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Retail workers ask a lot of questions that customers understandably tune out. Do you need a bag? Would you like the receipt? Did you find everything okay? But when the cashier asks whether you have a rewards account, that’s probably the moment to remember the coupon you’ve been saving.

One former home improvement store employee still thinks about a transaction from their college days for exactly this reason.

Like many retailers, the store had a free loyalty program that gave members access to special discounts. Cashiers were required to ask about it before ringing up purchases so any available offers could be applied.

When one couple approached the register, the employee did exactly that. They didn’t recognize the program name, so the cashier explained what it was. Still nothing. They even mentioned the program’s former name in case that jogged their memory.

Nope.

The couple declined an invitation to sign up, and the cashier proceeded to ring up more than $600 worth of merchandise.

Everything was paid for, and the receipt was printed before one of them suddenly remembered one tiny detail.

this happened years ago but i still think about it a lot

when i was in college i used to work part-time at a home improvement store that i will not name.

they had a loyalty program, not a paid membership type thing but if you signed up with your email and/or phone number you could get exclusive discounts and such.

whenever people approached the counter to purchase something, the very first question we’d ask them was “are you part of [program name]?” so they could enter their information preemptively and have any discounts automatically applied to their purchase.

Sounds pretty normal so far.

this couple came up to the register one time and as per usual, i asked them, “are you part of [program]?” they proceeded to look at me as if i had two heads.

now, a lot of people would sign up for the program not knowing what it was called, so it was possible that they DID have an account; they just didn’t know the program had a specific name. i try again. “it’s our rewards program?”

they dubiously repeat “rewards program…?” as if they’ve never heard of such a thing.

Did I stutter?

fair enough. it had previously been called something else before we did a rebrand, maybe that’s where the confusion was. “it used to be called [previous name], we recently changed it.” once again, they have no idea what i’m referring to.

i ask them if they would like to sign up and they decline. no problem. i proceed to ring up their order, which is a LOT of items, easily totalling over $600 usd.

once the final item has been scanned, i tell them their total and ask them to follow the instructions on the pin pad.

The plot thickens…

the woman swipes her card, my computer alerts me that the payment has been accepted and auto-prints their receipt, which i hand to her. “alright, and there’s your receipt. thanks so much for shopping with us, and you two have a great day!”

she takes her receipt. looks at it. looks at her bags containing $600+ worth of product. looks at me. looks at her receipt again. looks at her bags again. looks at me again.

she then asks me, “so where do i put in my phone number?”

LOL, what?

my eye twitches. “i’m sorry, your what?” “yeah. i had a 25% off coupon with my account and i wanted to use it today.”

as it were, our pos system didn’t allow me to partially refund items, nor to void an entire receipt. meaning i had to manually scan each item and refund them one-by-one, then do the entire transaction over again.

i nearly quit on the spot.

Anyone who has worked retail could probably feel this cashier’s soul leaving their body the moment the customer asked where to enter her phone number.

Forgetting that you have a rewards account isn’t exactly a crime, and nobody can blame someone for wanting to use a 25% discount on a purchase worth more than $600. That’s potentially a substantial amount of money, so of course the customer wasn’t going to shrug and leave once she remembered the coupon.

The maddening part was that the cashier had given the couple seemingly every possible opportunity to remember it before the transaction. They asked about the program by name, explained that it was the store’s rewards program, mentioned its previous name and even offered to sign them up. At no point did “phone number” or “25% off coupon” apparently ring a bell.

Unfortunately, the store’s register system made the customer’s delayed realization everyone else’s problem. Instead of simply applying an adjustment, the cashier had to refund every item individually and then ring the entire $600-plus purchase again.

The customer forgot for a few minutes. The cashier remembered for years.

This person has some advice for OP.

This person can relate.

And this person has one final closing remark.

Turns out the rewards account did exist—it just needed $600 and a printed receipt to jog her memory.