Customers

Customer #1: Hey, kid! Get the fuck out of there!
Customer #2: Don’t you dare speak to my boy like that!
Customer #1: Why? Does the little bastard not know English?
Customer #2: Shut up.
Customer #1: I guess not.

–Laundry King, Ave A

Overheard by: Usleich

Hairdresser: So, I’m dating this carpenter…
Client: Oooh, is he cute?
Hairdresser: It isn’t so much that he’s ‘cute’ as ‘willing to redo my basement if I go out with him.’

–Amsterdam & W 85th

Overheard by: umpazumparoo

Loud customer: Do you have She-Ra: Princess of Power?
Cashier: No, we don’t carry it.
Loud customer: It’s sold out?
Cashier: No. We don’t carry it.
Loud customer: It’s sold out?
Cashier: …Yes.

–Virgin Megastore, Times Square

Customer: That guy? He was in a production of Fiddler on the Roof with me!
Bartender: Really? I thought he had Tourette’s!
Customer: Oh, he does.

–Bar, 14th St & 7th Ave

Elderly woman: Do you know where the rat killer is?
Younger customer: I am not sure they carry that here. You should speak to a clerk
Elderly woman: A lot of people with pet rats don’t want them anymore.

–PetCo, Kips Bay

Overheard by: Glad I Have Dogs

Woman: Will this skirt shrink in the dryer?
Saleswoman: I don’t know if it’ll shrink. My friend said that in her experience it probably won’t. But sometimes it does. It depends. There’s no way to know. It either will, or it won’t.

–Macy’s

Overheard by: SDP

Little boy: Ewww…ewww….
Mom: Stop saying ewww..those are bras..
Little boy: I hate bras
Mom: Don’t say that, you’ll change your mind when you gets older.

–JC Penney lingerie department, Queens

Overheard by: a fellow shopper

Customer You Greek?
Waitress: Greek Orthodox.
Customer: So you’re Greek.
Waitress: No, that’s my religion, they call it Greek Orthodox.
Customer: But you’re from Greece, right?
Waitress: No, Belarus.
Customer: Russia?
Waitress: Belarus. It’s the former USSR. It’s between Russia and Poland.
Customer: I never heard of it. It must be very small.
Waitress: It’s not small.
Customer: It must be very small.
Waitress: It’s the size of France. France is quite big, actually.
Customer: I better look at a map.
Waitress: Yeah, you’d better.

–Diner, Park Slope

Customer: I’ll have a twelve-inch wheat —
Deli guy: Foot-long, or half?
Customer: Um… twelve inches. Isn’t that a foot?
Deli guy: Foot-long, or half?
Customer: I think you’re missing something here.

–Subway, Elmsford

Overheard by: Bored Beyond Belief

Girl: Is this the cheapest copy of Steal This Book that you have?
Cashier: Yeah, we only have that one new.
Girl: So then this isn’t exactly a used bookstore, is it?
Cashier: Well, you are going to use it, right?

–Village Bookstore, St. Marks