"By the way, when you close out the cash register tonight, you're gonna be $1.42 over. JUST SO YOU KNOW."
Dramatic pause. Everyone stops
"Because that's what you owe me. $1.42."
She proceeds to defiantly thrust the receipt in the cashier's face and point out the egregious mistake.
The cashier, unfazed, apologizes but makes her wait for her coveted less-than-two-dollars. She doesn't make eye contact. She just seethes as she calmly rings up my groceries.
Meanwhile, receipt-lady just seethes as well and holds a cashier, a bagger, another cashier who was helping the other cashier out and me, the next patron in line, hostage to her anger.
As the cash register opens, the cashier pulls out the paltry sum and hands it over. The woman almost snatches the change out of her hands and turns her heel.
That was so uncomfortable I just had to tell you guys out there in blogland.
__________
Yes, I know it's a whole buck forty-two. But aren't there nicer ways to point out that someone has made a relatively trivial mistake? It's not like the bagger placed a ripe watermelon on top of her eggs, you know.
The cashier made a mistake that can't even get anyone a meal at McDonalds, and yet this was no laughing matter.
Maybe she had a case of the Mondays.
A Daily Dose of Zen Sarcasm! 
A long time ago, when I worked at the theatre, I had a customer get upset at being charged an additional 20 cents for extra butter because there was no sign saying there was a charge!! Apparently the customer didn’t listen to me when I informed her before getting her popcorn. I simply dropped the extra charge rather than have a scene.
When I was working at the call center I had a customer call in upset because he had lost a penny when he returned an accessory and wanted the penny credited to his credit card – not his wireless account. I offered him a twenty dollar credit on his account but no, it had to be just the penny. The call ended up going to Accounts Receiveable because I couldn’t do anything with his credit card.
Some people are obsessive. And yes, she could have been a lot nicer about it.
That’s an odd situation to be in! I’m sorry you had to go through that. There was no reason that that woman had to be so rude. Maybe the bagger SHOULD have put the watermelon on top of her eggs and bread!!
in my retail management days, i was subjected to far worse treatment over far less change discrepancies. i think if someone is going to be a b*tch, she’s going to be a b*tch regardless of her day. that’s very nice of you to excuse her behavior by blaming ‘a case of the mondays’ but i’ve encountered enough nastiness to assume with confidence that she probably thinks it’s ok to treat ‘the help’ that way.
Yikes! I doubt I’m always as nice to people in service jobs as I could be, but I hope I never treat anyone that poorly. Dealing with people in all their bitchy glory all day long must be tough.