Imagine working at a retail store, and a popular item is on sale. What would you do if a customer complained that you were out of stock of this item?

In this story, one supervisor has to deal with this exact situation. She offers the customer a rain check for the cat food she wants to buy, but that’s not good enough for the customer.

Keep reading to see how the story plays out.

My first angry customer as a supervisor

A little background of me: I’ve worked at [retail store] for eight years, and have worked in every part of the store (cashiering, logistics, sales floor… you name it, I’ve done it.)

Very recently I’ve become a supervisor for the front end, meaning I make sure customers are checked out smoothly, send cashiers on their breaks, and of course get yelled at by angry customers.

Now I’ve never had a particularly nasty customer, but this interaction was just so funny to me I thought I’d share.

Meet Cat Lady.

I was closing one night, and it was a pretty slow evening, so I was getting together pictures at the photo center so they would be ready for pickup.

That was when our wonderful friend (I’ll call her CL for Cat Lady) walked up behind me. No ‘excuse me” or anything, just stared at my back.

CL: Are you just going to ignore me girl?!

Me: startled, turns around Oh I’m very sorry miss! What can I help you with?

Cat Lady was really upset.

CL: rolls her eyes, which I get a lot so it didn’t bother me I just want to tell you how ticked off I am. I want to speak to the manager!

I prepared myself for a lot of screaming. Now, our manager (who is also a very good friend of mine) was in the backroom dealing with something important, so I put on my best smile and decided to try to help.

Me: I’m very sorry to hear that ma’am, it will be a bit before he can come up here. I am a supervisor, however, is there any way you could tell me what’s wrong? Maybe I can help.

CL: Slams the sales ad down on the counter and points viciously at a picture of a can of cat food You are out of this! This has been the third day in a row I’ve come here, and you’re out of it!

OP offered a solution.

The cat food in question is a pretty popular brand, and when it’s on sale it goes for about .79. Because of this, we also sell it like crazy.

She starts launching into her spiel of how far she drives to come here and how this will be her last time, all while I still have a smile planted on my face.

Me: I’m very sorry ma’am, I could give you a rain check? That way when it comes in stock you can still get the sale price.

CL: I don’t want that! I want my cat food! I know you had a truck this morning, there’s no way it could be sold out!

She called Cat Lady out on her lies.

Me: looking at my watch Well it’s 8pm now, and unfortunately that brand sells out quickly. We also can’t control how much comes in on the trucks. If you’d like, we can hold it for you when it comes in-

CL: You obviously know nothing about your truck process! I used to work here on the truck process last year and I know how it works!

Now, I worked the truck for 5 years before I became a supervisor, and I have never seen this woman in my life. So I feigned surprise, and smiled wide.

Me: Last year? Me too! What area did you work in, I must have never seen you!

This is funny!

At this point CL’s face is all shades of red, and an awkward silence filled the air. I continued smiling, and as another second crept by she snatched the ad off the counter.

CL: You know what? I think you’re just hoarding all the cat food for yourself!

This left me stunned, and I tried so hard to keep from bursting into laughter.

Me: Ma’am, I don’t know why I would hoard cat food, as I don’t own a cat.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

Just then, my friend (the manager) walks up and the woman whips around to scream into his face.

CL: I hope you both enjoy your cat food while my cats STARVE.

She walked away, leaving my friend with the most confusing look on his face and me trying not to pee myself in laughter. I explained the situation to him, and we were both dying about it.

Especially when she came to customer service an hour later, asking for a rain check for the cat food and buying twelve cans of the other brand that was on sale. Guess who rung her up?

Wow. Cat Lady wasn’t a good enough name for that woman. It really should’ve been Crazy Cat Lady.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Here’s some sarcasm.

There is such as thing as supply and demand.

Retail stores do actually want customers to buy things.

Here’s another story about grocery shopping.

Some angry customers can jump to the most ridiculous conclusions!

Now that you’ve read that story, check out this one about a delivery driver who took a $400 grocery order back because she wasn’t given a tip.