WORK STORY #9 As soon as I was able to work I started working at a store that was on the same street as my house. I had grown up there and they knew me so I was able to started working as soon as I could. But being in a town where there were a lot of drunk people and that usually lead to weird and dumb things happening, one I was thinking of wasn’t even in the store but on my way there. First thing I saw while walking there was a couple taking pictures of each other. One was standing on one leg and hopping while the other was trying to take their picture. Then I saw a photo shoot but in the middle of the street, so they would wait until there where no cars then run out and take pictures of the one person dressed up, and as soon as there was a car, they would run back to the side walk and wait for another picture opportunity. Both events aren’t the weirdest thing I’ve seen, but it’s just weird I saw both on them within minutes of seeing the first one.
WORK STORY #39 I was at work one afternoon and it had been a fairly slow day. I was sitting down reading a book a brought with me and all of the sudden this one lady came i and walked up to me and but a bag down on the counter. I glanced at the bag quickly and it was a box of donuts that we sell here. I look back up and say hi and how can I help you and she says that she came back to return the donuts. My first thought was that they were expired but our supplier had missed them when he was taking the expired ones off the shelf and I was prepared to give here another box but then she took it out and the donuts icing was melted a little bit and one was missing. I looked at the date on there and they didn’t expire yet so I was confused on why she brought them back. I asked what was wrong with them and she looked up and said that there were ants in them. I was really confused because we would know if we had ants and never did so I ask her what happened and when she found out there were ants because there’s a clear opening in the box where you could see if there were ants in there so why would you buy them if you saw ants.
She said that she brought her things to her place she was staying and she found the ants in the morning. I asked what happened to one of the donuts and she told me she ate it. I asked if she ate it when it was covered in ants and she said there wasn’t any. She then continued to tell me what happened and she said that once she got back she ate one and then left them outside on her front step. At this point I couldn’t tell if she thought the ants were out fault or not. I didn’t ask her why she left them outside even though I really wanted to but I didn’t want to be rude and make her upset. I did say thought that I couldn’t give a refund because that wasn’t our doing and she was absolutely dumbfounded when I said that. She asked why I couldn’t do that and I said that I wasn’t allowed to and that the people I worked for were very strict and mean. Which they weren’t, they were super nice but they told me in situations like that to take pressure off me that they are super strict and angry. So after a couple more minutes she eventually left saying she’ll be back in the morning to talk to the people I work for and I let them know that and when I went back the next morning I asked what happened and they said she never showed up so I guess that was the end of that.
WORK STORY# 18 We had our chips delivered by people from the company, so the people who did Doritos and Lays delivered their stock and the Herr’s guy delivered his stock, and they were both terrible at their job, the worst one was the one that worked for Herr’s the last summer I worked there, he would come in and not stock the shelves much and would never give us enough stock for the week, and then it got even worse two months later, he would never front stuff, which is when you put the stuff expiring soon in front so that way it’s sold and doesn’t expire, so one slow day I walked over to place everything upright and I saw a whole row of expired chips of a week ago. I looked at it and placed everything to the side so no one would buy it, my boss came down later and asked why there was a row with no chips in it, I told her what I saw and she asked me to glance at the rest to see if there was any more. 10 minutes later I had a small garbage bag full of expired chips of all kinds, the guy came later that week and my boss told him basically to do his job and he said he would, two weeks later I had another garbage bag to give him, I hope he’s still not working for them anymore.
WORK STORY #51
So some quick background info for this story, the place I worked for was family owned and it was a house they turned the bottom floor into a convince store and they kept the second floor still a house they would live up there in the summer time so there wasn’t a lot of driving. So next to the “house” was the drive way with their cars parked there, which is where this story takes place, so technically I wasn’t there for most of this story, I got there just at the end of it, but what happened is a guy came in to use the bathroom, the bathroom we didn’t have so there was none he could use to change, he got really upset and started saying it was against the law to not have a bathroom available which he’s wrong about, so he was an Asian man ( which is important later) who came in with two other guys, he apparently told them to just distract the people I worked for by buying stuff to keep them from wondering where he was. He then walked out to the driveway behind their cars, what he failed to realize is that there was a little bit of a window showing the driveway and the daughter of the people I work for looked and saw him walking there and followed him and saw him standing behind their cars starting to take his clothes off and she stopped him and told him to leave because it was my bosses house, he then proceed to get really angry and walked out and yelled at her that he was going to sue them for being racist and not providing him access to the restroom that we didn’t have and attack him on their driveway, they leave and I get there five minutes later and was told the story. We never saw or heard form him again.
