The Hat Lady

I have a customer that I call the hat lady because she always wears a white cap. Whenever I see her coming, I take a couple deep breaths and start counting to fifty. This lady brings drama every time I see her.

She always has an expired coupon and a return with no receipt. Some of my fellow co-workers cringe when they see her and I laugh. 

My most recent encounter with her dealt with merchandise we no longer carry, but she figured she would get the full price because she knew it would scan in as the original price. Not on my time. 


I told her she would get the lowest price, which was about two dollars because we no longer carry the merchandise. She proceeded to argue that she didn't understand why the price went from twenty-something to two dollars. Of course I let her know that when you don't have a receipt you basically take it or find your receipt.


I knew her receipt was probably from last year and that's why she tried to do a no receipt return. She takes the store credit and comes back to the counter with a new purchase. Her hand was full of neatly trimmed coupons and yes I let her know that they were all expired. 

I mean I give her props for trying to get over on me, but if she took the time to neatly trim the coupons then she took the time to read the dates as well, yes? The hat lady comes in often looking to get a bargain and save buck. 

She's not alone and often I wonder if the company would not be better served to set-up a traditional market stand where the customer could haggle the price down to the price the item is actually worth.