TIFU By being an asshole to my best customer.

So, this happened a couple of years ago, pre-pandemic.
I owned a comic book and game store in a metropolitan area and I'd been there for several years.

As with any place of business you get your regulars. I had two employees that worked for me, one of which was a young lady that had worked with one of my regular customers from the area.

Now, this regular customer, we'll call him "Mr. M." typically came in on the weekends when I wasn't there, but every once in a while he'd come in during the week and talk with me about miniatures or comics or whatever table top game was coming out. He didn't make an impression on me one way or the other.

Then one day, he stopped coming in. My female employee, we'll call her "Ms. F" told me that Mr. M. was hurt really bad at work and he had asked her to make his purchases while he was in the hospital and I didn't think much about it.

Fast forward to about six months later, Mr. M comes into the store and he's in a wheelchair. His girlfriend is with him, we'll call her "Ms. G." Now, full transparency, I had a HUGE crush on Ms. G. I would gush like an idiot around her and spend way too much time explaining some inane thing she'd ask about just to be talking her up. She is probably one of the most intelligent women I've ever met, funny and beautiful to boot.

Mr. M. had to have noticed, but he never said anything about it, and after he was in a wheelchair I spent a little more time talking to him. It turns out he was a really cool guy. Lead and amazing life and was well liked by the other customers that came in into my store.

After his injury I noticed him coming in more frequently, since he wasn't able to work. He was always with his girlfriend because he could no longer drive himself and we sort of became friends. I went to visit him at his home a couple of times. It was a modest place, but you could tell everything in it was high quality. He had a gaming room and a video game arcade in part of the house. One day while I was there, my employee Ms. F. showed up at his house, came in with her own key and went into his room and came out wearing different clothes.

It threw me off so I asked what the deal was and found out that Mr. M was dating his girlfriend, Ms. G. and my employee at the same time and they were open about it.
A couple of days later when Ms. G. came into the store with Mr. M. I tentatively broached the subject with Ms. G. and she not only confirmed, but even told me they were trying to find a way to "make it official" between the three of them.

That's when the jealousy kicked in. Mr. M was a nice guy, and he wasn't ugly or anything but I just couldn't for life of me figure out how this guy, even before he was in a wheelchair, could land two of the most beautiful and intelligent women I had ever met, at the same time... And they wanted to be sister-wives with the guy. I kept it to myself of course and life carried on like this for about 18 more months.

Then the fuck up happened... I was having a pretty shitty week at the store. One employee had quit without notice and Ms. F. had taken some time off in advance to focus on school. I had some temp help, but this guy was an idiot and could do little more than bag comics and put things on the shelf.

During this time, I had quite a few customers try to haggle me down in price on my merchandise. I don't know what was going on but it seemed like every other customer wanted some kind of discount.

Then, Mr. M. came in. He had ordered some new stuff for a game he played. While he was ordering them, he and I were talking and he asked, "Since I'm buying so many of these, is there a chance I could get a better price on them?"

Full disclosure, he had ordered ten cases of stuff, I was charging him full retail plus my mark-up. There was plenty of wiggle room for me to give him a discount of some kind. I could have given him 40% off and still walked away with a profit. Also, it should be noted, if he hadn't been ordering these ten cases, I would never have had the stock in my store to begin with. It was basically free money.

Instead of giving him a discount I yelled at him, in front of about half a dozen other customers, "You're a fucking asshole! Are you seriously asking me for a discount? What is with "you people" and "your discounts?" Do you think I'm running a charity here? I have to make money to pay the bills here!.."

And it went on like this for about five minutes of him just sitting there in his wheelchair looking up at me while I piled on every complaint about shitty customers that came to mind. I don't know what came over me, but I felt like I had some small measure of power over this guy and my jealousy wouldn't let me abate my temper.

After I took a breath and stepped back, that's when I knew I fucked up. Everyone was staring at me, one person had their phone out, recording. Ms. F had walked in at some point and watched this tirade unfolding. Every time Ms. G. had tried to wheel Mr. M. away, he would just gently put his hand on hers and stop her. He didn't say a word the whole time I was losing my shit. Not a single word.

