Grocery Worker Doesn’t Know License Plates Can Be Renewed by Mail, Refuses to Sell Money Order

A woman said she was accused of purchasing a money order for "suspicious" reasons by an incredulous grocery store worker who didn't believe license plates could be renewed via the mail.

Maddie Guy (@maddieguy) uploaded a viral TikTok delineating her shade-filled experience with the employee who repeatedly told co-workers they thought something was up, even after they vetted her cash to make sure it was legit.

"I just got stopped at the grocery store for suspicious activity. So I went there to get a money order so I can renew my license plate via mail. And when I asked for the money order of fifty-six dollars and sixty-two cents, like, not enough to flee the country with or anything, the girl stopped and asked why."

Maddie said that she told the grocery store employee what she intended to do with her money order: "I said I'm renewing my license plate via email and I don't own checks. So she argued with me for 20 minutes about how it's not a thing to renew your license plate via mail."

The employee at the grocery store should've had the mental wherewithal, however, to refer to the device that was more than likely on her person, or on a computer-connected computer right in front of her, to refer to the collective knowledge our species has accumulated to this point and quickly appreciate that she had no idea what she was talking about as the Department of Motor Vehicles in various states do, in fact, allow drivers to renew their license plates via mail.

Maddie, exasperated, attempted to explain this fact of life to the grocery store worker and that this isn't exactly a new development when it comes to license plate renewals: "I'm like girl, I have done it this way my whole life and she said no you have to go in person I'm not gonna give you the money order."

Maddie, instead of acknowledging the fact that she was dealing with a stubborn, ignorant fool and requesting the assistance of someone else or accepting her losses and going to another retailer to get her money order, still attempted to get one from the woman she was initially speaking with.

Maddie soon learned that the grocery store worker was on some sort of power trip: "I was like no, you don't understand, like...my license plate expires in three weeks and it takes three weeks to get back so I really need this. So she said that she needed to see the letter that I got in the mail or some kind of formal documentation proving that this was for my license plate and that it was real."

Maddie says that after some continued discussion between her and the grocery store employee that she was able to get the woman to agree to sell her a money order.

However, that wasn't smooth sailing either, as the employee said there were some purchasing stipulations for placed on instances where customers who wanted to buy money orders.

"Obviously I didn't bring that to the grocery store so I didn't have it. And she didn't wanna give me the money order. So after enough back and forth, she finally decides, okay, I'll give you the money order. But we only accept cash for money orders. And I'm okay I don't have cash but I'll come back with it," she tells the worker.

After Maddie brought over some crisp bills to the employee, her ordeal still wasn't over, as the worker crossed every "t' and dotted every "i" in the book when it came to ensuring that the money the TikToker brought to her was the genuine article and not a bunch of fakes.

"So I come back with my cash and I give her three twenties, she takes every twenty dollar bill and marks it with a marker to make sure it's real. Then she puts it under a light to make sure each bill is real. Then she holds it up to the the light to make sure each bill is real. Then she calls her manager over to verify that this is real money."

"I'm just trying to pay the government," Maddie said, before continuing with her story time: "She then made a huge deal about this to her manager and said that this is suspicious activity, she doesn't think it's real and I'm being very suspicious and that they should flag me for this," Maddie said, highlighting how the employee still tried to make her shopping experience at the store more difficult than it needed to be.

"But I got the money order and then when I was leaving they were whispering and watching me leave and I'm like okay follow me to my apartment and watch me drop this is in the mail and send it to the DMV, I don't know what to tell you."

Viewers also found Maddie's situation strange, with one person writing that the amount she was requesting for a license plate renewal wasn't at all suspicious: "This is so odd!! Especially since people get money orders for much high amounts. They need training on this."

Another person stated that this was just a classic case of a retail employee trying to hassle a customer simply because they felt they were in a position of power: "Grocery store ppl on a power trip. I got lectured and denied beer bc I had out of state ID. I was visiting and I was 28!"

One individual couldn't understand how it was any business of the person who worked at the grocery store what Maddie was using the money order on in the first place: "so why is the cashier asking why you are spending your money," they asked.

But there was one person who speculated as to why the grocery store employee was being so overzealous about asking Maddie what she was using her money orders for, and it could be that the retailer recently found themselves in some hot water involving these purchases in the past: "Coming from a former BSA officer. They may have resently got busted by an auditor for not filling out CTRs and are overcompensating"