Some people assume a uniform means authority, but you know what they say about assumptions.

One impatient shopper made this very mistake when she tried to strong-arm a UPS holiday helper into scanning her groceries.

But much to her dismay, he actually had more of a penchant for practical jokes that would teach her a valuable lesson about entitlement.

Read on for the full story!

She demanded that I, a delivery guy, check her groceries out, so I did… with my package scanner.

I was working as a holiday helper for UPS.

As a holiday helper, they had us wear cheap brown vests with a small company logo on them.

You’d think that would be enough, but apparently not.

The helper described his typical process.

Now, although we mainly drop packages off at people’s houses, we also went through a shopping plaza to drop off stuff at different stores.

We were dropping stuff off at Kroger when this happened.

The way it worked was I would take a cart loaded with packages into Kroger along with a DIAD, which was basically a scanner we used to log in packages and mark off deliveries.

Typically, the process is fairly routine.

So off I go into the store with a decent amount of packages stacked up on the trolley, where I roll them over to customer service.

Usually, there’s someone behind the desk when I come in, but sometimes the employee is out on the floor helping someone find something, like they were today.

But this time, he had some time to kill.

Standard practice for me is to unload all the boxes behind the counter and then just wait until an employee comes back to sign off on them.

So I unload all the boxes, stack them behind the counter, and then lean up against it to wait for someone to come by.

While I’m waiting, I casually take out my phone and begin browsing Reddit to pass the time.

That’s when the delivery started to take a turn.

Then I heard the “Ahem.”

I looked up to see some fifty-something-year-old lady scowling at me, with a cart packed to the brim with food.

This lady fit the typical bill of an entitled customer.

She had greying blonde hair done in that “I want to speak to your manager” style and was wearing a bright pink Nike top, blue leggings, and about two metric tons of attitude.

We stared at each other for a moment, and her expression soured with each passing moment like the milk that was undoubtedly curdling in her cart.

It was clear he was already on her last nerve.

Finally, she broke the awkward silence.

“Well?”

I shrugged. “Well what?”

She shoved her cart forward, almost bumping me with it. “Are you gonna keep ignoring me? Or are you gonna check me out?”

He’s stunned by 1) her entitlement 2) her lack of observation skills.

I looked at her, then down at my uniform, which consisted of a grey hoodie, black sweatpants, and my trademark brown vest.

Kroger employees wear black khakis, blue-collared shirts, and no brown vests.

I looked back up at her, trying to remain polite, and recited this sub’s anthem. “I don’t work here, lady. I’m just dropping off packages.”

But this answer just wouldn’t do.

The sour woman scoffed and jabbed a finger at my DIAD.

“Bull. You’re just too lazy to help me. Start scanning these,” she shoved the cart at me again, this time bumping my thigh, “or I’ll get your manager.”

He had some time to kill, so why not play along?

Now I could’ve taken the easy way out, told her to politely leave, and left, but then she took her phone to make a call and snapped her fingers at me, mouthing, “C’mon. I have to be somewhere.”

So I decided to help her out and began to unload her groceries, one by one, in the most tedious manner possible.

He made sure to make this process as painful as humanly possible!

I scanned each fruit, can, veggie, and box with the DIAD (which is normally used for recording people’s addresses).

Funnily enough, it didn’t know where the kiwi or the rotisserie chicken live, but it does make a satisfying little bleep when it rejects an address, which sounded quite similar to a product being scanned.

Taking every opportunity to draw things out, he made sure her patience was really starting to wear thin.

I kept doing this for about ten minutes, often “miss-scanning” something or inspecting it much to the woman’s annoyance.

From time to time I’d interrupt her phone call to ask her a ridiculous question, such as, “Would you like to add another grape to this bunch? There’s one in here with a brown spot.”

She would usually answer with a huffy “What?”, stare into space as she slowly worked through the question, and then shake her head sharply as she went back to her conversation.

Her rage rose higher and higher as he continued.

She reached her breaking point when I inquired as to whether or not she wanted her eggs bagged individually or all together.

“What? Why the heck would you-? WHAT?” she demanded shrilly.

I stood there, DIAD in one hand, egg crate in the other, looking completely innocent while trying not to die laughing.

I could swear I heard her mind briefly shutting down at the stupidity of my question, before rebooting.

Calmly and with a polite smile, I repeated the question.

Her face was almost as purple as the grapes I’d offered to discount as she struggled to form words.

“What… kind of a dumb question is that?” she croaked, her manicured nails digging into trembling palms.

Finally, it’s time to break the news to her.

I placed the eggs back in the bag while nodding sympathetically. “The kind I ask someone who’s too stupid to not take the hint that I don’t work here.”

By this point, the Kroger employee working the customer service desk returned, and the lady turned on them with the fury of God.

She really lets loose.

“HOW CAN YOU LET AN EMPLOYEE TREAT ME THIS WAY? I SHOP HERE ALL THE TIME! HOW DARE YOU TREAT A VALUED CUSTOMER LIKE CRAP!”

To their credit, the customer service worker took the verbal assault pretty well, holding their hands up in a “Holy crap” gesture as they tried to calm the lady down.

The real employee confirms the helper’s story.

Then they looked from her to me and back to her and simply reiterated what I said. “Ma’am… he doesn’t work here…”

I was fascinated to see the “doubling down when you’re wrong” mentality in action, but to my surprise, all the wrath leached out of this harpy in two seconds flat.

It was the look of someone who realized the only way they’d save face in a situation like this was to simply drop it.

She’s still not fully wrapping her head around the situation.

She pursed her lips at the employee’s words and looked at my brown vest, as if thinking I was somehow still defying her logic.

“Well,” she said coldly, “you just lost a customer.” Then, quick as she’d arrived, she turned on her heel with a flip of her grey attitude-do and stormed off.

I was tempted to say that was more of a win, but figured I’d antagonized her enough.

The helper and the real employee now have a chance to chat.

Holding out my DIAD for a signature, I asked if the employee had ever encountered her before.

He said he had, but never that angry.

She was usually just demanding and arrogant to anyone else when she shopped there.

Turns out, the real employee was actually grateful for what he did.

After getting his signature, I helped him repack everything and asked if he needed me to help him take it back, but he said “no.” It was worth it just getting another tumorous customer out of the store.

Once everything was settled, I returned to the delivery van. (This entire ordeal only lasted about 15 minutes.)

My driver, Jeff, wasn’t too angry.

He’d arranged the rest of our packages while I was delivering and just told me to be faster next time.

Then we continued about our day.

She demanded quick service, but she ended up getting quite the opposite!

What did Reddit have to say?

Some people just don’t have a shred of empathy for anyone else but themselves.

It’s almost comical to imagine a woman like this navigating her way through other everyday scenarios.

You’ll never return? Good!

This commenter definitely got a kick out of the story.

It’s safe to say that these employees won’t exactly be mourning her absence.

Ultimately, she lost her temper, her dignity, and her favorite place to grocery shop!

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.