. I quoted a price three times my normal rate, which frankly made the
    via u/keysgone
  • 16
    work stupidly expensive. I mean on the order of $1500 as opposed to $500. She called the owner, and then told me to go ahead and do it. I was quite shocked and kind of trapped in the situation. I never thought he would agree to it. So I did the job, collected my money and left.
    via u/keysgone
  • 17
    In the 10 years since, I have probably made tens of thousands of dollars off of this guy, rarely dealing with him directly and always at inflated rates. I later learned that none of my competition will work with him at all. They made the mistake of extending him credit and got stiffed for fairly small sums of money, but enough to get him blacklisted.
    via u/keysgone
  • 18
    scruit Morality and commerce and two VERY different things. For better or for worse, don't confuse them. You asked for a price, you haggled, you got a price that you asked agreed upon. All above-board.
    via u/scruit

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cash register talesfromretail retail shopping retail worker coworkers working cashier workplace tales-from-retail shoppers
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