Helping customers usually means trying to keep the line moving.

That’s what this teenage retail employee was doing after one customer’s large purchase turned into a longer transaction than expected. Since another customer only needed to buy a gift card, the employee thought it made sense to help him while figuring out the first customer’s barcode.

At first, everything seemed fine. Then the woman said she felt like she had been pushed aside because she was Indigenous and refused to believe the employee had any other reason for helping the next customer.

The employee apologized more than once and tried to explain what happened, but nothing seemed to make the situation any better.

Now this young worker can’t help but wonder if trying to save everyone a little time ended up making the wrong impression.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for having a customer wait while I helped someone else?

I am a teenager working a minimum-wage job at a retail store.

Today, a lady was buying a large item that she had on a cart, and the barcode was hard to get to. First, I tried giving her the scanner, and she tried scanning the code, but she failed. Then I had her read the number to me, but it didn’t go through, so I realized it was possibly the wrong barcode. That meant I would have to go around the till to find the correct barcode.

I noticed a man standing behind her holding a bill and a gift card, and realized he just needed to buy a gift card so he could use it in the print section of the store. Knowing that would be a quick transaction I could start while getting the correct barcode, I asked the woman if I could help him quickly.

Unfortunately, she didn’t want to hear his reasoning.

She said, “I guess,” rather grumpily, and I quickly got his transaction going while running around to get her barcode.

After I helped the man (which took one to two minutes) and got her transaction going, she said, “He should have just waited his turn. I’m upset because this is just so typical. Indigenous people constantly get pushed to the side.”

I was surprised and told her honestly that I did not know she was Indigenous (to which she responded, “That’s what they all say”), and that I would have done the same with any customer. I also tried to explain that I knew his transaction would be quick and that I was trying to help multiple people at once, and she just said, “I don’t want to hear it.”

Afterward, he was feeling pretty bad.

I apologized multiple times, and she left.

I felt pretty awful for the rest of the day over it. I genuinely was not being racist in my actions, but I do see why I should have just finished her transaction before helping the next person in line, so that could make me the **. Idk.

Not that it should really matter, but it’s also worth noting that both I and the man behind her in line are POC, so it’s not like I skipped a POC completely to help a white person (which I would also never do).

AITA?

Eek! It’s easy to see both sides of this, but some people would see that as rude.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit think about it.

For this reader, everyone played a role.

Here’s someone who thinks he should’ve helped the lady.

Even with good intentions, this reader thinks it was wrong.

That’s exactly what lines are for.

If we’re being honest, that was not good customer service.

However, since the employee is still a teenager, they’re obviously still learning.

At the same time, the customer didn’t need to get so snobby about it. There’s no doubt the situation was frustrating, but she could’ve been a little kinder and used it as a chance to teach a young employee something instead of making the whole interaction even worse.

Let’s hope everyone walked away learning a lesson from this one.