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Imagine working in retail at a grocery store for several years. You’re good at your job and you enjoy your job, but you despise rude customers.

What would you do if a customer started yelling at a new hire?

In this story, one cashier is in this situation, but before she can even say anything to help the customer or defend the cashier, another customer, a dad shopping with his family, jumps to the customer’s defense.

While that’s certainly impressive, it’s not the best part of the story. The best part is what he says to the experienced cashier and how his kind words change her life.

Keep reading for all the details.

Thank you, Regular Cool Dad

Background: I work for a big box Canadian retailer in a customer service/supervisory position.

My shifts are almost always behind the desk, or in front of the lanes. Either way, I have a view of every single till.

Recently, my employer mandated that during certain hours on the weekend, all tills must be open.

For bigger stores, this means 20~ cashiers on at once. We have about 15, but it’s still pretty hard to manage.

There are a lot of employees behind the register with very little experience.

Due to this new policy, we’ve taken to throwing our trainees on tills for 4 hour shifts.

They’ve received practice and training for approximately 16 hours before this shift and we utilize all the tills being open to give them some experience.

The cashiers are staggered so that newbies are in between more experienced cashiers.

I train all of them myself.

OP has quite a bit of experience at this job.

Story:

We usually get hit with some rushes during these mandated hours so I really try to do my best to watch the tills while also flying through customer service transactions and stacking invoices, receipts, coupons, and flyers.

After a year or so at my job and nearly four years in retail I’ve grown modestly adept at all this. I can pick up on a disturbance with my spidey retail senses.

During one of these shifts, my desk is blissfully empty, only because all of the lines are filling up.

But the quiet day didn’t last long.

I get to some paperwork but don’t make it very far because I hear shouting.

The shouting is taking place at the till directly in front of me: #6.

Till #6 has a newbie. She’s a middle-aged woman of my own ethnicity (later important.)

Angry Customer (AC): How do you not know these codes?! ISN’T IT YOUR JOB-

The cashier was seriously trying her best. She doesn’t deserve this.

Cashier: I am sorry. My first day. I don’t know, I don’t know these names.

AC: IT’S A CABBAGE. HOW HARD IS IT TO FIGURE THAT OUT?

At this point she is blatantly screaming. For what, a little extra seconds deciphering an English code sheet? I’m starting to get a little miffed and am watching the situation with a hawkeye.

AC: Don’t you receive proper training? I’ve never had this problem. I come here EVERY SINGLE WEEK and I have never, ever had someone like you! You are terrible! You-

Another customer spoke up.

Then I hear it:

Regular Cool Dad (RCD): HEY!

This guy is someone I see every week. A male in his mid-20s, it seems. He has a beautiful wife and two children who are always quiet and well-behaved. I always like to give them stickers because they are so polite.

The dad is holding one of his daughters in his arms and is staring furiously at the Angry Customer.

The dad wasn’t just trying to defend the cashier. He was also being a good dad.

RCD: What is your problem? Can’t you tell she’s new here?

AC: That’s not an excuse-

RCD: It is an excuse! If you came here every week you would know she is new! The sign says she is training! And you are screaming, completely disrupting the shopping experience of others, and you are upsetting my children!

I do look at his daughters now and both seem a little fearful.

The dad made his point very clear.

RCD: Were you born, trained in all the things you do? Have you ever worked retail? Have you ever worked retail in a foreign country? You would know it’s not easy to learn these things. I come here because the store is quiet and the cashiers are nice and everything is clean. You are ruining it for me, for no reason, other than a little language barrier!

The other woman looks quite deflated and ignores the dad, turning back to her groceries and packing them silently (we don’t pack here. Thank God. I wouldn’t want to deal with that.) but I notice she doesn’t say another word to her cashier.

The cashier looks a little shaken but powers through and finishes the transaction politely.

Here’s how OP handled the situation.

Afterwards, I go over to her and speak in our language to ascertain she is okay.

She reassures me she is fine and I apologize for her first day being like this.

I go back to my desk and grab my stickers, then head over to the family who is still finishing their transaction. I feel a little choked up and my hands are shaking, but I place the stickers on their hands, just like they always want, and turn to their father.

Me: Thank you.

It was hard to get out.

OP really feels for women like the new cashier.

My work hires a lot of older women who are of my race. I don’t see them as colleagues. When I see them, I see my mother, my aunts, my grandmothers.

I train these women with care and then send them off to be berated by impatient, entitled customers, when I know they could have been doctors, engineers, teachers back home.

Unlike my mother, and unlike myself, they didn’t get the option of a Canadian education, and they’re working here because their children are grown and there’s not much for them to do anymore.

It really breaks my heart and is a deep personal subject for me. I rarely can defend them because they work daily shifts, usually in the morning, and I am a night worker.

The dad said something that changed her life.

RCD looks at me, and recognizes what I’m feeling. He then says:

You know, we’ve always thought you could go somewhere else. Somewhere not here. You’re good at what you do here, I’ve noticed. But you can go somewhere else.

And that, my friends — my fellow lovely colleagues — that’s how I realized I could leave. I didn’t motivate myself before because I figured, it’s $13/hr, I enjoy my colleagues and most of my regulars, I’m good at what I do. But I was getting bitter and cynical and angry. And my family and my boyfriend, they noticed the attitude change too.

I didn’t even think about leaving.

Here’s what she’s doing now.

Five weeks later, I got an amazing contract job with a staffing service. They listened to what I told them — that I love customers, children, and odd jobs, I love bookstores and movie theatres and dogs — and they work FOR me to find me individualized assignments that I get paid for!

Like, last week I got to go to bars around the city and check if they were carding properly! Next week I get to be a co-host for a major sports event in our city, and the week after that I’ll be partnering with a major toy company’s exhibition.

So thank you, Cool Dad. I finally left retail but got to retain what I love to do.

I miss my coworkers, and that store did treat me well, but I am so happy to be able to do what I want to.

It’s amazing how a stranger’s thoughtful words can change someone’s life. The dad didn’t just defend the cashier, he gave OP something serious to consider that really did change her life.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person loved how the story ended.

Another person got emotional.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who got back at slacking coworkers with fresh-baked treats.

This person feels inspired.

Here’s another person who loved the story.

That guy wins dad and customer of the year! He didn’t have to say anything, but he did anyway. Not only did he defend the cashier, but he gave advice to OP that inspired her to move on to bigger and better things. Bravo!