Hey there, TFR. Long time no see. After a long stint away from retail, I find myself working in our particular hell once more. I've picked up a tale or two at the new job, but those are stories for another day. Today, I want to tell you a story from my first job, reminded to me by some of the other comments in this sub.

Long ago, when I was a fresh faced teen, I worked for a grocery store in a small town along with my twin brother. (For fun related to being a twin, see my previous story. On mobile, so no link, sorry.)

This store had recently updated their loyalty cards, which was playing havok with our registers. If their loyalty card wasn't the first thing you scanned, the system would take a veritable age to update the list of purchases while it checked for discounts. This meant that we were all told to get their card first thing, no matter what.

After a long day of dealing with irritable people, I had a customer come through my line talking on their phone. Like many of you, this is a pet peeve of mine. So when I asked this customer for their loyalty card and was meet with stony silence, I saw my chance and took it.

Yes, fellow wage slaves, it was beautiful. With a belt full of items and a line of people forming behind this lady, I did the unthinkable. I leaned back against my till and folded my arms, and simply said:

"No, no. I'll wait."

After only a moment of quiet interrupted only by the queue complaining about her cell phone use, Chatty Cathy quickly made her farewells and hung up. And for a change, the rest of the exchange was sunshine and roses. No threats to file a complaint, and pleasant small talk.

My favorite part, though, was that she never came through on her cell phone after that. They can be taught!

(Edit: "summer" in the first paragraph to "some.")