#by /u/Gyrick

[prorevenge]

It's the Little Things

I'm not exactly sure if this is "Pro Revenge," but here's a story for you all.

Which is why when I would see customers treat them like crap it would really upset me.

I can't remember exactly when in my tenure of being a regular part-time/seasonal worker this particular incident happened, but I do know it was at a time when I was working a shift with my manager and two other full time workers meaning that I was the only male employee working that day. I was restocking/reorganizing the shelves when I overheard a typical kind of incident; a group of boys (I think there were four of them, maybe around 12-13 years old) were trying to buy an "M" rated game (I think it was some form of Grand Theft Auto), which one of the full-timers and the manager politely explained that they were not allowed to sell mature rated games without seeing a valid state issued ID that proved the buyer was over 17 years of age. Despite the pleading and the "come on, be cool" remarks, my co-workers stood their ground and refused the sale. The boys eventually relented, but they didn't actually leave the store. Instead, they started having a loud conversation among themselves calling my co-workers "bitches and cunts" among other horrible things.

Now, I was a teenage boy once, and I was aware of what they were doing. They were doing that thing where they would try to one-up each other on "how badass" they could be by using "the naughty words." I didn't like it when I was a kid, and I certainly wasn't enjoying this display now.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of customer service and the fact they were minors, there wasn't anything the manager or my co-workers could do without potentially causing a huge problem. The manager and co-workers eventually got so upset that they ended up taking their breaks early, which was fine with me since I had worked there long enough that I could run a register and mind the store. The boys continued to taunt them with remarks and lewd gestures as they left the store and high-fiving each other on a job well done. By that point, I could feel my face becoming red with anger.

And then, a woman came into the store, and she turned out to be the mom of one of the kids. I felt myself get a Grinch-like smile. I approached the mother and engaged in some polite introductory pleasantries; she turned out to be really nice.

"I'm sorry to bring this to your attention, but did you know that your son and his friends tried to buy an "M" rated game?"

The boys immediately stopped talking to each other.

"No, I didn't." The mom looked at one of the boys with a disapproving look. "You know you're not supposed to play those games. We are going to have a long talk about this when we get home."

"I'm afraid that's not all," I said. I saw the boys' eyes get wide as they realized what was about to happen. I then laid out in excruciating detail every vile thing that they said, every horrible name they called my co-workers (no censoring), and how they congratulated each other after they left for an impromptu break. The longer I went on, the more visibly angry the mother got, which made the boys more visibly tense.

"I am very sorry that my son and his friends acted that way," said the mother in clipped words. She then turned to the boys and started laying into them.

She. Was. Furious.

She ordered all of them to follow her to the parking lot and they were all leaving; in addition, she was going to have to talk to all of their parents about this disgusting behavior while loudly proclaiming to her son he was grounded for the foreseeable future. None of the boys said a word as she berated them out of sight and then a minute later out of earshot.

About 30 minutes later, my co-workers came back and were delighted that the boys had left, and missed seeing or hearing the mother yelling at the group. I told them that the boys left, but my manager (who had known me for a couple of years) could tell I was being coy about the situation. I assured her that I did nothing against company policy, but that those boys would not be back for a long time. She seemed to accept that answer and we went on with our workday. I didn't want to parade around the situation as a "look what I did for you" sort of thing because I was sure that any one of them would've done the same thing I did if they happened to be around.

I never did see any of those boys come back to the store again. It's the little things, you know?

(source) story by (/u/Gyrick)