Alright, moving onto the next set!

New Guy A came in – a then Ukrainian 19-year-old. Seems like a chill guy at first. Somehow, he broke Register 2 in his second week there – destroying the button we use to start the lane going after we scan/weight the product, from smashing it so hard constantly, like it owed him money or something.

Two weeks later, he broke the scanner/weights – we are still not sure how, that thing is usually more resilient on the hardware side – and had to call in the repair guy again.

Then when he was working on Register 3, he managed to knock over the computer of the register itself on the ground, didn't tell anyone or try to pick it up, and had accidentally kicked it a few times while it was down.

Repair guy called for a 3rd time because of him. He was given a stern talking to and nothing was wrecked by him for a while.

He had also thrown a fit about his salary, because it was not nearly as much as he wanted it to be – when you start out, the salary is below minimum, after surviving the 3 Month Probation Period, you get to minimum and then raises as needed. New Guy thought he was gonna get close to a 1000 (one thousand) euros. Hoo Boy, our Head Cashiers don't even earn that much, and they work 16 hours per shift.

He later changed locations, seems to be doing alright there.

Drunk Guy Tried to Steal Vodka and Pepsi by hiding it in his coat sleeve – when confronted on where the drinks are, he tried to blame The New Janitor, who had come by to collect baskets. We didn't fall for it and the Security Guard pretty much yeeted him to the Office.

Teenager comes with a pet rat just chilling on her shoulder.

Cleaning Lady, a Ukrainian, told me about how her neighbors used to have a pet parrot – one of those big ones with a mohawk – that had been given to a pharmacy when they ran away from the war. Last she heard the bird was thriving as it had new people to talk to and many handlers to care for it. The bird is also 20-years-old. My first thought at that was: That bird can vote. It made her laugh at least.

Teenager tries to sneak out with an unpaid small baguette. Does not succeed, goes to pay.

Security Guard was telling how she was coming back from a break and saw this guy stuffing vodka bottles into his coat. He saw the Security Guard standing there and started putting them back.

Another had a whole-ass pigeon in a cat-cage. The pigeon seemed to be chill with it.

Janitor shifts change around, at some point they had half shifts, so we got a new evening regular. And he came in with a black eye and bloody sclera. I asked what happened, because it looked bad. He says he got it from a fight. Knowing the store, I dared to ask 'from a human or a basket?' 'Some guy just jumped at me and punched me before running away.' So there's that. Fun times.

I was telling some people in the line that Register 2 is open and showing with my thumb where – because a shocking number of people go straight to the freezers on the opposite side and look for registers there when not shown – only for this one guy to start shouting about, I don't even know, I had a headache, something about me waving my hand around, I guess, which he ended by wagging his fingers right at my face. Nutjob.

Security Guard S had quit the Security Company, to become a plumber, because they are paid better and work less – but 7 months later, he returns to have some more stable income. He also could not stop talking about how he finally got his drivers license, after nearly 3 years of trying. It is great, don't get me wrong, but by 12, you kinda get tired hearing it since he is telling that to everyone he meets who had known him before his stint as a plumber.

Caught one thief one day – one of the officers in the group came in the store to buy some lunch. Then a different day, I see the same officer, once again in line for lunch. So I'm like, "Caught another one?" "Same one actually." "Seriously?!" "Yup." Then she paid and went back to the staff entrance, saying "I got the receipt, so don't call another brigade on me!" She did have the receipt, so no more cops.

Oh, this one year, during August, there was so much rain! August was not the Month of Rye, but the Month of Storms! Rain itself is okay – I even like the smell in the mornings after a rain shower, but that ridiculous! We did sell so much raincoats and umbrellas, often it was all sold out before the afternoon! We even had serious hailstorms that destroyed windows, cars, houses and injured people – imagine a whole roof being just gone and now being pelted with huge hail! It was bad!

But one day, oh man, one day it was BAD. At first nothing looked different, just dark clouds coming in. Then lightning started. Then the rainfall. So…much…water! It wasn't even 10 minutes that streets were under water! People were coming in completely soaked. One guy even came in with just his swimming shorts and backpack in a waterproof cover, not even with shoes, bought the stuff and left – I was joking about boats, but it seems some people really do be swimming in the streets. Or that was the Latvian Aquaman.

The warehouse area would get rather wet when it rained, but that time it flooded – badly. Water collected so much, it was flooding the room, we had to ninja leap over cardboard boxes just so we wouldn't be ankle deep in water just to get to the toilets.

And wanna know why we were flooding so badly? The reason why is because we have A GIANT HOLE IN THE WALL BEHIND A CABINET IN THE LOWER OFFICE…like, a human can shimmy their way through it big.

Also, that day, lightning was going on for hours after the rain stopped. It was after 23:00, I was waiting for the tram and could see the sky lighting up every few seconds with lightning also zigzagging through the air, almost looking like a war between the gods was happening. By the time I got to bed and went to sleep, it was nearing 1 AM and it was still lightening up!

The storms have come and gone, but 2026 also had a pretty bad one, with trees knocked down in a lot of places. Some homes did get damaged during the one. And in random places too, some just had rain, others had a whole storm, even in just one city, not every street in the same area had the same weather. So bizarre!

Alright, now done with part 11, let’s make a full dozen with the next one!