It's human nature to have various opinions about the people we come across.
What sets us apart from heathens is that we keep our judgments to ourselves–especially when they are not of the flattering variety.
The people who probably interact with strangers the most are those who work in any type of service industry, and they should be good about keeping their mouths shut if they don't have anything nice to say about a customer or of their purchases.
But Redditor gracoal gave those who worked in retail the opportunity to share their anecdotes by asking:
"Cashiers of Reddit, what items make you silently judge the people who buy them?"
When it came to the sale of beverages, these Redditors had some interesting thoughts.
Repeat Customers
"When I worked at the liquor store we only judged people if they came back several times a day."
"Edit: I only did this because it was illegal to sell alcohol to drunk people, when you have someone making multiple trips during a shift they may be drunk, whether or not they where an alcoholic wasn't my concern, but yes I had to judge them."
– RenegadeOfBonk
Evasive Customer
"When I was drinking heavily every night I’d go to a different store each day so as to avoid judgment lol"
– musetoujours
Quality Of Water
"The ethos water at Starbucks. We literally give out free water and it’s way better than the ethos water like sir."
– Sweet-Ad1906
Got Milk?
"I was in a 7-11 at 1:30 in the morning on a Tuesday I had the next day off, and a plan to to hang around my apartment all day and play video games. But in order to avoid going out again, I was gonna need some beer. I headed up to the counter with that beer, and there was someone in line. The lady in front of me had 3 kids with her. They were all in between about in between about 4 and 7."
"And they each had had a single serving box of sugary cereal. Like the little boxes of fruit loops. And the mom was buying a pint of milk. Not a half gallon, or a quart... just a pint. I'm pretending not to notice her, thinking what are these kids doing up at 1:30 in the morning? And 3 single serving cereals and a pint of milk? You could just get a Box of cereal and a gallon of milk for like an extra couple of bucks."
"And anyways, that's not enough milk to fulfil the goal. What blew me away, is she paid for it all with a crisp new $100 bill. And then told the cashier to give her all the change in scratch tickets. The combination of all of those bad decisions Amazed me."
– TimoWasTaken
Some of these are examples of how cashiers shouldn't comment on items being purchased.
Because Priorities
"This was about ten years ago, but the only time I judged someone was also when I lost a little faith in humanity."
"Guy in his late twenties comes through the line. Belt is filled with junk food; chips, chocolate, popcorn, candy, etc. The whole time I'm ringing him up he's saying how glad he is to be out of the house, that the baby has a flu or something and hes at his wits end."
"Fair enough, I suppose."
"I get to the total, tell him, and wouldn't you know, he's short a few dollars. So what does he put back? The only non-juck food item: children's cold and flu medicine."
"I still judge that man, and I don't even remember his face."
– Remembermybrave
Saving Face
"At the pharmacy I had a guy not buy an epipen for his child with a $50 copay but pay $100 for tretinoin which was not covered for his own acne which, honestly wasn’t that bad. He really could have used an OTC med. I felt sorry for his offspring."
– ImNotYourOpportunity
Giggly Teen
"I bought toilet paper and laxatives at the same time. Teenage cashier looked at it and got the giggles. This got the bagger laughing. I just stood there stupidly pretending it wasn’t funny."
– goldyblocks
Arduous Scanning
"Not judged as much as hated when people bought dozens of those individually wrapped snack sized cheese slices. At my store we had to scan each one of them."
"🧀 Beep 🧀 beep 🧀 beep 🧀 beep"
– dustbunnee
A Lesson Learned
"Currently working as a cashier and I was reading thru these thinking 'what was something I really judged people for?'"
"Then I remembered this one customer I judged wrongly. Every morning this one guy would bolt into the store, go to the drink aisle, and come out with 5-6 energy drinks. He would come everyday so one day, I made a joke and said: 'don't drink them all in one setting.'"
"He then proceeded to tell me that it's to help with his ongoing chemo therapy. Stopped judging people based on their items after that one."
– Enchanted_nerd
Concern For Pets
"I was a cashier at a pet store. The main thing i'd judge for was buying way to small of a habitat. Whether it was a gold fish bowl, or a critter trail, i'd be upset. I'd try to use it as a teaching opprotunity when possible but not everyone would listen because 'its just a fish/hamster/rabbit/etc.'"
– Avbitten
It's not always the merchandise that prompted judgment.
Checking The Attitude
"I was a cashier for 3 years, and I can't think of a single thing that anyone bought that I judged them for."
"I certainly judged people for their attitudes, for inappropriately asking for a discount, or for various other petty things, but never for the items they were buying."
