A woman on TikTok says she once gave a father and his son an extreme discount while she worked as a cashier at a department store because they didn’t have enough money to buy everything they needed.
The TikToker (@allthingslabor) said she was 17 or 18 at the time, and customers often assumed that she doesn’t speak Spanish, but she does. That false assumption allowed her to overhear and understand many conversations among customers.
In the video, the TikToker said the two were attempting to purchase a pair of construction shoes for the father and two pairs of jeans and some shirts for the son, probably for school. Their total came out to a bit more than $100.
She says the father had a “limited amount” of money and couldn’t afford the entire cost. So the father, she says, told his son that he would remove the construction shoes and just buy the son’s clothes. But the son, who she says was about 13 years old, told his father to remove the jeans because the work shoes were essential and they could his items another time.
“When I tell you that shit fucking broke my heart,” the TikToker says in the video. “So I may or may not have said ‘Oh my god, did you guys forget your coupons today?’”
She says she told the father and son that the department store was offering coupons that day for everyone in the store. Then she gave them a 30% discount and combined it with another 15% discount, which she says she wasn’t supposed to do unless the customer was using the department store credit card.
With the discounts, their new total came out to about $70, which they were able to afford.
Based on the video’s comments, the TikToker’s actions aren’t so uncommon. Several viewers commented that they would offer similar discounts in their retail or customer service jobs.
“As a former cashier, let’s just say loss prevention wasn’t making a difference when I was clocked in,” one viewer commented on the video.
“My fave thing was giving my 40% discount to any people I thought were nice at my old job, or if they wore their masks correctly,” another viewer said.
One TikToker wrote, “I marked all the milk and cheese down to 0.10 for the old people on Social Security. They knew to come find me before checking out.”
“I used to do that too. I used the employee discount and add a clearance discount bc item was ‘damaged,’” someone else said.
Viewers who had been on the receiving end of such discounts voiced their thanks, saying how much it means to have a cashier cut them a secret discount.
“Thank you, I remember a time when my dad had to put stuff back because he couldn’t afford it. I will always remember what it felt like,” one user wrote.
Another user commented, “thank you everyone who does this. Yall are one of the reasons I still believe in the good of people.”
The Daily Dot reached out to the creator via TikTok comment.
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