It was a relatively slow Friday afternoon at the store. I had three people in the arcade and had just finished a transaction on some cock rings and lube. One of my arcade regulars came up to the front to let me know that there was a guy in the back acting "weird," so I had the arcade camera enlarged, and I periodically glanced over and made sure everything looked okay. "Weird" is a suggestive term, but I'll be going back there in a bit anyway to ensure people are paying and behaving themselves. Chances are, someone did too many drugs in the booth, and they might be a little too high. In those cases, I will usually gently maneuver them out of the store and tell them to go home and come back tomorrow. Because I have had some people leave and appear again later (they literally went home and came back—doing precisely what I said, in a one or two-hour period, and then come back), I have to make it very clear that they are done for the day, and I communicate this with my night shift through the store's email, so we all are on the same page. Sometimes, all someone needs is a shower, something to eat, and some sleep. I try to make sure peoples' behavior doesn't escalate into something I might have to ban them for permanently. A temporary mood should not make a permanent decision.
The potentially problematic guy in the arcade leaves on his own accord. That's always my preference. I'd rather avoid making a scene in the arcade when someone refuses to go, which is always a possibility—especially for those on various substances that can impede the decision-making part of the brain. However, I'm not always that lucky. In extreme cases, I've had to call the police to remove someone who refused to leave. Some of the longest minutes of my life have been when I was waiting for help to show up in a dangerous situation. I recall one time when I had a seemingly normal customer go into the arcade and, less than 30 minutes later, go into a drug-induced psychosis and start screaming and hitting the walls. I called 911 and was put on hold for the next available dispatcher. What felt like hours was really only about five minutes, but before I was even connected to a person, he had screamed his way out of the store without any casualties and continued to run down the street. This guy still tries to come in and doesn't understand why I keep telling him no.
Each booth in the arcade has a light above it. The light turns on when someone pays the machine located inside each booth. The light will remain off until cash or a card is fed into it. It's a good day when the arcade is busy, and each occupied booth has its light on. If I do catch a non-payer, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, walk away for a few minutes, and check back later. If they still haven't paid, I gently knock on the door, and in my overly friendly and slightly higher-pitched customer service voice, I remind them to pay the machine. If they continue to not pay after the third warning, it's time for them to loiter somewhere else. It takes some finesse to discreetly kick someone out without disrupting everything else, but it can be done. Then, there are those very unfortunate times when there is no response to my payment reminders. The best-case scenario is they just fell asleep. The worst case is they are unresponsive and require medical attention. This has also happened with customer bathrooms. In fact, this became so common and problematic that some stores ended up closing the customer bathrooms entirely due to safety concerns. There are only so many times a person can clean up human waste and blood. Sometimes, in a vindictive attempt to protest the store's bathroom decision, spiteful arcade customers will use the trash can to do their business and leave it for us to clean up.
My day is coming to an end. There were good sales and decent arcade traffic that could be better, but I expected the night shift to be busier. My night shifter arrives on time, as always. As she gets settled and clocks in, we catch up on things; I make sure I communicate any problematic people or any new or reoccurring "problem children." I finish up some last-minute tasks, and I’m ready to call it a day.
As I was finishing a few things up, a man who had come in much earlier on my shift and had been using the arcade all day stumbled out onto the sales floor. I could tell from his swagger that he was a little drunk. He was being unnecessarily loud and obnoxious, and then I realized he was more than a little drunk; he was wasted. He had been in and out of the arcade all day—now I knew where he had been going. Since we don't allow booze in the arcade, it's likely he was making frequent trips to one of the neighboring bars and then back into the arcade. This is not an isolated incident, and it’s usually at the end of the day or night that they start to cause problems because of too many drinks catching up with them all at once.
The guy hastily grabs a masturbator off the shelf, comes up to the counter, and throws it down, declaring that he wants to buy it. He pays for the item, proceeds to hang around the counter, and tears open the box to get to the toy, causing a mess. Since he is so far gone, he can't figure out how to get the thing to work. I'm completely done with him at this point, but my night person very graciously helps him out and shows him how to activate and recharge the toy. Without so much as a thank you, he stumbles a little, but steadies himself by holding onto the counter. At this point, I tell him that it's time for him to go home. When someone is this intoxicated, they become a liability to the company.
“Why?” he snarls.
“You are way too drunk to be here, and it’s time for you to leave,” I tell him.
He pushes himself off the counter and yells, "I'm not drunk!" and in perfect timing, he staggers back, tripping over himself, and falls to the floor, taking two bowls of single condoms that were sitting on the counter with him.
“Yeah, it’s really time for you to go,” I say again.
When someone feels that they lost a battle, compromising their integrity with it, they tend to get vicious at the embarrassment. It's a pride issue, and it frequently happens among men, especially to people they feel superior to, like women. Undoubtedly, the realization of this humiliating defeat was sinking in at that moment because he let out a string of insults at me as I stood over the drunkard who took vulgarity to a whole other level. He spat out every insulting thing that came to mind to try to get under my skin. Standing behind the counter, my comrade and I exchanged humorous glances at the failed attempt to make us mad. When he was finally able to collect himself off the floor while still hurling insults, he managed to stumble off into the night to become someone else’s problem. I ran to lock the door, stood there, and then looked over at my associate...we held the glance for a moment and then burst into laughter.
When dealing with incidents like this nearly every day—above all—it's important to have a good laugh over it. A sense of humor is what will make you survive in this business.