Then, as if nothing had happened he said, "Okay, my man. My bad for asking, I didn't know you felt so strongly about it. Here, let me pay for my order and give me a call when the stuff comes in."

I was completely flummoxed by his reaction but I finished the transaction and he paid my asking price and he left with Ms. G., Ms. F. followed him out as he was leaving and she came back in a few minutes later to buy a couple of things for herself. She acted like nothing had happened and I tried to give her a feeble apology and she said, "Don't worry about it, he's not going to, so you shouldn't."

That was the last time I saw Mr. M. in person. His order came in about five days later, Ms. G. and Ms. F. came in to pick up his order and about a week after that Ms. F. told me she wasn't coming back after her scheduled time off.

I noticed a couple of weeks later that for the first time in years, I had a downward trend in profit for the month. The following month it was worse. Typically I would order certain games or comics because they were in high demand and I'd have to reorder them twice a month, this time the stuff I had ordered at the beginning of the month was still sitting on the shelf.

Since I was spending more time at the store I started to notice that some of my regulars were becoming irregulars and I got a chance to have my accountant walk me through the books.

That's when I noticed it, through out the month there would be these cash purchases ranging about $300 to $500 three times a week. Usually on Tuesdays, which I didn't work on, and on Saturdays and Sundays, which I also didn't work on. So, I reached out to Ms. F and asked her about it, since it looked like those were usually the times when she worked.

I started asking about the transactions and she quickly said, "Oh, yeah, that was Mr. M., he spent $1,200 to $1,500 a week there by himself. Basically every week since I started, which was like, since you opened the store, right?"

I could literally feel my heart hit my stomach on the way to my knees. I asked Ms. F. if he had ever asked to use her employee discount. She promptly said no, but that the money she typically did spend there, $80 to $100 a week was usually given to her by Mr. M.

But wait, it gets worse. The third month after the incident, one of my regulars comes in who hadn't been in for a while. I started talking with him and ask if he knows where everyone had gone? My regular MTG group had dwindled down to about 4 guys coming in when up to this point it had been a group of at least 50. My miniatures players hadn't been in to play in almost 5 weeks and the pull boxes were about to be cleaned out because more than two thirds of my regular comic subscribers just stopped showing up.

That's when he tells me, "Yeah... about that. You know Mr. M., right? Someone shared the video of you berating him on our FaceBook group and Comic Book Store Owner That Isn't You offered him a 15% discount for life. Since Mr. M. started going there, they set up miniature tables and started hosting card and board games. Everyone is going there now..."

I barely paid rent that month. The following month I didn't make rent and the month after that it was official, I had to close up shop. Two months after that, I literally moved back into my parents house.

I went over the books as far back as I could, and in the course of the previous 5 years, it looked like Mr. M. had spent over $325,000 at my shop, by himself. He never was flashy or flaunted his wealth or anything, but he certainly spent more than enough to cover my lease and utilities.

I bring all this up because yesterday, I ran into Mr. M. at a local taco joint. He was walking around and you'd never be able to tell he had been in a wheelchair. Ms. G. was with him, it's Mrs. G now. She's still gorgeous and charming. They were out picking up a craving for Ms. F. (Mrs. F., maybe?) since she was at home, pregnant with her and Mr. M's second child.

We talked a bit about the pandemic, how some local businesses were hit hard. I brought up that I had heard that one of the local shops survived the pandemic because they got bankrolled by a customer that didn't want to see them close due to hardships. Ms. G. gave a giggle at that and Mr. M. tapped the side of his nose and winked at me, Santa Claus style. I died inside.

Then I got to watch them drive away in a brand new 2021 Bronco First Edition while I'm still driving the car I did the last time I saw Mr. M.

After they left I sat there in my car thinking about this colossal fuck up. I swear I was cry-eating my tacos...

P.S. I still live with my parents because after all this happened I got a job at a game store in a nearby town, once my boss found out that it was me that treated Mr. M. so badly, he fired me.

TL;DR: I lost my shit on a regular customer that was spending three times my rent and utilities by himself every month. I went out of business and had to move in with my parents.

Edit: typo and grammar

Edit: forgot to mention I got hired and fired from a job after this happened once people told my boss it was me in the FB Video.