A grocery store cashier says he refused to cover the 30 cents a customer owed—leaving the shopper “shocked.”
In a trending video with more than 22,000 views, cashier and TikTok user Lyric (@3lgoofyy) shared the details of a recent encounter with a customer.
“I don’t care how short you are, by 30 cents, you better f*cking find a way because I am not about to go short on my register,” he said.
Lyric explained that he was ringing up a customer’s items as usual. But when it came time to pay, the shopper said that they were short 30 cents.
“Okay, well, do you want to take something off?” Lyric asked.
“You can cover it,” the man allegedly told the cashier.
Lyric says that even though it was a small amount, there was no way he was going to cover it.
“I always come out either even or a little over,” he says about closing out his cash register at the end of the day. He admits that sometimes he’s off by 5 cents, at most.
According to Lyric, the customer was shocked that the cashier would not cover the amount.
“Suddenly he had a f*cking extra dollar bill,” Lyric says as he continues to eat his salad.
What happens when a cashier is short on the register?
When a cashier comes up short at the end of the day, it means the amount of cash in the register is less than what they rang customers up for. For example, if they made $100 worth of cash sales but only have $97 in the register.
This may happen because a cashier mistakingly gives a customer back too much change, or when bills are stuck together.
Some places give cashiers a few dollars leeway, with the knowledge that human error is normal. But others hold cashiers responsible for replenishing any missing money and may take it directly out of their paycheck.
Depending on the place of work, some managers can fire a cashier for small discrepancies in their cash register balance. But, it typically takes a few repeat offenses before action is taken. Cashiers are only fired on the first offense if the register is over or short for $100 or more.
Commenters react
Many in the comment section pointed out that it was not about the 30 cents. It was the principle of the matter.
If the customer had been apologetic or willing to take an item off, some cashiers would have let it slide and, indeed, covered the 30 cents themselves. But entitled behavior of the customer had viewers siding with the cashier.
“You can cover it is crazy,” one person said about the customer’s attitude.
“The audacity,” a second agreed.
“It literally adds up, had a coworker who did this and by the month she was missing like 10 dollars or more on her till,” another person argued.
@3lgoofyy 🤨•#fyp#customerserviceproblems #customerservice #customer#customerchronicles #grocerystore##lyricluna ♬ original sound – lyricc ✰
“Working at dollar tree people used to leave their change so sometimes I’d used that to cover some people but then I had to stop cause some started thinking it was gonna be a thing every time,” someone else said.
One person asked, “No why do they think we should risk our credibility at work for them?”
The Daily Dot reached out to Lyric for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message.
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