I worked at a retail pharmacy, front end, for a year and a half, several years ago. The store I was at was either #1 or #2 on the list of busiest in our area, at all times.

There was this one customer... first, she opened an orange soda before getting to the register, drank half of it, decided she didn't like it, and then didn't want to pay for it. I had never had that happen at this job, so I just told her I needed to ask a manager. She huffed, and waited, and to just make her be quiet he said to not charge her.

So then she asked for a carton of cigarettes. I didn't have a carton, but did have 10 packs, so I asked if she could wait while I had my manager look up the SKU, so I could get her the price of the carton. She completely went off on me. "Just ring up that carton!" "I can't, ma'am. The manager is looking for the number now." Inventory reason, but try to explain that to a customer.

So she stands there, for a full 10 minutes (the manager was having difficulty finding the SKU), and proceeded to call me stupid, ignorant, good for nothing, never amount to anything, etc. in front of other customers... management didn't do anything... got the SKU, rang her up. She left, and my manager took one look at me, and told me to take a 15, but if I needed longer take longer. I went outside, to the far end of the parking lot and cried and chain smoked for 20 or 25 minutes...

The part that upset me is that the management knew I am am on SSDI for mental illness, and accommodated as best they could most of the time... but he just let her stand there and berate me for something I didn't do and was out of my control in the first place, and then the names and put downs... she made me feel like a child being yelled at by my narcissistic mother and I couldn't even just walk away, because I was at work...

After that job, I didn't try to work again for 4 years.