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No matter what, you’ll never make some people happy.
This grocery store supervisor found that out after a customer came looking for a specific type of kombucha that his store didn’t carry.
At first, he explained the situation and told her they didn’t have it. When she wasn’t satisfied with that answer, he took the extra step of checking with the department and personally verifying that the product wasn’t available.
Then he tried to offer a solution.
Instead of appreciating the effort, the customer found something new to be upset about.
Read on to see what happened next.
AITA for telling a customer to shop at a different grocery store?
I’m a supervisor at a particularly high-end grocery store chain in Canada. I’m not going to name names to protect the identity of myself and the store I work at.
On this particular night, I’m approached by a customer asking if we carried a specific type of kombucha. She also added that it was fairly new and she checked our kombucha selection and didn’t see it and was wondering if we could check for her.
We don’t normally carry things in the back, so 99% of the time what is out on the shelf is all we have until we receive another shipment on our truck and the shelves are restocked. I explained all of this to her, and she sort of huffed and puffed and said that it said on Google that our store carried it.
He waited for produce to return his call.
I told her unfortunately that if it wasn’t on the shelf then we didn’t have it. So she walked away.
Immediately, she came back and said, “You know, it would be really great if you could call someone instead of just telling me no.”
So I told her no problem, I would be happy to call produce (the department that the kombucha is in) and they could check to see if we had any.
As I was waiting for produce to return my call, I told her that there was another high-end grocery store down the road that had a wide variety of kombucha that may carry it. Trying to offer a solution to her.
When they didn’t call back, he took matters into his own hands.
Produce is notorious for not returning calls, so I asked another employee to cover me so I could personally check myself. And as sure as Jesus has sandals, we didn’t carry it. So I go over to her and the conversation goes a little something like this:
Me: “I’m sorry miss, but I personally checked the selection we have and it seems like we don’t carry it.”
Her: “I know that, I checked already.”
Me: “Well like I said, grocery store XX has a wide selection also, and they may carry it.”
She was not happy with his response.
Her: “Okay, fine then. I’ll go shop there!”
Me: “Okay, sounds good.”
So at this point she hears that and turns around and says: “EXCUSE ME?!”
Me: “Yes?”
He tried to calm her down.
Her: “Do you even work here? Don’t you think you should be promoting shopping at your store and not another?”
Me: “Ma’am, I told you we don’t carry it. I personally went and checked myself. I am simply offering you a solution that another store could carry it. I don’t know what else you want me to do.”
After that whole exchange she bought some grapes and left. I then had two different customers that saw the whole exchange come up to me and personally tell me I handled it very professionally and one even called her a “Karen”
AITA?
Yikes! It was actually very nice of him to tell her that.
If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a grocery store employee who is fed up after months of going above and beyond for no monetary return.
Let’s check out if the folks over at Reddit agree.
This person thinks the opposite.
What a great policy.
According to this reader, he went well above what he needed to do.
Interesting point.
Hopefully she was just having a bad day.
Because if not, she was way out of line.
The supervisor tried to help her, and somehow that became another reason to get upset.
Some people seem determined to be unhappy, and this customer definitely gave that impression.
