I, 25F, work part time as a cashier in a clothing store. There were only two cashiers on that day. Me and Sarah 32F. Sarah went on her break so I was the only cashier for the next 30 minutes.
A woman, Amy, about 30, came up to me and said she wanted to do an exchange. Behind the register, we have the nice $50 sweaters. The manager didn’t want people stealing them so they are all behind the register and a cashier needs to hand it to you.
Amy asked for a black sweater in size small. I told her we did not have any left. I sold the last one the day before. She did not believe me and insisted I look. I got my long stick and took each sweater down from the top one by one. It took about 6 minutes. There was no size small left. I also had a mess now because there were black sweaters all over the place.
There were now five customers on line behind Amy. She told me to check the green sweaters next for a size small. I knew it would take a while so I asked her if she could wait a minute and let me take one customer as I am the only cashier right now.
I rang up one woman who only had three shirts. I was done in a minute. There were still four other customers on line but I went back to help Amy and took down half of the green sweaters. She told me she changed her mind and wanted the gray one instead.
Keep in mind there are black and green sweaters all over the place because I did not get a chance to hang them back up. There are now more customers on the line so I asked her if she could wait a few minutes as the line is getting longer.
She yelled at me that she was there first and how I was being unfair to her and she demanded to see the manager. I called for the manger. Before the manger got there, I did apologize to her and explained I am the only cashier right now and if the line gets too long I would get in trouble and did not want to lose my job.
The manager hates helping with the lines and asked us not to call him for this in the past which is why I didn’t call him for help. He came to the register and I asked him if he could help Amy find the sweater while I do the line. There were about ten customers in line now.
The manager listened to Amy complain about how I was unfair and he found her the sweater while I handled the line. I got rid of all the customers in about 10 minutes.
After she left, the manager looked around and asked about the sweaters everywhere. I told him she wanted a size small and I didn’t have it in those colors but she asked me to check anyway. He didn’t even let me finish explaining and said to just hang up the sweaters and he walked away.
I thought I was in the right since he didn’t yell at me. I told Sarah when she came back and she said I was an asshole for not helping Amy first. She said I was lucky Amy didn’t curse me out or insist I get fired. Sarah said I should have made the other customers wait since Amy was there first.
AITA for making Amy wait?
I would ask Sarah what’s worse, one person angry you make them wait, or ten angry customers? Her logic makes no sense coz those customers could also curse you out or insist you get fired.
Also your manager is lazy and useless.
The AH is the manager putting sweaters behind the counter
All the cashiers hate that the sweaters are hung up behind the register. It takes so much time to take them down since he hung them starting from the top of the wall to the bottom. There are rows and rows of sweaters so we need a stick to get them down. He wanted to fit all of the sweaters up there. We always end up with a line when someone asks for a sweater.
Nta. And report that manager why is he mad he has to help.
The manager is an asshole, and Sarah is an asshole. You did what made sense. Amy is the one being difficult and changing her mind. She can wait. The managers job is to do what needs to be done. He can eat one, and so can Sarah. I’d sack them both.
You serve the person at the front of the line, and then the second in line, then the third. That’s generally how it works.
If someone was coming up for something different, I would have called the manager for help earlier.
But that’s all. There’s not many other options
OP, You handled that beautifully and were really the only non-AH in your post (besides the nameless additional customers).
Amy was a difficult customer. The manager is lazy and a poor manager. Sarah’s assessment of how best to handle the situation seems pretty poor and unwise. That doesn’t really make her an AH – except that I would have thought she was one if I were one of the waiting customers while she handled the situation her way.
I would hire you as an employee any day and twice on Tuesday.
Out of all the people involved, you demonstrated the best judgement. What’s wrong with Amy’s eyes that she couldn’t see you had both hands full? And why wasn’t the manager on the floor while Sarah was on break? Hopefully, you’ll get promoted to manager sooner rather than later. You’re the real deal. nta