Racist Old Men Tick Me Off

[Gaki]

We have this regular guy. He's white (relevant), old, and usually he's pretty nice to me. TO ME is the key in that sentence. He's told me many times that I'm always helpful and have a kind attitude (totally false, I have to be the meanest cashier, I'm just rude with that "I'm joking with you" tone that makes people feel like they're laughing with me.) He's always going on about how I'm always working (true) and put my all into my job and blah blah blah and he even called corporate and told them all about how I'm so great and bladiddly.

Well I'm the night shift leader and I currently work with a girl who became one of my very close friends while she was working first shift. She is not white. She's actually racially ambiguous--as in people mistake her for Filipino, Asian, Black, etc etc etc. As it is, her skin and hair and everything about her shouldn't matter in the least. But this old man being racist is the only explanation I have for this episode.

BG: A sweet old lady asks CW if she can break a 50 for her. CW doesn't have enough money in the drawer to do that and apologizes. Sweet old lady leaves.

SC: *Enters* Hey, I need fifty.
CW: Okay, on which pump?
SC: NO. I NEED FIFTY. I need this fifty broken. My lady friend just came in here and said you wouldn't do it for her.
CW: I don't have enough money in my drawer to break that. I don't have fifty dollars to spare.
SC: Well then let's get a manager, huh?

As I've been standing right there the whole time, CW states, "Well here she is." He comes over to my register and this is my dealing with him;

SC: Are YOU able to break this?
Me: I am but if you'd like ones.
SC: It's the POINT of the thing. You CAN break it.

At this point I take out ALL THE MONEY IN MY DRAWER and lay it down on the counter. It is one single five-dollar bill and about fifty ones.

Me: This is all the money that is in my drawer. We do not keep twenties and at any given time we are only allowed to have two tens because we could be robbed. With policy we do not break fifties unless it is for a purchase of 25 dollars or more.
SC: OH. WELL NOW I KNOW BETTER. I'm not going to make you break it if it would run you out of money. I just didn't think SHE was being honest with me! *storms out*

Uh. Why would she lie? Why would she make that up? Because she's got a better tan than you she's suddenly inherently dishonest? CW is NOT a LIAR. I've got a mind to ask him why in the blue blazes he would ever think that CW would lie to him. She's a lovely person, just very quiet, and she's got her own quirks. I don't think she's got a dishonest bone in her body and she gets uncomfortable whenever there's a secret to be kept.

Agh, it just makes me so mad!

[ReadyToRetire]

While race may have been a factor in what he said, there is really nothing to indicate that he was being racist. He may just have trust issues.

[roxtar]

agreed... seems like you're just assuming he's racist because he's old and white...

[EricKei]

This thread is about an asshole customer, not about WHY he may have acted that way or how others may see him. Please conduct yourselves as such so we don't have to close the thread.

[An Haddock]

You should have hit him with the cash register.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

You should have hit him with the cash register.

Tempting but why do that to the cash register? It didn't do anything to deserve that.

I think some people just enjoy being morons. Only explanation I can think of other than he's an ass.

[Draco]

*shrugs* Why do people never seem to trust normal cashiers but only their regular cashiers/supervisors/managers?

All this seems to be.

[Shyla]

I actually wonder if the woman he didn't trust was his lady friend. Unless when talking to you he indicated the cashier. I still think he thought the lady friend should have been more agressive.

[Fire_on_High]

He might have thought you'd give him special treatment that wouldn't otherwise be had.

[Mike Taylor]

You're a gaki. Can't you set his ass on fire or something?

[Seshat]

While race may have been a factor in what he said, there is really nothing to indicate that he was being racist. He may just have trust issues.

Either way his behaviour sucked.

[sms001]

I've seen this kind of behaviour before too. Don't know what it is (certainly NOT my being "nice" to them) but some SCs just kinda latch on to you as their allie. afaik, it never gets them any perks or anything, but they look to you to back them up against your coworkers, or think they can get away with things other sucktomers can't, etc. Very strange.

[shopgirl15]

I dunno about racist, maybe he just thought you would be nice to him and make an exception.

[Gaki]

This guy has been coming in for a long time. Possibly every single day. And he's usually very very sweet to everyone BUT:

We're all white.

Except CW.

He didn't even know that I was the shift leader until that moment. I think he was rather shocked actually. He's nice to the Deli people, he's nice to me, he's even nice to the kid who has the worst manners on the planet and will laugh at customers when they ask for stuff like fifties being broken. I've heard things like, "Yeah...that's not gonna happen today." come out of his mouth and the guy is STILL NICE TO HIM.

I mean there are people with trust issues and then there's this guy. He's a regular. He comes in every day. This is the first time I've ever seen him act this way and CW said it's the second time he's given her shit.

He very clearly thought that CW was a straight-up liar and had no idea the types of policies we have in place that make it impossible to break a 50 dollar bill. He came in confrontational and went straight to her. As if I didn't even exist so he could berate her.

It still makes me mad.

[sms001]

It still makes me mad.

Don't blame ya a bit. My wife has an employee who's different from the usual 'round these parts types and the unfounded abuse she gets is tragic. I applaud her thick skin, but kinda wish she'd go off on one of 'em.