It was 1985. I was a high school student working part time at a grocery store in my town of about 10,000 people. The grocery store was a medium-sized store and was one of many from a popular chain in the south-eastern US.

This rude and nasty lady would shop in our store two or three times a week. Normally she would come in very close to closing time when we were busy with our closing procedures (cleaning, closing registers, etc.). This woman was always accompanied by her rude and misbehaved kids and sometimes by her husband and other adult family members. More often than not, she had quite the entourage.

The kids were always eating produce while shopping in the store. The kids would also eat the bulk candy. I guess they figured anything consumed before they arrived at the checkout was fair game.

This episode was during a time when grocery store items were priced with a sticker from a price gun. The stickers were easily removed and this woman took full advantage. She would change prices of more expensive items with less expensive ones. We were also pretty sure she was shoplifting. Surveillance was unheard of at this time and no one really thought her antics were worth the effort.

The woman and her entourage would purchase items from our store, mark the prices up, and sell them in her convenience store located a few minutes away across the street from the high school I attended.

One evening this woman, her brats, and the rest of the entourage came in the store and started what was to be an extensive shopping trip. Store policy dictated that some cleaning tasks couldn’t be accomplished until everyone was out of the store.

The woman and her entourage finally made it to the checkout stand and she immediately began all of her nonsense. She would allow me to ring items up and then turn around and say she no longer wanted that item and it would have to be voided. Remember this was a time when ringing up groceries was a very manual process. Voiding items was a time consuming process. All of this was a diversion for her kids to take advantage of a distracted cashier and pocket candy and other point of sale items located at the register. I knew all of this wasn’t right and it made me mad but, I figured that if the store manager wasn’t alarmed by their antics then this high school kid sure wasn’t going to put himself out there and get in trouble for calling her out.

Well… this went on for some time. I was a high school kid and her antics would cause me and others to get home late on a school night. I would have to “re-shop” all of her voided items before I could help clean the store. This nonsense happened one too many times.

The next day after school I went into her little store to do some shopping myself. I picked up a hand basket and walked all over the store making certain that I chose something from every area. I got to the register where she was watching television. As she painstakingly rung up each item, I added a candy bar to the order. When she finally finished ringing the items, I reached for my wallet. Lo and behold I only had enough money for the candy bar. She didn’t get the message at first. She fussed at me for having her ring up all of the items. I looked her in the eye and reminded her where she should know me from. I explained to her that if she behaved badly in my store then I would return the favor. While I was explaining this to her I pointed to the high school I attended and explained that next time, I would bring friends.

Not one of my finer moments but it did solve a problem. I never saw her again.

***Edit****

Thank you to everyone for the views and the upvotes. I never would had thought so many would get a kick out of this story.

I have a weird obsession with justice and fairness. A psychologist once told me that the obsession is the side effect of being a middle child.

Anyway… A big, “Thank You!” to everyone. The response has made my week.