From u/TheNovelleFive Tales From Retail:

I help out in this yarn store, it’s my first time there since the manager was replaced. (I’m not an employee, I’m the owner’s daughter who help out, so the manager seems to think I’m less experienced than I am. I actually own a different yarn company.)

Customer walks in, OL, for old lady, with a friend. (F). Manager= M

OL: I’m looking for a recipe I saw on the internet. It was for X yarn.

M: it was their own recipe?

OL: yes with the logo. But I want to use a different yarn.

(Our store actually don’t have X yarn and it says in their copyright policy that they are only to be used to promote THEIR yarn. But I’m not about to bring that up. All their recipes are free on their website.)

So M opens their website.

OL: I didn’t use THAT website! A different one!

Me: if it was their recipe it’s in their archives.

OL: but I used a different website.

M: well what website did you use?

I’m a bit shocked she’s actually about to let others wait while she searches the internet for whatever blog or pinterest post she saw. But whatever. I go see if F needs help. She’s really weird, says no and walks to a different room. (Big store in an old house.) Go back to main room where all customers are. Manager still haven’t found anything.

Me: if you just tell me what weight it was for and a couple keywords I can find it in their archives.

OL: sweetie let the adult do her job, this is a complicated craft. Such a shame they don’t have needlework class for girls anymore, young people know nothing about it now.

Whatever, I help other customers but there’s no way for them to pay before OL is done. I keep my eyes on the friend too, who is searching through some really fancy designer yarn. She’s holding about 120€ worth of yarn.

OL: there! That is the site I used!

She points to the google logo.

M: oh that’s a good website!

They put the keywords in, click the top result, it takes them to the official website I told them to use.

OL: there it is! See old people aren’t as useless as you think.

I then see F starting to walk fast towards the exit.

Me: excuse me, you need to pay for that!

She runs.

I go to the manager, tells her that F just walked off with 120€ worth of yarn. I get absolutely no reaction, she keeps chitchatting with OL for five minutes, mention how useless young people are a couple times. Manager insults my tattoo. The recipe is printed out and OL leaves with it and buys nothing. This took about 30 minutes. A lot of people were willing to shop for those 30 minutes, but left since they had to wait for OL. We lost 120€ plus any money those other customers would have paid.

TLDR: new manager lets customer belittle me, spends 30 minutes googling for something we don’t sell, ignores a fairly large theft.

--u/TheNovelleFive