Retail workers are trained to handle tantrums over inventory shortages and discount drama, but few are equipped when it comes to a sudden power outage.

When the lights cut out mid-shift, one cashier found themselves answering questions they had absolutely no way to answer.

Customers, of course, still expected a prompt resolution.

Read on for the full story!

Customers ask the darndest things

Today, the weather knocked the power out at my store.

My entire half of the shopping center went dark, flickered a couple times, and then went completely out.

So cashiers had no choice but to ask all the customers to leave.

Due to SOP and the fact that we had literally no way to sell anyone anything, we evacuated all the customers, telling them we could keep their purchases at the register if the power came back on shortly.

Of course, this threw customers for a loop.

This one guy looks at me and asks, “Do you know when the power is coming back on?”

I reacted as professionally as I could and told him, “No idea. I didn’t even know it was going out, so…”

The customer proceeded to hem and haw with no agency whatsoever.

He told me he was trying to decide if he should wait or not, so I told him he definitely can, but I unfortunately have to ask him to leave the store currently.

Reluctantly, he accepted the answer and left.

It was just so funny to me—like I have any level of control or knowledge about the unexpected power outage we just got surprised with.

This is some serious NPC behavior.

What did Reddit have to say?

This commenter is all too familiar with the woes of a customer service job.

Some customers really have to be herded like sheep.

Unfortunately, a bad customer is often more memorable than a good one.

Customers truly have some outlandish expectations of retail workers.

This cashier didn’t think they’d be expected to be a cashier, meteorologist and electrician all in one.

The worst part of customer service really is the customers.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.