The oddest thing a customer wanted to buy

[Chevy Nachos]

In the urban area where I used to work all the convenience stores would break open packs of smokes and sell singles. Illegal as hell, but who cares?

[rerant]

Why buy only one stick?

The whole package only costs like $2, plus one stick is gonna last what? 1 or 2 meals? Hell, you need half a stick just to make mac & cheese!

One or two meals? How much butter do you eat?
One stick could last me months. That is to say if I ate butter.

Anyway, people at my work do this all the time.
We sell 6packs of wine glasses and 12packs of drinking glasses.
People are always trying to buy just a few of them, and seem to think we have some magical barcode of half products.

[South Texan]

chicken tacos...

Down here those are not unusual at all. We will make a taco out of anything (almost).

[Javarod]

The guy in my post was a senior citizen! Is it a senior thing to only want one stick at a time

Edited to say after reading the rest of the posts, I guess it is a senior thing. This is the first time I had come across it. All the grocery stores around here are big chains except for the health food stores, I don't think any of them sell single sticks of butter.

I suspect it is, remember, many senior citizens are on a limited income, every penny has to go as far as possible, so it makes the most sense to buy only what you need, and nothing more.

[earl colby pottinger]

I would look it up

When my manager told her that it was due to health department regulations, she demanded the number and exact text of said regulation, how old it was, etc.
I think it took 10-15 minutes to convince her that it was not going to happen.

I do think it is fair for her to demand the info, I also think it is fair that she *MUST* wait with me while I try and get it. In other-words, if she walks I drop the search and if she returns it is back to square one.

I got sick and tried of people wanting me to solve their problems for free, with me doing all the work while they go off and have fun, if they think the answer is that important they will wait, if they can't wait them they were lying about wanting the answer.

[Lingering Grin]

One or two meals? How much butter do you eat?
One stick could last me months. That is to say if I ate butter.

Well, as I said above, mac & cheese requires 1/2 a stick per box.

Chicken and Rice = 3/4 of a stick. (Half a stick for the rice (the spanish style yellow rice), and another tablespoon or so to cook the chicken in or it burns.)

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) to pan-cook a steak, or make a grilled cheese sandwich.

Plus, there's side dishes... potatoes, garlic bread, white rice, corn on the cob. Usually require a little bit of butter.


and that's not even including baked goods. lol

[mattm04]

We used to be able to sell sticks of butter, but we charged the full carton price. People still bought them. Now corp and the Health dept. has outlawed it.

[myswtghst]

As someone who lives alone, I do appreciate when stores sell things like eggs in half-dozens, but I would never think to separate them on my own. And butter freezes well, so if I buy a box when I'm baking, I always freeze 2+ sticks to save for next time.

[Der Cute]

Butter's started to get expensive. Stock up on it during holidays..buy 2 or 3 #s of it when it's on sale and just toss it in the freezer.

I use lots of butter when baking in the holidays..for the rest of the year, its margarine and non butter.

Cutenoob

[raideo]

This customer was well into what apeared to be a bars trip:

Uh................................................ ......
(that took about a minute)
I want a chicken.......
(another minute)
sadwich, no, toaster, no a bacon cheeseburger, etc.

It was a slow night and one of the cooks was done with his cleaning duties so he got permision to go "see if he can figure out what she wants"
We left the speaker on at her station, more hillarity ensues.

We get a bit worried about how she is going to get home without a vehicular manslaughter charge, so we ask her if anyone she knows can come bring her home, she said no so we told her we would call athourities to get her home safely.

20 min later customer tries to leave just as the local cop shows up(I thought 911 had a response time of like 4 mins, maybe that's only for serious things)

She makes it out of the parking lot onto a highway, then makes a left turn before she gets pulled over, we had a great view of her sobriety test, it was even better when we saw that two state troopers had pulled up to assist the local. Turns out she is getting charged more heavily because she tried to flee the scene.

Not entirely related, but a funny story nonetheless.

[Lingering Grin]

Butter's started to get expensive. Stock up on it during holidays..buy 2 or 3 #s of it when it's on sale and just toss it in the freezer.

I use lots of butter when baking in the holidays..for the rest of the year, its margarine and non butter.

Cutenoob

Just so you know, despite popular opinion, Margarine is actually worse than butter

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Pasta e Fagioli with NO BEANS. (pasta fagioli means Pasta and beans)

Wanted a picture copied onto a coffee table

Wanted totally fat free food in an Olive Garden

Cute guy in Kinko's wanted to buy the HORRIBLE candy I was giving away at the counter (to get rid of it). I gave it to him. All of it. Free.

Several people insisted I sell them parking permits for our parking lot, then insisted I was holding out on them when I told them we didn't sell or permit such a thing, nor had we ever.

And I will add my favorite "weird thing a customer wanted to buy" to this list, only this item is a friend's, not mine. My friend is also a graphic artist who does illustrations on the side. He does a lot of fantasy sketches for hire at cons and faires and such. We overheard one client in his booth telling him to "add more shit dripping down the legs and all around the feet." Apparently, the guy was into scat, and wanted himself portrayed as a feces covered monster. My friend, ever the professional, just sat there with a straight face, sketching away. We still kid him about that.

[Broomjockey]

Just so you know, despite popular opinion, Margarine is actually worse than butter

Get me a butter that spreads well after being kept in the fridge for a month, and I'll switch. I barely use ANY of the stuff. A 2kg tub lasts me darn near a year. I'll be damned if I'm gonna futz with it the few times I DO use it.

[Lingering Grin]

Get me a butter that spreads well after being kept in the fridge for a month, and I'll switch. I barely use ANY of the stuff. A 2kg tub lasts me darn near a year. I'll be damned if I'm gonna futz with it the few times I DO use it.

Set it on the counter for 5 minutes

or... blast it in a microwave for 10 seconds.

[Kat33auS]

I've had 3 customers so far try to buy our coat-hangers.

First one showed up at closing time. He saw a box of hangers through one of the windows and thought we were selling them. He and his wife had just moved into one of the apartments above the shop so one of the girls gave him a bunch for free as a welcoming gift.

Second was a business-y looking bloke who wanted a shirt "and the hanger too". Not happening buddy.

The third needed the hangers for the little girls' outfits she brought. Since the boss was there, she was able to buy them for the same price he did.


I've also had some boys try to buy a single stud each (of diferent colours), a no-no since 99% of our earing buyers have two pierced ears. I managed to get them to buy the pairs.