From u/KEC112992 Tales From Retail:

I worked retail for 5 years through college. I was mainly a fitting room bitch so I managed to avoid confrontation by doing my best to avoid customers at all. But of course I still have some stories up my sleeve, especially from my times at the register.

This one was my very last customer interaction on my last day of retail, almost two years ago. And for the last almost two years, I still wonder about this guy. I couldn't decide if he was rude and delusional or if there was just a language barrier. I have decided that it was all three.

This man approaches me with two sneakers from the shoe department that are still attached together with the anti-theft device, but no shoe box. We need the shoe box for the barcode in order to sell the shoes. Great. I figure he's grabbed a display pair. (The last time I went to the store, I noticed that they no longer sell the display pair ... haha).

I kindly ask the man if he saw the boxes of non-display shoes underneath, hinting maybe he could go grab one for the sale. He just keeps saying he "found them this way" and doesn't seem to understand what I mean. I have to walkie the poor shoe girl to get me the box.

The shoe department was always understaffed and a wreck (much like the rest of the store), so it took her a good 7-8 minutes to have time to bring me the box. All the while the man is huffing and seeming agitated at the wait.

I get the box and ring him up, and then carefully box up the shoes. The shoe box was slim with the somewhat complicated cardboard tabs that I wasn't used to, so it took me another two minutes probably to box them up properly, all while he watched. When I hand him the shoes he says "I don't want the box."

................ ok. So I (passive aggressively) unbox the shoes, trash the box, and go to clock out on my last shift. I run into the shoe girl who informs me she had seen the man take the shoes out of the box and toss it aside in the shoe department. She told him to please take the box up to the front to have the cashier throw it away. Of course he just didn't do that.

So to wrap that up, he tosses aside the box, lies to me about it, stands there and waits for the shoe girl to bring the box up instead of going back to get it himself, WATCHES me box them back up, THEN informs me he doesn't want the box. All while acting agitated at the wait he could have easily avoided himself.

It was a great way to end the last shift!

--u/KEC112992