Impersonating a Federal officer is actually a crime and can get a “joker” up to three years in prison.
If I saw shit like that happen I’d be delighted to call the authorities myself and see how the “joker” likes having the tables turned on him.
Again, I am stopping here because we are not in the Pit.
It was just a spontaneous thing and I apologize 50 years in arrears. I just figured they would say, “Yeah, right. That ain’t a badge”. I was in my 20s at the time.
Sorry, I don’t believe you.
Because if in the intervening years you realized what a jerk move that was you would have said something along those lines. No, you shared it as if we’d all laugh along with you.
We didn’t.
Or they might just assume that your average American consumer understands that the price doesn’t include sales tax. If something costs a dollar and sales tax is 4% the ultimate price will be $1.04.
One of my summer college jobs was selling women’s shoes in a department store. It was amazing how many women would claim to wear size 6, in spite of the ginormous size of their feet. And it didn’t help that their feet were swollen from shopping all day.
Had a client reject over thirty logos (for a high-tech startup). Three weeks of meetings, and they finally said “Can we see some without the little feet?” They were rejecting entire logo ideas just because the company name didn’t have serifs.
I keep thinking about John Finnemore working at The Pound Shop…
“How much is this coloring book?”
“Madam, it’s a Pound Shop!”
“So it costs a pound?”
“Why does everyone always say that? No, we sell everything by the pound. So you have to buy a pound of coloring books… which is 7, 8, 9, nope, that’s over [tear] 8 1/2 coloring books.”
Love the punchline…
“Oh, dear, but I only want one…”
“Ahh, then you should try the 99p shop next door!”
“Thank you.”
“… though they only sell vegetables in verrry precise quantities.”
Yeah, I used to see that back when I worked as a cobbler. Lots of women bringing in size 5 and size 6 shoes and asking us to stretch them to fit their ::: looks over counter ::: size 8 or 9’s. A typical excuse: but they only make cute shoes in THESE sizes! Yes, because morons like you keep buying them. Stop buying shoes that don’t fit and maybe the free market will start making more options in your actual size. Also, get over yourself. Your feet aren’t as petite as you think they are/want them to be. Deal with it.
I hesitate to suggest you should offer them a hatchet instead,
I work in store that is one of 32 or 33 in the company, which also has a HUGE online presence in a fairly niche corner of the sports world. If you participate in this sport at any level you have probably heard of us.
Our store is just a usual storefront, one of several in a strip mall sort of set up. We aren’t remotely Costco or Walmart sized, and our stockroom is fairly small. Except for a few bulkier items everything we have is out on the sales floor. Pre-covid the company put out one or two catalogs a year, with smaller seasonal highlight catalogs as fill-ins. The main catalog is 1/2 an inch thick and isn’t one item per page - this company sells a LOT of product. The main warehouse is indeed huge, plus they do a lot with the manufacturers and a good portion of product will ship directly from the individual manufacturer or distributor.
All this is to explain my internal sigh and huge eyeroll when a customer is dismayed to find that we don’t actually have every catalog item in the store, and tries to imply that somehow we are failing at our jobs when we don’t have the exact make/size/style/color easily to hand. It happens more than I would have expected.
Open your eyes, folks! This building has us, a takeout pizza place, and a small restaurant in it. Just where do you think we’d keep all that product?
Just gotta say that reading threads like this make me realize what I missed by not having the usual teen jobs in retail or food service. It also makes me grateful I never had said usual teen jobs. Huzzah for those who accept the challenge!
Some of us are dealing with this not as teens but as the middle-aged after our prior careers were rendered obsolete.
Happily, I have been able to claw my way up the ladder somewhat and don’t have to deal with this constantly. Also, for some reason the jokers seem less inclined to pull pranks on someone old enough to be their grandmother.
But I still have to deal with far too many spoiled, entitled brats.
Customer: “You really should smile more.”
Me: “I smile when it’s appropriate to smile. I’m not gonna walk around like a grinning idiot.”
Of course, these days when someone says “you should smile more” I can come back with “how do you know I’m not?” Hmm… mask wearing isn’t ALL bad…
“You should smile more.”
“I’ll be smiling at your funeral. Do you want paper or plastic?”
Yes, this. In America, when you ask the price it is understood that there will be additional tax.
I appreciate it’s not easy for everyone, but I think you often get what you give. If you at least attempt a smile, the customer will be less likely to give you a hard time.
When I was driving a truck, I spent some time making deliveries to small businesses. I made a deliberate effort to smile and give a cheery greeting to whoever was receiving the goods. With the right approach, most were helpful. Sometimes, when I was collecting, the pallets already on needed restacking, so helpful FLT drivers were important.
After I had been away for a couple of weeks, the guy who stood in said; “I don’t know how you put up with all those miserable gits.”
“You should smile more.”
Yet another reason it’s a good thing I never had a customer service job. I have a pretty serious RBF* even though for the most part, I’m a pretty happy person. And I can be a teensy bit sarcastic (nooooooooo!!) so I have, on occasion, made bad first impressions. In fact, my last boss before I retired commented about me being unhappy or crabby or something, but I explained RBF and that ended that.
Anyway, even when I try to smile and look pleasant, it looks forced. So someone telling me to smile is probably going to be on the receiving end of snark. It’s just the wonder of me. 
*Resting Bitch Face
I’ll bet it’s mostly female customer service people who get told to smile more, and it’s mostly by men. Why? Because that’s how it is everywhere, not just at the register.
Yup, it’s about exerting control over the body of a woman.
How very condescending of you to assume I do not already know that.
How very oblivious of you to miss the fact that I was referring to pretty much all of use where masks these days that cover at least half our faces. Again - how can you tell I’m NOT smiling?
If only that were true.
That’s like saying I’m less likely to be sexually harassed if I wear modest clothing. Newsflash: some people are just assholes/harassers/self-entitled snowflakes.
Mind, I do try to be nice to people because that’s just the way I am. I had people amazed that Chicago bus drivers were nice to me. How did that happen? Gee, I dunno … good morning, hello, please, thank you…?
But in my experience there are plenty of people who are just going to be jackasses no matter what you do or don’t do.
^ This.