Woman held up Walmart checkout line, egging fellow customers to pay her $30 bill — then casually pulled out a $100 bill and called everyone selfish
After paying her bill, she turned around and looked at fellow shoppers and said, 'It doesn't kill to be kind...'
Imagine you're standing at a shopping mall's checkout counter, waiting for your turn. Suddenly, the shopper ahead of you turns around, asking you to contribute some money toward her bill. Sounds too weird to be true, right? But a person who goes by u/sugaryspacesprinkles on Reddit experienced just that during a routine visit to Walmart. On June 19, they recalled an entitled woman at the shop trying to freeload $30 worth of goods in her basket, despite having sufficient money in her own pocket. The post has received over 2,500 upvotes online.
Checkout drama
The drama unfolded when the person visited Walmart to buy medicine for their wife along with some other items. In about 20 minutes, the author was done shopping and proceeded to the checkout counter. Ahead of them in the queue were a few customers, including a woman with a basket full of items, and another couple with their child. The woman seemed peculiar in the sense that she was taking a long time to process her goods and payment. Despite realizing that the people behind her were considerably annoyed, she was busy making small talk with the cashier, laughing, and slowing things down.
The entitled demand
The event tumbled to beyond tolerable when the woman inserted her card, and after a certain amount, the machine declined it. She insisted she would pay the rest in cash, and the cashier agreed. The woman had to pay $60 in cash, but she only took $30 from her pocket. "Cashier explains maybe she can put some stuff back and void the purchase, but the woman declines, saying that there must be 'something you can do?' You're here to help, right?" the author recalled.
The checkout operator tried clarifying that they could not really help her in that situation, but the woman refused to listen. In fact, she started pleading with the cashier that she had planned a date with her girlfriend with the stuff she got. By now, the customers behind her were trying to leave the queue and move to other counters. At last, the woman scoffed, pulled out a $100 bill, and grunted as if everyone else was obliged to pay for her goods. After paying her bill, she turned around and looked at fellow shoppers and said, "It doesn't kill to be kind. Some people can be quite selfish."
Zero price effect
This female customer is a perfect example of the "zero price effect," a psychological phenomenon in which people choose a free product over everything else. As part of a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, researchers set up a stall selling ordinary Hershey's Kisses chocolate and premium Lindt truffles. In the first experiment, they priced the Lindt truffles at 15 cents and Hershey's Kisses at 1 cent. About 73% of people chose the higher-quality truffles, and 27% chose Kisses. In the second experiment, they priced truffles at 14 cents and gave away Kisses for free. This time, 69% of people got Kisses even though it was a lower-quality treat, and only 31% chose truffles. The experiments suggested that when a product is free, customers value it higher. For the woman in the Reddit story, it was the lure of "free" $30 products that enticed her to enact all this drama and feign being short on money.
'She's a scammer'
Meanwhile, people were shocked to learn the theatricality of the dramatics staged by this peevish customer. For instance, u/mistdaemon commented, “It sounds like she was trying to get someone else to come up with the money when she actually had the money, which makes her a scammer.” u/MaisieStitcher said, “I wonder how many times she's gotten away with that in the past.”
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