It was a sunny day when Mark opened the doors to The Supermarket. Customers came in smiling and left smiling. Employees were smiling as the rang up customers' orders. It was a perfect exchange of money for good. It was the ideal way for a store to be run.
Then, he showed up. The one customer everyone hated seeing. He was a fairly old man, perhaps 59 or 60, who always came in and made snide comments. The employees didn't like him, but Mark always said, "he's a customer. He'll leave once he's done shopping."
What would this customer say or do today? Nothing yet, but he just walked in. Everyone knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time.
Mark walked around, checking different areas of the store, when he made it to the deli. The customer was there, being served. Once he got what he wanted, he said to the deli worker, "I remember when negroes didn't used to work here. Ah, the good old days."
The deli worker, who was Black, saw Mark and looked over as if he wanted to say, "Do something about this guy."
Mark came over. "Are you happy with your service, sir?"
The man smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. Product looks as good as ever." Away he walked.
Mark and the deli worker looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
Mark walked around for a bit when he came across the customer again. He was in the candy isle, ogling a young female stocker. "You need to wear a miniskirt next time. Oh, and try not to wear any panties, either."
The stocker looked at Mark, as if to say, "Help me."
Away the customer walked.
Mark and the stocker looked each other and shook their heads.
From there, Mark headed up to the registers to help ring up customers. It was busy, but things were moving along. As usual, it was smiling customers and smiling employees.
Then, it was time for the customer to be rung up. Everything was going smoothly. As expected, though, things hit a rough patch. He looked at the cashier and asked, "Are you sure you're legal here?"
The cashier, who was Latino, looked over to Mark.
Mark finished ringing up his current customer and headed over to help. "Is something going on, sir?"
The customer looked at him and pointed at the cashier. "When did you start hiring illegals?"
"Listen here," Mark said calmly. "You've been insulting my employees all day. Now I appreciate value every customer who walks through the door, but that doesn't mean you can walk around insulting my employees. I'd like to ask you to refrain from doing so."
The customer looked at him, incredulous to what he was hearing. "I'm the customer, so that means I'm always right. If I want your females to wear miniskirts, you should make it happen. If I want to shop somewhere untainted by Blacks and Latinos, then you need to fire them all."
Mark found himself having to do something he never thought he'd have to do. "Take your stuff, leave the store, and please don't come back."
"What'll you do if I do come back?"
"I don't know," Mark said. "I just might have to knock you retarded."
The customer shoved him. "Say what?"
"Get out of my store or I'm going to knock you retarded," Mark said, shoving him back.
"I want to talk to your boss," the customer growled.
A man standing behind the courtesy desk said, "I'm the store director. I've seen everything and deemed my manager to be in the right. We don't want trash like you shopping here. Take your goods and don't come back."
The customer looked around and said, "You all can kiss my ass!" Then he stormed off.
The store director said, "You handled things well, Mark. I'm proud of you."
"Thank you, sir," Mark said.
With the issue resolved, it was business as usual.
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