Many customers forget that retail workers are human too.

So when one woman and her family repeatedly blocked an employee’s way during a busy shift, it set the stage for a tense exchange that left both of their bloods boiling.

Read on for the full story.

Oblivious customer thinks I’m rude

At my job at a big chain store, there’s this work area where customers need to wait for us to get their stuff or do checkups of some of the more technical products.

This store layout leads to more headaches than this employee can count.

What often happens is that many customers tend to stand right in front of the entrance to this area while they wait, even though there’s tons of room for them to stand.

So we regularly have to ask people to move in order for us to, you know, be able to do our jobs.

So during this particular shift, the store experienced the very same issue.

Now this one family—a woman, her husband, and three kids—were waiting for a colleague of mine to get their products, completely blocking the way.

I needed to pass to get something for someone else and politely asked them to move.

But the family just kept coming back.

A minute later, I need to walk back out, and there they are again, cutting off my path. So once again I have to ask them to move, this time adding that they can wait a bit further.

Two minutes later. You guessed it. The whole family is casually standing there, blocking the whole entrance.

So the employee tries to set things straight with the wayward customers.

This time, I tell them we regularly need to pass through here and that I’d appreciate it if they could stand a bit further.

But one woman takes issue with the employee’s tone and decides to pick a fight.

Then the woman, clearly annoyed, says, “You know, you really should be more polite to customers.”

“How so?” I ask.

“I just think you’re impolite, talking to us like that.”

“I’m not sure I understand, ma’am. How was what I said impolite?”

“It’s not what you said, it’s the way you said it.”

So the employee defends their point of view.

“Well, ma’am, I apologize if I appeared impolite. In my defense, I had to ask you to move three times, so yes, perhaps you detected a little frustration on my part. I’m sure if you have to tell your kids the same thing three times, you get a little frustrated as well.”

She didn’t immediately know how to respond to that and looked at her husband, who wisely said nothing.

The employee continued, trying to lead with as much kindness as they could muster.

Then I extremely politely told her I had another customer waiting and that I needed to pass.

The woman, however, decided she wasn’t done with me yet.

She decides she wants to continue to be offended.

“I find it extremely rude of you to bring my children into this! This is very unprofessional of you!”

I just stared at her, as if to say, “Seriously?”

“As a customer,” she went on, “I deserve to be treated with respect.”

“And as a human, I deserve better than to be called rude by someone who clearly doesn’t respect me or my job.”

“You can’t talk to me like that! I want to speak with your manager!”

So the employee comes up with a clever bluff to get her out of the store faster.

“No, you don’t. He’ll back me up and tell you to treat me with respect or leave. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m not going to argue with you anymore. I have a job to do, and you’re preventing me from doing it.”

I left, and when I returned a few minutes later, they were gone.

The manager part was a bluff, though. He’s new and I have no clue how he’d handle it. 😅

This customer clearly wanted to provoke the employee, but all she ended up getting was silence and a cold stare.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter enjoyed reading about an employee who felt empowered enough to fight back against the disrespect.

This customer was one to talk about impoliteness.

Did this customer seriously think she was the center of the universe or something?

Why should the employee sit there and argue about tone when the customer could have just gotten out of their way?

This entitled woman may have thought she didn’t have to answer to a lowly employee, but respect should always go both ways.

Maybe next time she’ll think twice before picking silly fights.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.