“I worked in a store that sold bath bombs along with a lot of other things. We often demonstrated the bath bombs in our sinks, especially for kids and they always loved it. The rule was that it was one bath bomb demo per customer or group of customers. We only had two sinks and on that particular day we had just done a demonstration in one of them, there were a bunch of little kids crowded around to watch it fizz and change colors (light and dark pink).
A little boy of about six and his mom entered the store. Immediately the kid rushed over to look at the bath bomb and announced very loudly that he hated pink and that the bath bomb was bad. I tried to be nice and pulled out our little basket with wasted-off bath bombs. Usually, we used chipped or damaged ones that we couldn’t sell anyway. I told him to choose a color that he would like better but then the mom criticized me for trying to sell her son ‘damaged goods.’
I explain that it was just for a demo and a chip out of the bath bomb wasn’t going to affect the way it looks in the water but the mom isn’t having any of it. It wasn’t worth fighting over because we had a budget for it in case people wanted to see a specific bath bomb that hadn’t been wasted off.
So I told him to choose a pristine one from the shelf. I also tell him to pick carefully because he only gets one.
He chose a bath bomb which smelled nice but just turned a soft white in the water so I suggested that maybe he choose a more colorful and fun one and explain that that one wasn’t very impressive.
He glared at me and shrieked, ‘NO,’ very loudly.
At that point, I was flustered because the other kids near the sink all stared and a lot of the adults in the store had turned around. So I just let him put it in the free sink without trying to persuade him out of it. As expected the water just turned white and the kid was not happy.
He started yelling that it was boring and his mother demanded he be allowed to put another one in.
I explained that we only had two sinks and they were both full. Also, I told her that each kid was only allowed one so that the most people possible got a chance to see them.
She ignored me and told her son to go get another one off the shelf.
I told her again that I was sorry but he wouldn’t be allowed to put another one in.
She told me that I was being stingy and at that point, the boy was running up and down the rows of bath bombs trying to choose one.
One of my supervisors came over and repeated exactly what I had told her.
The mom said that it was my fault for not telling her son that the white one wouldn’t be suitable, despite me telling him exactly that a minute earlier.
At that point, the kid came running back with a blue bath bomb, and my supervisor told him sternly that he couldn’t put it in the sink.
The clearly demonic mother accused my supervisor of ‘taking a tone with my son’ and demanded that she see the manager.
Normally, we had pretty reasonable people in our store and a request like that was very rare so my supervisor just awkwardly walked away to get our manager from the office.
The mom gave me the most poisonous look I had ever gotten from a customer, turned to her son, and told him to put it in the sink.
I instantly told him that he wasn’t allowed but the kid just yeeted the bath bomb into the already used sink before I could stop him.
Bath bombs were meant to be placed in the bath gently, so when he hurled it the water went absolutely everywhere including all over the other children standing at the sink next to it.
Understandably, they all started screaming for their parents and so I began to grab paper towels to help them get the water off their faces and clothes.
I was furious with the mother but I couldn’t pay attention to her as I, along with their shocked parents, were trying to console the other kids.
As we were drying them off, I heard the absolute demon lady say, ‘Oh well that’s not very impressive either is it?’
I’ve never wanted to physically fight a customer before but wow I got close then.
The entire debacle ended up with my manager getting into an argument with the mother over making her pay for the second bath bomb. My manager eventually won by telling her that if she didn’t pay, the shopping center security would have to be called. The parents of the kids who were splashed were very understanding and non-demonic.”