The Career that Never Was

I worked briefly at a major do-it-yourself store as a cashier.  We couldn’t punch out and go home until all of the customers in the store were gone and all cashiers had "cashed out."  One night, well after the store had made several “closing” announcements, there was still one inconsiderate nut in the back of an aisle cutting wood. 

Twenty minutes after closing time he approached the register and attempted to pay by check.  The only problem was he didn’t have his driver’s license on him.  This of course begged the question, how the heck did he get to the store? 

Anyway, policy being what it is, the store refused to sell him the wood.  So he asked if he could drive home, get his license and come back to the store. The store manager told him that, unfortunately, they could not accommodate him, policy being what it was.  Then he wanted to know if he could call his wife and have her fax his license to the store.  He was told that again, that was against policy.  So they put his wood aside for him and told him he could come back the next day and pay for it providing, of course, he had his driver’s license.

It was probably 35 minutes after normal quitting time that we were all finally allowed to leave.  Believe me, no one was happy.

Here’s what I would have done if I were the store manager.  I would have told the offending customer that it was perfectly OK for him to go home and get his driver’s license.  Then as soon as he left the store, I would have sent the cart boy to follow him and get his license plate number.  Then I would have called the cops, given them the make, model and plates on the car and told them some weirdo was exposing himself on the highway.

Funny how I never made it to head cashier.