Smokey Goretooth back atcha with a new “Do I Suck?,” MetalSucks’ version of “Am I The Asshole?” where we take real life horror stories and bring them to our readers to decide if the OP sucks for some bullshit they may or may not have done.
This week’s entry comes from a young rapscallion with, at the very least, good music taste. Let’s get into it…
I (18F) work at a clothing store in my town part-time. It’s a small store and isn’t a chain or anything so we can be a lil more flexible with how we do things when it comes to store policies, when we open and close etc. The other day I was working a closing shift and usually when I am and it’s slow my boss says that I can close the store a little early (like 30 minutes or something) so I can get out of there quicker because we usually close by ourselves. It was a really slow night and I was getting ready to close maybe like 15 or 20 minutes before our posted closing time and I had already brought the sign inside and everything but I didn’t lock the door yet.
As I was folding stuff and trying to clean up two people (F, old) came in to look around. I went up to them and asked them if they were looking for anything in particular and they said no, so I said to let me know if they need help but that we were closing soon just as a heads up. One of the ladies looked at me and said how it wasn’t even 9 o’clock yet so she didn’t understand why the store would be closing so early at all. I looked at my watch and it said 8:50, which is basically 9, but whatever I shrugged it off and kept trying to clean.
So then it’s like 9:10 or so and these ladies are still just looking and touching stuff and messing up everything I had already fixed. That was pissing me off and I still had to count down the register and do all my closing paperwork but I can’t just make people leave so I was thinking of some sort of other plan. I had already checked in on the two of them one more time and they insisted they didn’t need help so I reminded them that at that point the store was closed. One of the ladies said that she was still looking and didn’t appreciate being rushed, which made me even more mad because if you’re just looking and not buying anything then why the hell are you still here? So I tried to think of the most annoying thing I could do and then I thought about something that always upsets my mom, and that was me blasting music. In particular, she can’t stand when I play Vulvodynia because she said she doesn’t understand the lyrics and it was just angry noise. I usually listen to my own music anyway while I’m closing so to me, I was more just doing what I always do and anyone who’s walked by the store after 9 pm before when I was working knows that.
So I stopped our store playlist and put on Vulvodynia pretty loud and kept going about my business. Then the one rude lady came up to me and said what I was playing wasn’t appropriate for the store and made her feel uncomfortable as a customer. I said that after store hours I can play whatever I want and that if she would like to purchase something I can help her but other than that I needed them to leave because it was after closing time. So then she said that she didn’t see anything she wanted and that I was being really rude and she was going to tell my boss about it. Then I said that I’m just doing my job and that if she were an actual customer she would buy something but if not she’s just loitering. The other lady grabbed her by the arm and tried to walk out with her, but this lady started cursing at me saying how I don’t deserve my job and that the way I dress (I was wearing an all black dress and silver jewelry so nothing over the top) wasn’t appropriate for the clientele that I’m lucky anyone ever gives me attention since that’s all I want and that’s why I dress this way. She was outside the door at this point still leaning in and yelling at me so I said back to her something like “At least I get attention and I’m not old and sad like you are!” I know that was inappropriate but she had the fuckin attitude first, not me.
Next time I came into work my boss pulled me aside and told me that someone did complain about me and wants me fired so I knew it was that old bag of bones. My boss asked me what happened and I told her, and even told her to review the security footage so she could see that I didn’t do anything wrong. She did watch the footage and could tell by the lady’s body language and how she was leaning in the door at the end that she was being aggressive, but she also said that I can’t talk to customers like that. Our cameras don’t record audio but she probably wouldn’t have heard what I said anyway over the music. I ended up only getting a verbal warning but do I really suck for doing this?
As a former retail baddie, I’m 100% on your side young queen. What do you think, readers?