Imagine planning a party and placing an order for a tray of food at your local grocery store.

If you were running late to pick up everything, would you simply accept that you’re running late, or would you assume the grocery store employees would be at your beck and call?

In this story, one deli employee at a grocery store encounters a customer who seems to think deli employees are personal shoppers.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Ma’am, I’m not your personal shopper.

I work in the deli department of the big-box retailer in my town. We do specialty trays, vegetable, sandwich, you name it – we do it.

Now, all trays, no matter hot or cold, we ask for at least 24 hours notice on orders, so we can prepare the next day’s crew, and get the cold trays for the next day out of the way.

Now, onto the story.

She took a customer’s order over the phone.

Yesterday, I took a lady’s order over the phone for a cubed cheese tray (let’s call the lady Entitled Twatwaffle, or ET for short.

Now, ET was polite while I was taking her order, very specific in what she wanted, and was very grateful for taking her order and repeating it as we went along in our conversation.

Seemed like a nice enough lady, assumed she’d be an easy customer.

She just wanted to take her lunch break.

Fast forward to today.

It was around 2 PM, I was ready to go to lunch, it’d been a long day (tax-free weekend, and the last day of summer vacation here).

The phone rings.

My coworkers were swamped with customers, so I quickly answered.

It was the customer who wanted the cheese tray.

The conversation goes as follows:

Me: Thank you for calling the [redacted] deli, how may I help you today?

ET: Hi, I called for a tray yesterday, and I was supposed to pick it up earlier, and I’m running a bit late.

Me: Oh, okay! What was the name on the order?

ET: Twatwaffle.

Me: Ah, yes, you ordered our cubed cheese tray, correct?

ET: Yes, ma’am.

The customer asked for a favor.

Me: Okay, well what can I do for you?

ET: Well, I’m running a bit behind today, and I’m on my way there right now, I was wondering if there was any way you could take my tray to the customer service desk so I can just pay for it and go.

NOTE: This wasn’t a problem. Our deli is in the VERY BACK of our store, and I honestly didn’t feel any issue with running an order to the front for a customer.

Me: Yes ma’am I can do that for you! If you will just call us when you arrive, I, or someone else, can meet you at the service desk with your tray!

Here’s where the request gets a bit bonkers.

ET: Oh, well I was also going to see if you could pick up two cases of bottled water, the store brand, my balloons from the produce department, OH, and two medium sized watermelons on your way.

Me: …excuse me?

ET: Well, I mean, you’re going to pass ALL THOSE THINGS on your way to the service desk, you might as well.

Me: Well, ma’am, I’m sorry, but I can’t do your shopping for you.

ET: UGH. WELL YOU’RE BRINGING MY TRAY UP, YOU MIGHT AS WELL.

She tried to explain again.

Me: (at this point, I’m grimacing and mouthing to my friend/coworker that I’m going to kill myself) Ma’am, I apologize, but we’re extremely swamped and shorthanded as it is, and I’m doing you a huge favor just taking your tray up front, I really don’t want to take much more time than I can.

At this point, my manager can hear the frustration in my voice. She stands beside me as I’m arguing with this insufferable jerk.

ET: You’re inconveniencing me! I don’t have time to walk all over the store for those things! I need to speak to your manager right now, young lady!

The customer was even more upset when she talked to the manager.

I hand the phone over to my manager.

Now, my manager is a no-nonsense lady. She’s yelled at customers for being rude to us before, so I have no doubt in my mind this situation will be the same. I’ll call her Boss Manager, or BM for short.

BM: This is the BM, deli manager, how may I help you?

All I can hear is yelling through the earpiece, I heard a few “stupid”s and “rude”s in the mixture. Maybe a “lazy” or two.

The manager really wasn’t going to take any nonsense.

BM: Ma’am, my employees are NOT your personal shoppers. Now, unless you are disabled, my employees have NO reason to do your shopping for you. Caticorns was doing you a FAVOR by agreeing to take your tray up front for you. But since you’ve been nothing but rude, you can walk back here and pick it up yourself.

And with that, she hung up on ET.

BM let me go to lunch to cool down (I get pretty angry and quick, BM could see it in my face that I was about to snap).

The only thing my coworkers told me was that ET was in no way disabled. She was in her mid to late 20s, dressed as nice as they come, with no obvious disabilities. They informed me that she just sheepishly asked for her tray and walked away.

The customer was probably in a hurry, but that doesn’t mean deli employees should do your shopping for you. I think the employee and manager both handled that well.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This grocery store employee actually did a customer’s shopping.

It really is a shame how stress can change someone.

Here’s a story about a pharmacy.

This person would’ve handled it differently.

Another deli employee shares a story about a customer.

That’s not in her job description.

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