For three summers, I worked at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) as a cashier/runner. There were many different tents selling drinks and food, where my fellow cashiers and tent managers acted as the primary point of contact for sales and customer service. Often we would have shifts that had constant lines of customers, which has led to many stories interacting with all sorts of people. Here are a few of those stories:

1. The Pushy Father

Since SPAC is a concert hall, our biggest product that we would sell is beer. This means that occasionally we would get customers that are a little pushy. One particular instance that I fondly remember was when an older man and his son were buying beers. Before choosing his beer, the older man was making jokes to me about giving him free beers, which I was playing along with carefully. He then started to insist more forcefully that I give him beers for free, which I remember denying five times, retaining the smile on my face. The last time he asked me “Why not? Your manager won’t see, just hand me the beers and I’ll give you a nice tip” to which I replied, “Sorry man, I don’t want to lose my job.” At this point, he looked me directly in my eyes and shifted his disposition. To my surprise, he said, “I respect your resolve” and then told me a story about how he had worked at a concert hall when he was my age. He reached into his pocket, paid for his beers, and gave me a ten dollar tip, which he made me promise I would pocket immediately (I did not, at SPAC we share tips). For the rest of the night, he kept coming back to my line instead of any of the other lines for beer, which I appreciated. He had interesting stories to tell, and tips to give.

2. The Groundhog Day Bro

The customers at these concerts were sometimes rather funny, especially towards the end of the night. One night when I was working at the drinks only tent, a 20-something-year-old man and his friends were loudly discussing what they wanted in the middle of the ring of tents. They had had a few drinks that evening but seemed like they were fine. These guys were about three times my size, in like a bodybuilder sort of way. They approached my register, and one of them looked at his friends and said, “Bro I need some carbs.” He then proceeded to turn to me and ask if I had any chicken. I told him that my tent only served drinks and pretzels, and offered him a pretzel, claiming their carby goodness. He said no thanks and walked away towards the other tent.
Then, for some reason, they all stopped in the center and started to discuss what they wanted to buy again. After a few mins, they turned and the same guy came and asked me again if I had any chicken. I looked at them, looked at my friend working next to me, and told them the same thing.

After this happened a third time, I left the tent to :
1. Direct them to an alcohol safety officer for water and care.
2. To get them their much-needed chicken.

3. The Gluten-Free Lady

SPAC has a capacity of 26,000 people. For example, the Grateful Dead concert was at capacity and we worked at full tilt all night. For the customer, this means the wait times for getting an overpriced drink are obscenely long. One night at full capacity, I had a woman come to my register and ask if we had any gluten-free options, like cider. I had no idea, so I asked my manager. She said we had them somewhere, but that she didn’t know exactly where. Of course, this woman was not happy. She was livid that we didn’t know where to direct her, and that she would have to wait in line again. I felt bad for her because she shouldn’t have to wait in line again, those lines took like 15 mins each. I quickly looked through our wide breadth of beer options and found that we had an odd watermelon can that was gluten-free. while I was doing this, my manager radioed the other tents and found where they had cider for future reference. After this, I always made a point to check the cider stock in a tent at the beginning of my shift, and to know where else it was stocked.

Besides these, I have many other memories and lessons learned from working with customers at SPAC. Another time I was discussing my favorite local breweries with a customer that asked about local beer, only to discover that the person I was talking to was upper management there. Because of this interaction, I got invited to take a free tour of the brewery! If I went through all of them this article would ramble on forever and ever. Plus, I have another article outlining some important lessons I learned from working there (link). In short, working at SPAC was a really phenomenal summer job. I love people, and I love music, and I love tips, so I really don’t know what more I could’ve asked for.