WORK STORY #3 My second summer working there was when my schedule first started having me in the afternoon by myself, so one day a couple came in to buy stuff, half way during that the husband came up to ask for the bathroom, the bathroom that I’ve already established doesn’t exist, so I said, “there is none.” So another quick thing I have to talk about is the structure of the store, more about the back room, in the back of the store is a door with a sign that says “do not enter” that leads to a small hallway to the back room, so because it was just a normal house at one point there is just a toilet sitting to the right wall of the small hall to the back room (for some reason. Looking back on this I don’t think I ever asked why it was there, no one used it but it worked, and it was in the hall they built, it’s not in a room, another quick side thing is that one of my bosses would sit on that toilet to do the checks for the suppliers , instead of sitting at the stool behind the counter or upstairs in his house, which I loved, anyway...) there is technically a bathroom there, so what happened is the he told his wife to walk up to the register and start to check out and he snuck in the back room without be hearing, a couple minutes later I look up and realize I don’t see her husband anywhere then I hear the flushing of a toilet (another side thing, there is a sink back there, but because no one uses the toilet, theres no soap there to wash your hands... so that’s gross) he leaves the back room and walks up to the register to pay, and we for a bit had a $10 credit card minimum to purchase things and there was a sign hangin up saying that, I ring everything up and he hands me his card to swiped it, I don’t take it and I look at him and say “there’s a $100 minimum on cards.” He looks surprised and says the sign says $10. I then look at him and tell him “ that apparently signs don’t mean shit.” They both then left and I celebrated my win but walking around the store putting all of their stuff back.
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I started working at this place as soon as I was old enough to work, and the funny thing was I hated kids around my age, cause they are always annoying, but never annoying enough to actually make people upset, just enough for people to think “huh, that’s happened... anyway.” Some of those things involved throwing the pop cracker things that make a noise for a second on the ground at the entrance then running away, and it was so quiet I didn’t even look immediately, they had to do it three times before I looked to see what it was, woah, you got me, I looked away for a second, cool man. They just seem to do dumb stuff like they all the time, the stupidest thing I ever saw someone that age do was ride a bike into the store, there was a little Ramos do they could get it up there to do that, but that’s not was that is for, I looked at him and I’m thinking “what the fuck man, why? What possible thought could you have had to do that” he wasn’t even trying to be annoying, he just though it was okay to do that, I asked him why and he responded “I didn’t want anyone to steal it.”
So I lived on the same street as the store, making my work commute a 4 minute walk, which was crazy awesome, and I lived at that house for about 13 years I think? So you think I would know street names of the town I lived in and directions to businesses I definitely know exist. I would get questions about streets and places so much, and I felt terrible because I would have to look at them and say,
I’m sorry, I don’t know where that is. I’m terrible with directions about anything, I don’t know where anything is and I feel like I use Google maps to direct me to everything. One time a lady came in asking her a pizza place was, she had just ordered takeout and was going to pick it up, she told me the place and I had never heard of it. I googled it and still didn’t see it, I them asked which way she came and told her to walk a few more blocks and it would probably be on the right with the other restaurant in the area, I hope she got her pizza.
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I did not expect for their parent to turn around ask me why... w and hy? I didn’t thin k it was someth I had to explain ing , this store is su per small and o bounce could se ne nd it any where a n d destroy anything, I explain ed that and the parent said, the play sports so th y at won’t happen , I told him I wa questioning his sn’t kids ability to b ounce a ball aro I just said he co und, uldn’t do it in th is store, he wasn even buying the ’t ball, and at that point I stopped talking about th e ball with him and just told him to put it back, I guarantee that if it did break so thing he would metry not to pay fo r it.
So we had a small slushee machine in the back next to the coolers, it was super popular and lots of people liked it, and it wasn’t uncommon something would spill, and they would come up to the counter and ask for napkins to clean it up and I’d tell them it’s no problem and I’d clean it once they check out, one reason was to be nice, but it was mainly because I had to spray it and clean it so it would be sticky, one time a group of middle school kids I think came in for slushees, they did each one separately so the first two payed for their slushees and then a few seconds later the last girl came over to check out, I noticed that her hand were wet and a little blue, I assumed she over filled it a little bit and I thought, no problem, I’ll clean it in a second, it happens all the time, it’s all good, they buy their stuff and leave and I walk to the counter with the slushees and it’s just blue, like it’s everywhere and on the floor and I look in the trash can next to it and I see a styrofoam cup and the bottom of it is just gone. It take me like 10 minutes to clean it up, and the whole time I was thinking “what the hell happened?” To this day I still don’t know what she did to cause that.
