I had finished grocery shopping and was about to wheel my full cart into a checkout aisle when I saw the cashier, who was ringing up a customer, look at me and roll her eyes. There was nobody behind her customer, so I figured that she was closing after she was finished with him.
I said, “Is this aisle closed?”
She rolled her eyes again and said, very loudly, “Does it look closed? Don’t you see me ringing up this customer? Isn’t it obvious that I’m open? What makes you think I’m closed? Can’t you—”
At this point, I removed my cart from her aisle, smiled, and responded loudly and overly-sweetly, “Oh-kay, thank you” over her continuing harangue. I took my cart over to the next aisle and didn’t look over at her, for fear of inciting a riot.
When it was my turn to check out, my cashier said to me, “You’re my last customer. Please tell anyone who gets in line behind you that I’m closed.” She rang up my purchases and during the process, a man wheeled his cart in behind me and asked, “Are you closed?”
My cashier smiled at him and said, “Yes.” He then went off to find another cashier. Then she looked at me and said, “I heard what happened. I’m sorry about that.”
I thanked her and then wondered if she only closed her aisle to make me feel better. I hope the cashier next to her learned something about customer service. Probably not.
Patsy Porco's Blog: Free and Worth It! 