Offers and requests

Store employee over loudspeaker: Attention shoppers. The time now is 9 pm. This store is now closing, please bring all your items to the front register.
Loud guy in the back: I don’t want to go home!

–238th St & Broadway

Overheard by: Mandy

Conductor: Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to take this time to remind you all that there are four doors on this subway. Four doors. So when you’re waiting to board or exit the train and everyone is crowded around one door, just remember that there are four doors. Say it with me now… One… Two… Three… Four… Very good. The magic number for today is four.

–E train

Conductor, to guy trying to hold the doors open at the station: Sir, this is not your train. I repeat, this is not your train.

–1 Train

Overheard by: Firestarter

Conductor: People, this is not an "I think I can" moment! Please stand clear of the closing doors!

–1 train

Overheard by: anna

Female conductor on 3 train, when doors don’t close: In the rear, whatever you have hanging out, pull it in!

–3 Train

Overheard by: J-Mo

Train conductor, to someone blocking the doors: Sure, whenever you’re ready, we’ll move this train out of the station.

–Downtown A Train

Overheard by: Murtwah

Conductor: Please stand clear the closing doors. [beep, doors close. Then they open again]. Please stand clear the closing doors. [beep again, doors close. Then they open again]. Please stand clear the closing doors. [beep again, doors close. Then they open again.] Get yo’ foot out a de do’ foo’!

–1 Train

Overheard by: Nick

Teen cashier: I’ll need to see some ID.
Female shopper: Ok, here you go.
Teen cashier: [Looks at woman’s driver’s license.] Oh wow, so you’re an organ donor?
Female shopper: Yes.
Teen cashier: Oh my god! Which organ did you donate?

–Trader Joe’s, Union Square

Overheard by: rko

Customer: Can I get a cafe au lait, please?
Dunkin' Donuts store clerk, perplexed: Caf' what?

–Dunkin' Donuts, Park Place

Hobo to passerby: Sir, can you spare a thousand dollars?
Passerby: Haha… Oh you’re serious.

–21st & 3rd

Overheard by: Paul

Kid #1, to kid #2 on bike: Come on, let me ride on the pegs.
Kid #2: No.
Kid #1: Fine, I’ll ride you.

–129th St, Rockaway

Overheard by: Robert

Black guy in suit: Gimme a hug!
Black lady: I'll give you a hug once you pay me.

–Lexington Ave & 43rd St

Overheard by: dees

Big black guy #1: Yo, does anybody know where we get off to go uptown?
White passenger: The next stop.
Big back guy #1: Yo, everyone shut up and listen to the white nigga! He’s givin’ us directions!
Big black guy #2: Ain’t no such thing as a white nigga, fool!

–F Train

Teenager: Dude, my sister is always stealing her friends’ books, but like, sometimes no one has the book she wants, how much easier would it be if there was like, a Blockbuster, but for books.

–Blockbuster

Girlfriend to boyfriend: Did you bring something to read on the train? I’m trying to decide if I want to talk to you, sleep, or read my book.

–A Train

Overheard by: The Green Cat

Teenage girl: I need Romeo and Juliet. But do you have any with, like, the English on one side and Shakespeare on the other?

–Barnes & Noble, Union Square

Spoiled colleg girl to friend: My mom really wants me to get a nice big tote because she’s really worried about how I’m going to carry all my books. But I’m, like, worried if I’m even going to read my books.

–Outside Bloomingdale’s Dressing Room

Chick: So they called him up on stage, and they were like: "We want to bestow this honor upon you." And he was like: "It is indeed an honor, an honor indeed." And I’m all like: "Come on, like, I mean, seriously, like, who talks like that? Can’t you take it down a notch! Don’t you read US Weekly or anything?

–Starbucks, Woolworth Building

NYU girl to male friend: There’s almost something poetic about it, you know? Like, the 20-year-old Catholic virgin from Connecticut losing it to the older Ecuadorian lothario? Hell, I should just write a book about my life.

–NYU Dining Hall

Lady: Oh my god! Can you stop pushing?! That is so rude!
Hipster who pushed onto train: Get used to it. I’ll be doing this all week.

–6 train

Overheard by: used to it