Working retail means dealing with all kinds of people, from the slightly annoying to the downright impossible.

But every now and then, a customer decides that even the smallest detail is grounds for an epic meltdown.

That’s exactly what happened when one woman lost it over how her groceries were bagged. And she wouldn’t let one unsuspecting cashier hear the end of it.

Read on for the full story.

almost started crying

So this was about maybe less than a month (I think 3 weeks) into my job as a cashier, and I was doing my job like I was supposed to.

I don’t remember much about what she looked like, but I now try to avoid people that look similar by turning my light off and going to do some other things we were supposed to do. I only do that when it’s not busy.

She remembers the fateful day like it was yesterday.

A woman had come into my line, and I had greeted her and asked how her day was.

I proceeded to scan her items and asked her if she was a part of our rewards program. She told me yes, and I asked her to please put in her phone number.

The interaction started off normal enough.

After she did, I then hit total and told her the amount. She paid for it, and while she was paying for it I was bagging her items.

Now, our policy is 5 items to a bag, so that’s what I was trying to do.

But that’s when the lady started to lose it.

Moving forward to when I was almost done bagging—the lady saw me put an item into the bag that she thought didn’t belong in there.

Instantly, she started berating me like I was someone lower than her. She told me that I didn’t know how to bag right and that they should train me better.

She had a choice word or two for the cashier — who was only doing her best.

She told me that household items shouldn’t go with food. But all the things that I had put in that bag were metal cans of cat food, and the household item was also a can of air spray, so I didn’t see a problem with putting it in there. I was confused.

She just kept going at me until I finally finished putting everything in a bag.

The cashier tried her best to keep it together.

At that point, I ripped the receipt off the printer, smiled at her, thanked her, and wished her good night.

After that, I felt horrible. I felt like I was going to cry (and I quite literally was about to), but another person came into my line.

In the end, I put a smile on my face (albeit it was extremely hard to put it on and keep it there), and greeted the next lady with as much happiness as I could muster. I finished my shift like that.

The cashier managed to hold it all together, but she couldn’t help but feel shaken up for the rest of her shift.

What did Reddit think?

This user challenges the cashier to think about the interaction a different way.

Some customers simply live for wasting people’s time.

There are a few hard and fast rules in the world of grocery bagging, but none of them should be life or death.

Some customers will never, ever, EVER be happy.

It stung in the moment, but she didn’t let this rotten customer see her crack.

Instead, she just kept going, because that’s what retail workers do.

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