She Watched A Customer Berate A Teenage Cashier Until She Cried, So She Stepped In — And Got Dirty Looks From Other Shoppers Instead Of Support
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You don’t have to be the one getting yelled at to know when someone has gone too far.
One woman learned that while waiting in a busy supermarket checkout line behind a customer who was growing increasingly impatient with a teenage cashier.
The girl appeared to be new and was having a little trouble, but things got worse when she accidentally scanned an item twice and had to call her supervisor.
Rather than giving her a chance to fix the mistake, the customer started berating her until the poor girl was in tears.
That’s when this woman decided she’d had enough and stepped in to defend the cashier. But after the angry customer stormed off, a few people in line gave her disapproving looks.
Read on to see if you think she did the right thing.
AITAH for telling off a lady in a supermarket after she made the teenage cashier cry?
This happened yesterday, and I’m still wondering if I overreacted.
I (35F) was doing my usual weekly grocery shopping at a local supermarket. It was a busy afternoon, and the line at the checkout was pretty long.
I was waiting patiently when I noticed the woman in front of me (probably mid-50s) becoming increasingly agitated as the teenage cashier, who couldn’t have been older than 17, was scanning her items.
At first she tried to let the situation work itself out.
The cashier seemed a bit flustered. I could tell she was probably new, making a few mistakes here and there, but nothing serious. The older woman, however, was not having it. She started muttering under her breath, rolling her eyes, and tapping her foot.
Finally, when the cashier accidentally scanned an item twice and needed to call for a supervisor to void it, the woman lost it.
She started berating the poor girl, saying things like, “How hard can it be to do this job? You can’t even do basic tasks. You’re wasting people’s time.”
She just kept going on and on, and the more she yelled, the more flustered the cashier got until she started tearing up. I stood there for a second, hoping the lady would cool down, but she didn’t. The poor cashier was clearly trying her best to keep it together. That’s when I stepped in.
Finally, the woman walked off angrily.
I said to her, “You don’t have the right to treat someone like that. She’s doing her best, and it’s just a mistake. If you’re so unhappy, maybe you should try working like her for a day and see how easy it is.”
The woman looked stunned and told me to mind my own business. I replied, “It is my business when you’re making a kid cry over something as stupid as groceries.”
The cashier’s supervisor had arrived by then and stepped in to handle the situation, and the woman stormed off, still muttering and cursing.
After she left, the cashier thanked me with teary eyes, but a couple of people behind me in line gave me looks like I was the one who had done something wrong. Now I’m second-guessing myself.
AITA?
Wow! It sounds like the customer was pretty out of line here.
Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit think about this whole thing.
This teen thanked her for speaking up.
This is so true!
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She got a round of applause from this reader.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an artist who made sure to leave the walls of her home blank and boring before moving out, even though they were covered with gorgeous murals before then.
Let’s hope this is the case.
She absolutely did the right thing.
The cashier made a simple mistake, and that woman had no right to humiliate her over it.
As for the people giving her dirty looks, they should’ve been more concerned about the woman’s behavior.
At least somebody had the nerve to stand up for the poor girl.
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