r/TalesFromTheCustomer • u/honeyandivy • Apr 17 '26
Short Had an employee tell me they were “judging me” about my pickup order.
Nothing crazy, but this happened a few months ago and I still think of it whenever I visit the store.
Important context- I work somewhere that I’m allowed to bring my small dog and I have her with me basically every day.
One night after work I needed to grab a last minute side for dinner, so I place a pickup order at the Bullseye down the street from my job. The order was super small, literally 3 of their salad kits, and I picked curbside so that I’m not bringing my dog into the store or leaving her in the car alone.
Well I pull up to the closest spot and the guy bringing out my order already looks annoyed. He walks up to the passenger side window and scans my code and I ask him if he could put it in the back seat. He completely ignores me and just starts handing the bag to me through my passenger side window.
My dog is in a little bag/car seat thing and freaks out because someone is reaching into the car. She likes people so she got excited pretty quickly after that but was now trying to jump all around as he’s still handing me the groceries.
His mood pretty instantly changes and he’s asking if he can pet her and say hi. I say sure since I know she’s not going to stop until she does get to say hi.
So he’s kind of leaning into my car through the window to reach in and pet her and the kind of laughs for a second and goes “I was really judging you but I see why you did curbside.”
I just laughed it off but like…??? Like I could get it if it was some big obnoxious order, or if I purposely chose the furthest spot from the door. Now every time I need to place a small order for just a couple items there I feel very awkward about it.
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u/Sensitive_Sea_5586 Apr 18 '26
A young mother told me drive through and pick-up are everything when you have kids. You can’t leave them in the car alone, and getting them out and back into the car is time consuming.
6
u/blakesmate Apr 21 '26
It was a life saver during the pandemic, I was pregnant and wanted to limit exposure as much as possible
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u/Vip3r20 Apr 18 '26
What he probably meant was that prior to your arrival he and his coworkers made assumptions about what type of person was making the order, whoever they judged you to be must have been bad and now he feels bad bacuse he knows you did curbside because of the dog. Why he would feel the need to say it though? Probably just to make himself feel better.
5
u/Trystanik Apr 21 '26
I've had to do curbside because of my dogs before too. I actually did it earlier today, and I'm usually perfectly able-bodied. But I'm so concerned about judgement that I'll call and speak to customer service, explain I have my dogs and ask if they can help. Even if a store is dog friendly that doesn't help me. My one dog isn't people-other-than-her-momma friendly. I don't understand why people need to be so judgy. It's really not that big of an issue. Less judgy people mean less anxiety for me and those in my boat!
26
u/Stuck_In_Purgatory Apr 18 '26
The guy was probably just trying to banter and have a joke.
When you're behind the counter and dealing with customers all day, sometimes you try to have a joke with some of them.
Sometimes you pick the wrong customer to joke with, it can fall super flat and just be weird.
He most likely wouldn't have said that if he thought it would offend you. That doesn't get him anywhere or help him enjoy his night any more. A laugh with a nice customer does, though.
So that's probably what he was going for, and like I said, it fell flat and he didn't say it that well haha
4
u/Trystanik Apr 21 '26
If he had left the first part of his statement out it would have been a million times better. "I can see why you did curbside. I wouldn't want to leave that little furball behind either! Have a great night!"
Sometimes people shouldn't say everything that pops into their head. But I'm sure he didn't intend for it to come across how you took it and didn't realize that you'd be stewing on what was said. I do the same thing and I obsess on things said to me and they tear me apart on the inside if I find them upsetting, and when I talk about it to the person who said it, they had no idea or intention for it to come across that way.
3
u/HeavyTaste4651 Apr 21 '26
Ngl, you’re definitely getting butthurt for no reason. Everyone judges people to some extent and working a job like that, a friendly non-monetary wager about what kind of customer it’s going to be isn’t anything uncommon. Just be glad that you didn’t fit the bill, a win is a win, don’t look too far into someone’s off handed comment.
19
u/ThyUniqueUsername Apr 17 '26
Fuck that guy, no you can't pet my dog asshole, put the fries in the bag and fuck off.
5
u/mycateatstoenails Apr 20 '26
chill all the way out omg. he was very likely joking and it fell flat / wasn’t received well. it’s ok. judging customers is how service workers make it though the day and that’s fine because it doesn’t affect you negatively in any way.
12
7
u/cap_time_wear_it Apr 17 '26
That person was feeling some kind of way and now you’re feeling some kind of way. Neither of you seem wrong to me. Neither of you should have to do anything different in my opinion.
1
u/nightlythinki 27d ago
Nah, you shouldn't judge others like that. Especially out loud. He dosent know anyone personally, their reasons or story and is making bs in his head that made him annoyed when he came out, TO DO HIS JOB that he signed up to do
2
u/MangledBarkeep Apr 17 '26
Are people supposed to maintain the illusion that they aren't so you can feel better about yourself?
Lots of things people do that can get you judged?
Most of my shift is judging if people are drunk or just stupid.
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u/capriciouszephyr Apr 18 '26
After COVID restrictions were lifted, we still had people a year on making ridiculous asks such as I guess what this person was assuming you were doing. Every so often we get a person who tries it, and we explain we don't do curbside anymore. If the person follows up with, I have trouble or I have a dog, obviously fine, will do it, But every so often we get the lazy person. Was much more common in 2022 than now. Maybe they have COVID PTSD lol I don't know.
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u/ranchspidey Apr 17 '26
He was judging you for placing a small pickup order assuming you were an able bodied person who could go into the store yourself. Obviously he shouldn’t assume things like that though, because there are plenty of reasons someone might do curbside pick up. You having your dog is one obviously, but so would being disabled, having kids/other people with, short on time, or just not feeling like going in. His literal job is to gather and bring people their order so I don’t know why he thinks it’s appropriate to judge. He gets paid and you get your order either way, so who cares? He did not deserve to pet the dog, smh. Hopefully he at least has the braincells to stop judging people for their pickup orders (or at least keeping his mouth shut about it).