“You Promised Me!” Woman Has Meltdown After Man Buys Meat Products

A routine trip to the grocery store turned into a terrifying public confrontation for one man.

While shopping for bone broth in the soup aisle, he was cornered and harassed by a woman who seemed to be suffering from a severe mental health crisis. She repeatedly screamed that he had “promised” her he wouldn’t eat meat, creating a massive scene that drew a crowd of onlookers.

Overwhelmed and cornered, the man snapped, cursing her out to make her stop. Now, he’s worried the public backlash makes him the [jerk], even though he was the victim of harassment.

Now, read the full story:

This situation is a perfect storm of public anxiety, confrontation, and misplaced judgment. The OP was subjected to aggressive, bizarre harassment in a public space, and his reaction was one of panic and self-defense.

When someone is cornered and screamed at, especially by a stranger, the brain often defaults to a fight-or-flight response. The OP’s use of a harsh word was an attempt to create immediate space and shut down the terrifying interaction, not an unprovoked attack.

The tragedy here is the “bystander effect” combined with the public’s quick judgment. The crowd watched the spectacle, but when the OP finally reacted defensively, he became the villain in their eyes, simply because he used a swear word.

The OP described feeling “shaking” and “a bundle of nerves,” which are classic signs of a nervous system overwhelmed by conflict. Being physically cornered and verbally assaulted by a stranger is a traumatic experience that triggers acute stress.

The OP was essentially dealing with a public health crisis (the woman’s apparent mental illness) while trying to complete a mundane task. His frustration was entirely justified.

The real villains in this scenario are the passive bystanders who stood there filming instead of intervening. The “bystander effect” is a psychological phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present. They assume someone else will step in.

In this case, the crowd chose to treat the incident as entertainment rather than a crisis. As Dr. Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist, notes, “When people are uncertain, they look to others for cues. If everyone else is just watching, the individual concludes that no action is necessary.”  

The OP’s defensive outburst was a reaction to both the harasser and the overwhelming pressure of the silent, judging crowd. He was trying to escape a situation that had become physically and emotionally threatening.

Check out how the community responded:

The vast majority of Redditors ruled NTA, acknowledging that the OP was harassed and that his reaction was understandable given the stress.

Several commenters emphasized that mental illness does not excuse aggressive, harassing behavior.

A few vegans even stepped in to distance themselves from the woman’s extreme behavior.

The OP was a victim of harassment and public spectacle. While his choice of words was harsh, it was a desperate attempt to regain control and escape a terrifying situation. The people who judged him should have been intervening to help, not filming his distress.

The real lesson here is that sometimes, the only way to stop a public freakout is to create one of your own.

If you had been cornered in that aisle, how would you have reacted?