Harassing an elderly woman in a wheelchair? Be prepared for a long transaction.
This story resurfaced after finding this sub, happened back in 2012.
I used to work at a CVS/Pharmacy in downtown Long Beach. For those who don’t know, that’s in the midst of LA, but thankfully on the shoreline so I wasn’t surrounded by city. However, the clientele were just low-life LA city trash. Overall I had amazing coworkers and the occasional nice person to come through and make things tolerable.
So one day it’s later in the afternoon and of course we have a line of people forming as they get off work to do shopping before headed home. I’m the only cashier, I see a few people get in line, I’m going as fast as I can, but sometimes people come too fast in the late afternoon. So I page my backup cashier to come up. Within a minute or so they’re here, and we have 2 people, but still the line grows, so I page the third cashier [My manager, Monica, real names, whatever]. She comes up, and now there’s a line of probably 10 people that formed in a good 5 minute period, with people constantly coming in and lining up still.
Everybody in line gets it, it’s 4-5 in the afternoon, it’s a rush time for a quick trip. I get this one lovely older woman in a wheelchair, very nice, but obviously confined to a wheelchair and can only move so fast. She buys her stuff, and has to slowly put her 5 items into her bag on the wheel chair, carefully placing each item into the bag to make sure it’s secure. She can’t move out of my station since she’s bound, so I just wait patiently while she does her stuff. Unfortunately, the next guy in line (We’ll call Drunk Ass), isn’t as patient. He begins yelling from the line that I need to call the next person. I tell him she’s in a wheelchair and I’m not forcing her to move. She looks up at me and just smiles, and continues putting her stuff away. Keep in mind it’s been about 30 seconds since we finished, nothing crazy.
DA: “You’re taking too long. You’re too slow, you had to call 2 extra cashiers up just to get people out, what’s the hold up? What’s wrong?”
Me: “Sir, she’s in a wheelchair and putting her stuff away, I’m not going to rush her out, just please wait patiently for her to finish.”
So Drunk Ass comes up to my line anyway. The poor lady is still working on putting her bag back around her wheelchair, and this guy stands right up against her wheelchair, and plops his items down on the counter. I don’t initially grab any of his items until the woman finishes, but he pushes them closer anyway. So I start scanning, and then an idea hits me.
Anybody who’s been to a store like this (CVS, Safeway/Vons, Rite Aid, Walgreens) knows you pretty much need one of the club cards to receive the sale price. You can probably see where this is going.
Me: “Do you have a CVS card?”
Me: “Okay, well just so you know you can’t get the sale price without a CVS card.”
DA: “They always scan one of those cards for me, just do that.”
No please here? Oh boy, I’m DEFINITELY going to oblige now!
Me: “Sorry, sir, they’re very strict that I can’t just scan new cards, they actually track if we scan too many new cards in a day.”
DA: “I have a card, I just don’t want to get it out, just scan that one.”
Me: “Again, sir, I can’t do that. I can look up your phone number though.”
DA: “I don’t have it tied to my number, just scan that card.”
Me: “I have to have your card to give you the sales, I’m sorry. They’re very strict about our numbers.” (This is actually true for the most part)
So at this point Drunk Ass is getting visibly upset. He’s definitely a little drunk, his face is getting red, and he just wants to buy his stuff and go home. Then the unexpected happens, my manager Monica speaks up to the side, I had no idea she was paying attention.
Monica: “Sir, you’re holding up my line, I’m going to need you to give him your card or just pay.”
Oh to hear your manager catching on to your game and rallying against the awful customers. Drunk Ass ended up paying for his stuff without the sale price, cost him an extra $1 IF that, and I never saw him again. As he walked out the door I looked over to my manager and she’s just grinning ear to ear at what we just did.
Never a dull moment there, but I’m glad I no longer live there, nor work for a company as awful as CVS. I have more stories I’m sure I can post, but here’s to my first!
