Right? I dont’ know if I believe that. I mean, the customer should always be shown respect. I might even go so far as to say the customer should always be shown patience and tolerance, even when the customer is completely wrong.

I was in a store the other day and witnessed a truly painful interaction between a store employee and her customer. Let me rephrase that. I witnessed an interaction between a patient, young woman and the brain dead simpleton who should have been shopping for the best wrinkle creams but instead was buying from the 4 for $20 wine rack with only three bottles in hand.

First of all, the clerk politely pointed out that it was a 4 for $20 promotion, that some of the wines in the sale went for $7.99 or $8.99 on their own. I thought this was a good bit of info, as someone who tends to buy booze in bulk.

The customer made a nasty reply of the “if I wanted 4 I would have picked 4” variety.

The clerk did not seem taken aback at all, a surprise since I felt like I should be apologizing for the customer’s remark. She then said that “technically” the customer was supposed to buy 4 bottles to get the sale price, but she could take care of it.

The customer said something like “whatever” in her ongoing posture of hostility, suggesting that money was no object. Now I had seen her shopping a few minutes earlier and was pretty sure she had intentionally gone for the cheap stuff, but clearly she felt it was important to affect an air that said “money is no object.”

The clerk started entering the prices on the cash register and the woman gave her a glare. “Why don’t you just scan them in.” The clerk explained that they do not have that sort of system. The customer shook her head at this clear failure.

Here’s where it gets funny. When the clerk told her the total, which was $16 and change, the woman got pissy again. “I thought I was getting the deal,” she snapped.

The clerk finally seemed to be losing her balance. She indicated that she did not understand and the customer gave her a math lesson. “4 for 20 is 5 bucks a bottle, right? So 3 should be $15. You said you were giving me the deal price.”

“Yes,” the clerk said. “But there’s tax.”

Then there was a diatribe on tax and how liquor should not be taxed because it’s not taxed in other states and New York prices are already ridiculous blah blah blah.

Obviously I have a lot of reasons to dislike this customer. She was browbeating the clerk, she feigned not caring about price when clearly it was among her primary motivations, she disparaged the shop and its processes and systems. And she was really mean looking too.