Boomer Customers Melt Down When Ice Cream Shop Owner Closes The Line 20 Mins Early So Teen Workers Can Leave On Time — 'Hire Adults'
The boomers complaining are the same ones who wouldn't last a day working in food or retail.
Tyler Olsen / Shutterstock When the owner of an ice cream shop decided to treat her workers fairly, she never imagined that it would spark such outrage from customers.
The owner defended her decision, claiming that most of her employees are minors who need to put more of their attention toward their education than their part-time jobs.
However, boomers were not happy and argued that the teens should be willing to work past their bedtime so that they could get their ice cream cones.
The owner of ‘Modern Cone’ limits customers 20 minutes before the shop closes so the staff can go home on time.
Chelsea Mazzetti and her family own the ice cream, cake, and coffee shop in Michigan. The shop mostly hires students from the local high school to provide them with job experience.
Since the shop technically closes at 10 p.m., customers will continue to pile onto the line until then and even sometimes after since there is no way for staff to shut the doors midway through the line.
When this happens, the employees, mostly teenagers, often do not get home until much later.
Since they are in high school and have sports, clubs, and tests to study for, Mazzetti wanted to ensure that they were able to leave at a reasonable hour.
The owner took to the shop’s Facebook page to alert customers about the new policy.
“Please note that showing up 20 minutes before we close will not guarantee you a spot to get ice cream. We have lines out the door every single night and the staff will cap the line so they are able to get out on time,” she wrote.
“The staff stays almost an hour after to clean. We are open 12-13 hours every single day. Please try to make it within that time frame. Thank you!”
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While Mazzetti’s new rule appears to be more than fair (and most certainly has her staff praising her leadership skills), many customers, most of them boomers, were not so happy that they had to start showing up earlier to get their ice cream.
Many of them took it upon themselves to offer their own advice to Mazzetti on how she should run her business. “The suggestions that they were giving me was that I should only hire adults; that way, I could keep them later; I should tell my employees to ‘stop crying about it,’” she shared.
Some Boomers boasted that they used to work “500 hours until 3 in the morning” when they were 16 years old and that modern-day teenagers should be expected to do the same.
However, Mazzetti noted that work culture is evolving to ensure that staff are not overworked or burnt out and can work to the best of their ability.
She also had a response for those boomers who were telling her that her new rule would cost her business a lot of money. “Why do you think money is the most important thing? Sometimes, a happy staff is the most important thing,” Mazzetti said.
“And then the money comes from having a happy staff!”
She noted that she would actually lose money if she promised staff that they would be out a little after closing time, only to keep them there until midnight because she refused to cut off the line. Many of them would most likely feel taken advantage of and quit.
“Something needs to be done. Boomers need to have a better mindset of things that can make your life better and it can be easier if you just really look at other options,” she said.
Millennials and Gen Zs are also fed up with boomers who believe in working far beyond their limits.
They also could not help but point out that most boomers gripe about kids working in places like retail and customer service and demand that bosses hire more adults, yet no adults are willing to take said jobs.
“My daughter’s first job was retail at the Gap. It was always the older ladies complaining ‘Kids were running the place.’ It’s like yeah these are 16 to 20-year-olds. The same ones they claim are too lazy to,” one user shared.
“They say ‘hire adults’ but also ‘it’s not a real job you don’t deserve a living wage,’” another user noted of boomers.
In a follow-up video, Mazzetti explained that boomers expect the same backbreaking labor from millennials and Gen-Zs, even if it means keeping them in an ice cream shop hours after their shift ended because they had an urge for a sweet treat after the store already closed.
“Boomers want to be served, but they don’t want teenagers serving them, and they don’t want to pay adults a living wage to serve them, so what’s the answer here?” she asked.
We hate to break it to boomers, but even adults who work salary jobs do not want to be kept hours after their shift ends.
They too, have responsibilities outside of their job to get back to, and they should not have to put their lives on hold because an entitled boomer decided to seek their help after they were scheduled to be off the clock.
Even if you are not a boomer and have never worked in food or retail, it is common courtesy not to show up right before the scheduled closing time. The employees often have to clean, re-stock, organize, and count out the register before they can officially leave.
Walking in just as they are about to start their final closing duties delays them significantly.
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There is nothing wrong with a store manager opting to cap a long line before it gets any worse to ensure that their staff can go home at a decent hour. In fact, it is these managers who likely have the most successful businesses since more people will want to work for them, knowing that they will be treated fairly.
Like Mazzetti said, ice cream shops are open during most of the day and evening. It shouldn’t be hard to adjust your schedule to be able to make it ahead of closing time (preferably at least half an hour before the store closes!)
And for boomers complaining about the teenage employees, telling them to grow up — you wouldn’t last a day working in food or retail thanks to the treatment from your generation.
Sincerely, all of us who worked in food or retail as teens.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.