– Amikoj
Entitled Customer
"back when i worked nights at a gas station, i had a lady come in wanting a sale that had ended the previous week. when i refused to give it to her she did the whole 'DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!' bit, and swore her uncle owned the gas station chain and was going to have me fired. i really didn't give a damn. i made $12/hour. i told her go for it. then kicked her out."
"talked to my boss the next day who was a little peeved i didnt give her the discount but said i did the right thing by kicking her out because she doesn't tolerate customers being rude to her staff. never did find out if she really was the niece of the gas station owner, and never got fired. quit a year later for a better paying job."
– rocket___goblin
These former cashiers couldn't be bothered with assessing the behavior or shopping preferences of customers.
On Auto-Pilot
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I barely pay attention to what im scanning most of the time. You could point a loaded gun at me and leave a note saying you're gonna rob me. So long as I swipe it through and hear a beep, I won't even flinch."
– occpotato
Free From Judgment
"I cashiered at a grocery store for 4 years, same. I never judged people for what they were buying. I did judge people for being rude, for complaining about paying for disposable bags, for eating produce before paying for it, and for lying to my face to save a couple pennies. You can try switching the produce stickers but I can tell the difference between a Fuji and a Sweet Tango."
"Something I always wished people knew that we DO NOT judge people for"
- "having their card declined. If you only knew how frequently this happened all day long. No one cares and I do believe you when you tell me the account has money. I believe you. Cards get declined for all kinds of reasons, all day long. It is not a big deal at all."
- "I do not judge you for bringing a reusable bag from a different grocery store. People seem to think it’s bad etiquette or something and would always apologize for using a trader joe’s bag or something. No one cares. At all. Use whatever reusable bag you like, it’s just a bag."
– dumbname1000
The Wild Lovers
"I worked as a grocery store cashier many years ago when I was in college. I saw lots of weird stuff, but never judged what people bought, but did judge them if they were a-holes. Even people on wic and foodstamps buying beer or steaks didn't bother me - sometimes you have to enjoy the little things, and who am I to deny or judge someone wanting a small enjoyment if their life is already rough enough?"
"But there was this one time that was freaking hilarious. Late on a weekend night, a really trashy couple were all over each other as they bought a 12 pack of beer and a box of condoms. Hey, at least they were being responsible. But the funniest part was when they came back not 30 minutes later and bought smokes. I still laugh thinking about that."
– DonkeyHodie
You never know what a cashier might be thinking, but that shouldn't stop you from buying the merchandise you want for fear of being judged.
Just make sure you treat them all with kindness. Because the positive impression you give will be something that stays with them after a long shift dealing with wacky customers.
Gas Station Clerks Share The Weirdest Thing They've Ever Encountered On The Night Shift
Oh.... on the night shift....
Pumpin' the tane down in New Orleans sounds sexy, but Tina and the group left out the part of having to deal with actual people. Those hard working people who work in the gas stations have to deal with far more drama than we could believe.
Redditor u/tylerpv10 wanted to know what all the petroleum attendants needed to share by asking.... Night shift gas station clerks of reddit, what's the weirdest thing you've ever encountered?
Years ago.......
GiphyYears ago I worked overnights at a gas station, in a pretty bad neighborhood in Florida. My first night working there an older guy came in, walked up to the counter and reached across and punched me in the jaw pretty hard. The guy I was working with chased him out the door while I called the cops to send someone over. My coworker came back in pretty quick looking frightened and said to send an ambulance because the crazy guy just died outside. EMT and police came, guy was alive but had a pretty bad heart attack. Every other shift was pretty timid compared to that.
RedditTrollin
"I sing for my supper!"
Not a gas station, but a train station cafe. There were overnight works going on so we stayed open until 1 or 2am for the builders. One night this older gentleman comes in, well dressed. Asks for a coffee but can't pay when I make it. I give it to him anyway since I'll just throw it otherwise, and he asks me for some cake. I refuse, and he goes "I sing for my supper!" And then starts to belt out Frank Sinatra right there in the shop. And he just. Won't. Stop. He's there for like, half an hour.
I tried to get security to look after him because he clearly wasn't all there. Found him later, singing for the builders who were giving him sandwiches. Eventually called the local police who got him supervised until he could catch a train home in the morning.
SuetyFiddle
"See you later...."
I worked in a rural gas station/ garage when I was in high school. One evening I was working and there were some pretty bad storms brewing. It didn't take long for there to be a fairly large group of people stopped at the station to find some shelter.
