When everything already seems to be going wrong, the last thing you want is to deal with a rude customer.

So, what would you think if you were working an already chaotic shift with barely any staff and a customer suddenly stopped to tell you that the store needs more cashiers? Would come up with a quick quip? Or would you just look at him?

In the following story, a young cashier recently found herself in this situation and couldn’t find the words. Here’s what happened.

You need to get more cashiers!

I’m a cashier at $Home Improvement store. Like most places, we’re usually either understaffed or overstaffed, depending on the sales forecast. And of course, it almost always backfires.

This random story takes place on a Sunday morning in early fall.

I was scheduled to work from 8:30 am to 5 pm. I clocked in just before 8:30 and headed out, only to run into the opening head cashier (HC) on my way to the front end.

HC: “I need you to take over for other cashier on self check, she’s going home sick.”

It turns out there were only two cashiers on duty.

Even though self-check and I have a mutual hatred for each other, I made my merry way to self-check, where I sent the cashier home sniffling, coughing, and groaning.

Even though it was headed towards 9 am, and we opened at 7 on Sundays, the only real checkstand open was the contractor’s register, at the other end of the store, which I had passed on my way to the front end.

Once I actually got my hands on a schedule, I discovered that not only were we understaffed, but we’d had a couple of call-outs, meaning that there were only 2 cashiers (me and the girl working the contractor end) for the next two and a half hours.

An hour into her shift, she was being pulled in too many directions.

Awesome. Okay. But at least it wasn’t busy. Famous last words.

By 9:30, it looked like half the state was shopping in my store and trying to force their way through the self-checkout. The line was winding into the aisle.

Since our self-check is an “assisted” one, where we can ring people up on the self-check stations using a scan gun, usually when they have big items, or when they’re just too lazy to pass the box of nails over the scanner, I found myself running between the four stations.

I was helping people scan in their big items and punching in tax ID numbers, while the HC ran all over the store, trying to find associates who had been trained on the register so that the other cashier and I could get breaks and so that we could finally open one of the front end registers (which still didn’t happen until about 11).

Then, an angry customer walked up.

I had just finished ringing someone up at one of the self-check stations, and I spun around to march back to the self-check monitor, only to run right into a big, glowering guy (BGG) whom I had no memory of seeing before.

He leaned down, glaring right in my face. Well, I’m a 5’1 girl in her early 20s, and I really hate it when people try to intimidate me. It’s kind of like a dragon trying to intimidate a house cat, and usually less effective.

BGG: “You need to get more cashiers here!”

Before I could do anything else besides open my mouth, he stormed out of the store with his wife. Okay then.

Bad things just kept happening.

Not too long later, our restrooms broke. The plumbing went down or something, I can’t remember now. And these restrooms had just been remodeled the month before.

My boyfriend, who was one of the lot associates at the time (meaning he cleared the lot, brought in carts, and helped people load their big purchases), sprained his hand while opening a box.

Then, our HC was off at noon, and one of the managers had to take over for her until the next one showed up, which was a disaster, for no other reason than he couldn’t read our cash increase request slips. And we remained short-staffed for the rest of the day, though at least we finally got one front-end register open.

When I finally got out of work, I made a run for it.

Wow! Now that sounds like a nightmare day.

Let’s see if the people over at Reddit have ever encountered anything similar.

This person’s mom offers to help.

This was a smart move.

According to this comment, it’s a vicious cycle.

Here’s someone who also finds something annoying.

These are the worst work days.

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