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The original was posted on /r/talesfromretail by /u/Alarmed-Nerve-2043 on 2024-08-16 15:35:39+00:00.
Many years ago I worked in a shop halfway down a narrow alleyway. The whole thing was converted into small trendy retail outlets. You wouldn't be able to walk through comfortably with more than three people side by side. It was popular, high traffic, and cramped is what I'm saying.
A mother and very young daughter (3yo?) come in, already irate and demanding a refund on an item well outside our return policy - shoes, very clearly worn outside. Nope, not even if it's within our warranty period.
She's already frustrated, and so am I at her attitude. She picks up another pair and comes to pay. I begin the transaction when her little girl starts demanding her attention. I'm ignoring this and putting the sale through the register.
Mother then takes her daughter outside, to the gutter directly outside our window. And how to put this delicately? Pulls down the girl's underwear, picks her up and holds her supporting her from below with her hands so she is in a seated position. Right above the drain. And allows the child to wee. Passing foot traffic and onlookers be damned.
Of course she does. Of course she comes back in to pay.
And I'm so shocked and wtf I actually take her card and run it.
I shouldn't have. I should have handled the situation very very differently. But that would have involved accepting the evidence of my own eyes and believing what I saw truly happened. My poor brain did not have time for that.
I washed my hands. She didn't.