"Have a heart!"

During summers when I was in college, I worked at a science museum. (Not retail, I know, but the story fits this subreddit best.)

We had special limited-time exhibits during the summer. It was wildly popular with kids, so we were slammed all summer long.

On the last day of that year's special exhibit, at 5:30, half an hour before closing, I got a call from a lady who wanted to bring her kids to see the exhibit. The policy was to stop admitting people 30 minutes before closing, so I explain that to the lady. She said she could get there in ten minutes—unlikely, not only because of rush-hour traffic, but also because there weren't a lot of houses that close to the museum. I told her again that I couldn't let anyone in after 5:30.

She knew it was the last day of the exhibit. She went on to whine about how she had promised to take her kids to it. I told her I was sorry, but the museum would be closing soon, and we can't let anyone in at this time.

She then asked to speak to someone who could make an exception to the rule. I told her that all the people who have the authority to make such a decision had already gone home for the day—which they had. (By that time, the only employees left in the museum were we lowly front desk staff and the janitorial crew.)

She started to plead and said, "have a heart!" I thought, but did not say, "I do have a heart, and it goes out to all the people who work here. This has been an amazingly popular exhibit, and we have worked hard all summer. On top of that, we still have to lock the doors, turn off the lights, count the cash, and do all the other closing tasks. My heart goes out to the janitorial staff who couldn't do their jobs if there were still visitors in then museum." Instead, I apologized again for not being able to accommodate her.

She finally gave up. She probably blamed the "mean old museum worker" for not being able to take her kids to the exhibit that had been running for three months.