I didn't think much of it, wasn't the first time it had happened, but then they started blowing the tornado sirens. All the sudden there's a bunch of adult and families looking at little 16 year old me looking for answers.
There's no basement so I did the first thing I could think of and shoved them all in the walk in cooler. Shut us all in and rode out the storm. When it passed I went out and there was a big plate glass window busted and some stuff blown around the store.
All the people came out of the cooler and were pretty much like, "See you later," and left.
I was pretty much left there by myself like what the heck just happened.
littleredhoodlum
We Close Soon....
So, my store closes up at 10 pm. I come in one morning at around 4:45ish to find an old Native American man passed out in our kitchen. We have a rather large kitchen because we work next to an industrial area w lots of truck drivers/oil field workers who start their work day early, so we make lots of food for breakfast and lunch.
So I call the police because what the hell am I supposed to do (There's a very bad neighborhood behind the store that's constantly hit for drug busts.. like hard stuff.. plus we find bloody needles in the bathrooms all the time.) the police show up like 15 minutes later with some paramedics and the guy was just asleep lol. Apparently he came in around 9:30 pm the night before to use the bathroom and got locked in when the two night shift employees locked up. He didn't have a phone and didn't think to look for ours, so he got a six pack of beer out, ate some of our bread and went to sleep next to the grill 😂
GarryBuseysPants
TWIX....
GiphyI had a friend who worked at a gas station. He said someone came in one night and produced a gun and told my friend to empty the register. Being completely dumbfounded by the situation my friend told him that he had to buy something first. This is because to open the register an item from the gas station needed to be scanned at the register. According to my friend they stared at each other completely silent and bewildered for a few seconds. After that my friend had regained enough of his faculties to explain this to the robber. Then the robber scanned a Twix took all the money in the register and left.
Cliff_Doctor
Oh Meth....
Meth heads that just need "to be let in for a second" because their car broke down/injured/sick granny/anything to try to trick you into letting them in so they can stab and, rob you, and kill your corpse.
Richard-Hindquarters
$300....
Idk if this was necessarily weird but more luck. During and after high school I worked a this crappy gas station that closed up at 11pm. I started doing my cleaning duties when I noticed a penny on the ground I picked it up kept sweeping until I noticed a dime by the door. This wasn't unusual since people drop change all the time. As I was picking it up though something caught my eye as it blew past the door I went outside looked right, nothing, looked left and there sat a fat wad of cash it was nearly $300 laying on the ground.
Yes I kept it.
No one ever stopped back by asking about it ether.
Hexpul
"don't worry, it's not my blood."
A friend of mine worked nights in a convenience store by herself and she told me about a time when a woman came in drenched in blood. When asked she said flatly, "don't worry, it's not my blood." She bought a pack of cigarettes and was on her merry way.
ozQuarteroy
Another time around 3 AM.....
I was a 7-11 night clerk for about 5 years when I was young. Nothing too outrageous happened. The big nightly event was the 2 AM rush, the cut-off for selling alcohol when I'd run a bar through the beer cooler doors. There was always a bunch of people coming in just before, and always a few coming in after that would beg and argue and I'd just have to say no.
One time around 3 AM an older drunk but well-dressed Mexican guy comes in, two really pretty girls with him, argues and pleads with me to sell him some beer for about 15 minutes. He was oddly pleasant, seemed like a guy no one said no to, but I said no. He went out with the girls then came back in alone. Looked at me and smiled, pulled a giant wad of bills from his pocket and peeled off a twenty, sat it on the counter, walked over to the cooler and pulled out a case of beer through the bars. Then as I'm telling him I can't sell that to him he reaches in his other pocket and pulls out a baggy of drugs, wags it in the air in front of me significantly, sits that on the $20 bill and says "esta todo bien, mi amigo", with a wink, and walks out the door with the beer.
Another time around 3 AM again these two young girls came in and wandered the store for about a half hour, laughing their asses off at everything. Literally rolling on the floor laughing, reading the labels of the candy bars and stuff like that. I talked to them enough that they told me they'd eaten some mushrooms. Finally they picked out a couple of candy bars and a couple sodas. At the counter I rang them up and they realized they didn't have any money... which was hilariously funny and they were on the floor laughing again. I bagged their stuff and told them not to worry about it. Sweeping the lot after they left I could hear them still laughing down the street.
dxrey65
Hey Cowboy.....
GiphyWorking security in a bad neighborhood . This guy walking minding his own business in a cowboy hat, cowboy shoes . And a thong carrying around a raccoon. It looked like he was feeding the raccoon something. I locked my doors asap.
chevy1500