WORK STORY #59
WORK STORY #64 So this is the big story that I tell everyone, because the rest have been weird and annoying and all that, but I’m sure you think, that happens everywhere, I guarantee that you will never ever hear another story like this one. So there I was, it was about two o’clock on a Thursday on the first week of June, I’ll never forget this day or the person who walks in the door. He walks in, he looks around 30 and has a bit of a stubble going on, ( that’s important later) and I greet him like I would with anybody. “Hi! How are you doing today?” I get no answer and he kinda walks around the store, not weird yet, maybe he didn’t hear me or was just rude, he walks around a bit more, about 15 minutes have gone by. He walks up to the register and at this point I see him clearly and I realize that I think he’s limping a little bit, he then looks at me and says something, and he was so quiet and he stuttered so much, I say “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that, could you say it again?” He says “are you guys hiring?” I tell him no and he just looks at me for a few seconds and nods and continues to walk around the store, at this point half an hour has gone by since he’s walked in, he comes up to the counter with a gallon of water and I scan it and I tell him how much it is and he just kinda stands there, I didn’t want to be rude and repeat it so I didn’t say it again immediately so I waited a bit to tell him again, that time passes and I saw it again and he tells me his wallet is in his car, I tell him okay, expecting him to go out and get it but no, he just stands there for a bit more, I ask him of he’s going to get it and he says yes.
Then after another minute he walks out to get it, he comes back in and hands me cash for it and then just stands there and tries to talk to me, he says a few things but the main thing was “where’s the nearest place that’s hiring?” I tell him no where in this town and to go to rehoboth beach near the boardwalk.” It’s about one hour since he’s walked in, and he’s just standing there, 10 more minutes go by and I told him that he couldn’t stay there and he had to leave because we had stock being delivered soon and that they were going to be walking all around the place, now this wasn’t actually happening, I just told him that to get him to leave, but, to my amazement, he doesn’t leave, he stands there for like three more minutes, I straight up tell him he has to leave because they will be here soon, he goes to leave but first he buys and disposable razor and asks for the cheapest shaving cream we have, I show it to him and he’s like have anything less for a dollar, I tell him no, and he asks again, he then suggests to that he will give me thirty cents for me to open the can and spray a bit in his palm, I tell him no, I’m not doing that and he looks at it for another minute and he after an hour and 20 minutes, leaves the store, and what I see next is something that’s burned into my head forever, I don’t even know how to put it into words, I always have to physically do this when telling anyone this story, but he does what I have called “the water dance” out of the store to his car, I’ll put a drawing to show what he does but to try to explain it, he takes one step forward and jumps back while waving the water jug in the air, and he does this and slowly goes to his car, he then sits there for like another 10 minutes, and then he gets back out and walks back in the store, and at this point I’m like fuck, why won’t he leave
he comes back it and asks to fill this little cup he has with like a bit of ice, I was gonna tell him it costs a quarter, but then I thought he wouldn’t pay it with what I just saw with the shaving cream so I don’t say anything and I take a quarter from my pocket and pay for it. He then fills it up a bit and hobbles over to me and says something so strange, “ can you hold the door open for me?” Now he had been opening it this whole time and now I need to hold it, I ask him to repeat himself because I can’t believe what I’m hearing and he says “ I need a running start” and at this point like with the ice, I’m like what ever gets you out of here faster man, I walk over to the door and hold it open, he then jumps up once and starts going back and forth and then just kinda skips out the door, at this point it’s almost been two hours and my boss comes down, because she’s been upstairs and is probably thinking, why is that car still parked here, she comes down and I tell her everything and she asks me, why did he pour out his water? I tell her I don’t know what your talking about and she tells me there’s water all around his driver side door. I look up and see him kinda shaking up and down and so I go outside to ask him to leave, I get there and I peak inside his car and there’s just tons of gallon sized water bottle all like half full and he looks at me and mumbles, I spilled my water, I tell him has to leave but he’s like “ I need more water” I tell him if he hands me the money for it I’ll run in and get it for him,
he hands me like half the amount it actually cost but I say nothing and pay for the rest and bring it to him, and I realize there’s something different about him, he shaved in his car with out any shaving cream. I hand him his bottle and he tells me he’s off to look for a job, I go back inside and this whole time I wanted him gone but I realize that I never saw him pull up, he just appeared there and as I’m walking back inside I hear my boss say “oh my god” I turn around and this man is backing up and then furiously hitting his brakes, then going forward and furiously hitting his breaks and again and again, at this point we realized he’s gonna hit somebody if we let him go so my boss call the police over to try to stop him, so the Dewey Beach police are some of the most incompetent people out there, so dewey beach police station is two blocks away on the other side of the street, and the store I work at is very well known in the town, my boss calls them and tells them the situation and says the store, and they respond what street is that, my boss is a little surprised by that question but tells them the street and they ask where is that street, my boss now dumbfounded and not knowing what more to say just tells them how far away we are from them, and she hangs up and we watch for ten minutes as this guy tries to back up and leave, almost hitting several people on the way, and as soon as he pulls away a minute late the police show up, which is just amazing, that it took them that long. But that’s where this story ends, I’ve never ever seen him again and I hope I never do.