You THINK it's wrong, but it's not wrong

[GiftShopGirl]

During high school, I worked at a grocery store as a cashier. There was one customer known throughout the store as 'The Jewish Lady'. I don't know why all my CWs called her this, or if she was actually even Jewish. She was very elderly, always wore a dark shawl, clutched a purse, reeked of cheap perfume, and always stalked around the store with her middle-aged daughter. She was so much of a pain in the 4$$, that whenever an employee spotted her in the store, they were to tell the front end manager so they could be ready for her onslaught. Here are the tales of my battle with 'The Jewish Lady'.

JL- 'The Jewish Lady'
JLD - her Daughter
FEM - Front End Manager
Me:

Why are you complaining?!
Our store had a policy that "if the price is wrong, you get the item for free". I think that's what spawned this story.
JL: *checking out at my register. Two packages of meat come through the line and ring up at 4 for $2* Those are supposed to be 2 for $4!!!
Me: Actually, ma'am, our special this week is 4 for $2. So you're actually saving money.
JL: No, I thought they were 2 for $4!
JLD: Mom, the sticker on them says 4 for $2. We could go back and get two more and spend less money.
JL: But I thought they were 2 for $4! The price was wrong, so they should be free!
*By this time, my manager noticed that JL was at my register and came alongside me. I explained the situation to her.*
FEM: Well ma'am, the sticker on the meat clearly indicates the correct price, which is 4 for $2 and not 2 for $4. The price is not wrong, so we cannot give this item for you for free.
JL: But I thought the price was different!
FEM: I apologize, but we can't give it to you because you thought it was different. We can only give it to you if the store advertised the wrong price and, in this case, the price was correct. Would you still like to buy the meat?
JL: No, put it back.
JLD: But mom, we would have gotten more meat for less money!!

My sodas are so fragile!
Although JLD seemed somewhat normal in the last story, don't be fooled. She was just as bats*** insane as her mother. JL and JLD are back another day at my register, buying six boxes of soda. Not the square ones, either, but the long rectangular ones designed to take up less space in refrigerators.
Me: *picking up each box, scanning it, and putting it on my belt*
JLD: We want those bagged.
Me: I apologize, you want these boxes of sodas... bagged? They're too big to fit in any of our bags.
JLD: Just do it.
Me: *so I put each box into a bag with the top foot or so standing out*
JLD: Now put a bag on top!
Me: *I wanted to ask how she planned to carry these, but just bit my lip and did it. It looked totally stupid*
JLD: And stop banging those sodas around! I don't want them to explode!
Me: But ma'am, moving them around on the belt to bag them won't make the sodas explode. *I wasn't throwing these things around or anything, I was just bagging them normally*
JLD: Yes it will, and I won't pay for any exploded soda!
Me: *fed up* Look, you know these things were tossed onto a truck before they came here, right? Then they driven all across the US on all kinds of bumpy roads, and then tossed back out of the truck and shoved onto our shelves. If they haven't exploded by now, then putting them into bags won't make them explode either.
JDL: Well, I never! The store manager will certainly hear about your lip, young lady!
I don't know if the store manager never heard from her or not, but I definitely never heard anything about it!

Also, JL pulled all the usual stingy SC stuff such as using tons expired coupons, coupons to other stores, demanding name-brand items at store-brand prices, etc. That's why the managers always needed to know if she was in the store - so they could be on hand to help out the poor cashiers, who couldn't do anything when Scrooge's girlfriend (JL) started to yell at them and beat her purse against the counter. She was a vicious one.

[Broomjockey]

Wait. "Meat" is ringing up $0.50 each? Is this stuff from a reputable source o_O?

And from the last bit there, she was probably termed 'Jewish Lady' as a derogative about her cheapness, and the stereotype of Jewish people being bargain hunters. Stereotypes suck, but that lady sucked way more. They should have just cut out the middleman and said "That b**** is here."

[GiftShopGirl]

About the $0.50 meat - our store used to ridiculously mark down the meat a day or so before it was to go bad.

About the term Jewish Lady - I never thought of it for her being cheap! I always thought they called her that because she might have said she was Jewish to someone in a fit or rage or something, trying to claim religious discrimination or something. But you're right, the name probably came from the stereotype. I didn't even think of that.

[IT Grunt]

Me: *fed up* Look, you know these things were tossed onto a truck before they came here, right? Then they driven all across the US on all kinds of bumpy roads, and then tossed back out of the truck and shoved onto our shelves. If they haven't exploded by now, then putting them into bags won't make them explode either.
JDL: Well, I never! The store manager will certainly hear about your lip, young lady!

Huh. Plain truth is 'lip'? I'd hate to see how she reacts when someone really does tell her off.

[mattm04]

Wait. "Meat" is ringing up $0.50 each? Is this stuff from a reputable source o_O?

And from the last bit there, she was probably termed 'Jewish Lady' as a derogative about her cheapness, and the stereotype of Jewish people being bargain hunters. Stereotypes suck, but that lady sucked way more. They should have just cut out the middleman and said "That b**** is here."

We have one Jewish custoemr that fits that stereotype. At the register that demand a discount on all the Kosher items because they are Jewish. The first time I encountered that i thought it was a joke. They were dead serious and claimed that other stores in our chain would do it. Of course they don't unless it is a one time donation to a NFP.

Usually they would walk out and leave their cart behind for us to put a way all their crap.

[PepperElf]

a discount on all the Kosher items because they are Jewish.

That's silly. If that was the case then every single customer would suddenly "claim" to be Jewish too.

Just as you can't charge someone extra for being a specific religion, race etc... you can't discount for it either.

[bainsidhe]

That's silly. If that was the case then every single customer would suddenly "claim" to be Jewish too.

Nah, most EWs claim to be "such a good customer" even though it's the first time they've ever shopped there and it's a small purchase.

[Evil Queen]

And from the last bit there, she was probably termed 'Jewish Lady' as a derogative about her cheapness, and the stereotype of Jewish people being bargain hunters. Stereotypes suck, but that lady sucked way more. They should have just cut out the middleman and said "That b**** is here."

I thought it was because of the description of the clothes she wore? If it was because she was cheap, wouldn't she have purchased the meat?

[MadMike]

OK, this is drifting too much into a discussion about Jewish stereotypes. Please keep it on topic.

Also, I'd like to remind everyone that when this sort of thing does happen, we have something called a "report button" so that people can bring it to the attention of the mods, and not have to do something unbelievably stupid like complain about it publicly in the thread.