I was in Chipotle a few days ago with my son. Lunchtime crowd and the line was at a standstill. I glanced over at the register to see the cashier and a customer face to face. The cashier was stoic and calm, but the patron was rather agitated. After a heated lesson on the value of her business to Chipotle, the exchange ended with “Give me your name and this store number! I will report this to corporate!”.
I eat at Chipotle a couple of times a week so I know most of the people that work the line and cash register. When I was checking out I asked, “What was that all about?” Her reply, “She wanted an empty bag.” What?!! “Yes, it is our policy that we can only use the chip bags for chips. We cannot give them to customers.” There was no time for more questions.
When we sat down in the truck, I looked at my son and gave him the only advice I could think of at the time. The Bible says, “a soft answer turns away wrath”. How you respond to a sticky situation will determine the outcome.
Lots of times there is no right or wrong in confrontations. Maybe the lady was a little “hangry” or she got cut off when she was pulling in the parking lot. Maybe the cashier was just following company policy or she had just received news that a family member had passed and she was waiting on her replacement to arrive. Who knows? I don’t, you don’t, and the parties involved don’t.
When a situation arises where we believe we have been mistreated or disrespected, we can choose to do one of two things. We can demand justice or we can give grace. 99.9% of the time, if we can swallow our pride and see the person instead of the transaction, we find grace is the right choice.