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Hey Pandas, What Is The Craziest Retail Interaction You Personally Encountered?
Working in retail is rough sometimes. There are customers, coworkers, and management that sometimes make retail life unbearable. What story can you share of a time retail became chaotic?
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I went to a grocery store and started shopping in the produce section. A product I buy every week was not in the case. I approached a store employee if perhaps they would be bringing more out today. The employee said "I am pretty sure I saw that on the list, it will take me a few minutes, but I will check." I said "Thank you, I will continue to shop for a few more things on my list and meet you back here." A few minutes later I was in the dairy aisle and turned around from the case to see the employee standing there with a smile and a box of the item I wanted "Which one would like? said the employee. I smiled, thanked the employee chose what I wanted and said "Have a fabulous day, thank you again!"
Weirdest shopping experience of my life.
Nice to see a positive interaction on one of these lists for a change.
Went to IKEA to take back a shelf I didn't need. Was in line and guy ahead of me was taking back an item that IKEA doesn't even stock, no receipt and had been partially used. He was making a huge scene and arguing that the clerk wouldn't give him money back. I get up to clerk after Mr. Hothead and explain I live far away so the item is a year old so if you can't take it back, that is ok. Clerk says that if it is still in stock it would be ok and told me how nice I was and thanked me for being so pleasant. I felt so bad that me just acting like a normal human was so different for her. Retail clerks are saints.
Have u ever shopped at Walmart? Quite a different experience. I can only speak about the several I've gone 2 in my area.
I worked at a sizeable retail/grocery chain here in the US. It was a requirement that we greet any customer within 10 feet of us. "Keep your head on swivel" they'd remind you constantly. You could get a secret shopper and get marked down if you didn't greet them properly, which was a bummer because you'd get a talking to by management, but also miss out on a $20 gift card for not getting a good review.
Anyways, one day like any other, I noticed a man standing about 10 feet away from me; he looked like he was lost/thinking about his next move in the store. The stores are massive (20,000+ sqft) so getting lost can literally happen.
I greet him: "Hey there, can I help you find something? *smiling*".
Him: *side eyes me* "No,.....WHY?"
ME: "Oh.. well it just looks like you're looking for something."
Him: "That's cause I'm in the f***ing store!"
Me: *Chuckle* "I guess that's tru-"
Him: "-YOU'RE A REAL SMART-A**, YOU KNOW THAT??" *Starts stepping towards me*
Me: *startled, confused, a little scared* I just turned back around to the products I was stocking
Him: *get closer to me, like right behind me* "You're a real smart-a** you know that? You're gonna get your a** fired for disrespecting customers like that. You piece of s**t"
Me: "Sorry, man, I didn't mean anything by it." *still just staring at my work*
Him: *SPITS on the ground behind me and starts to walk away, muttering expletives under his breath*
I eventually look over my should once I noticed he'd gone, I see a big loogie at my feet. I still had no idea what exactly I said or how it was offensive, but I felt lucky the guy didn't throw hands.
He thought you were challenging his right to be there. I have no idea why, though.
I had to buy new ties for a job. So I went to one of the kiosks in the mall. I picked out 4 ties, and went up to pay for them. The young lady working there said "We are having a 10% off sale today." And then she proceeds to say "10% plus 10% plus 10% plus 10% is 40% off." I was astonished, but managed to keep a straight face, as did my wife. I paid for the ties, at 40% off, and left.
I always wondered what would have happened if I had bought 10 ties???? Or 11?
What a lousy thing for you and your wife to do. Why didn’t you just be honest and tell her she’d made a mistake? This probably had to come out of her pocket. Ever heard the adage “What goes around comes around?” In the meantime, may you feel increasingly uncomfortable every time you wear one of those ill-gotten ties.
I worked as a supervisor in a grocery store. Enter a woman (well known in the area for exerting zero control over the children and being an absolute b*tch to retail staff) and her 3 brats. She gets a trolley and heads off; the 3 brats start running wild in the aisles. They pull products off the shelves and stamp on them, open them, throw contents all over, empty liquids on the ground, screaming and running and being holy terrors. I approached the mother and asked her to stop her kids - she just looked at me and said 'f*ck off'. I immediately called the police, called the store manager and locked the front doors (I posted someone to let any other customers leave). I left everything as it was and ensured the camera footage was available to show the path of destruction. Woman tried to check out but was refused, then she tried to leave, again denied (by the Store Manager). Police arrived, looked at the footage and the destruction. They arrested her, called CPS and had the children collected. She was then banned from the store. She tried coming back a few times but was stopped and turned away. A completely delusional nut bag.....
A guy accused me of working for the deep state and trying to steal from him when I told him he was a penny short for his cigarettes. Turns out two pennies were stuck together. When I told him he was deeply apologetic as I was clearly one of the good ones but they were always trying to trick him
“One of the good ones”? oohhhh! Sounds like the customer belonged to the group that gives the world the majority of serial killers.
Bookstore, in my late teens. Customer came in to b a magazine on Christmas Eve, and proceeded to lose her mind over there being lines. We had nearly every register in the store open, and books are not easy to bag quickly when handed a stack, so transactions took 2-t minutes each. She threw both the magazine and money at me, and blame me for every line she’s been in that day. Went on and on about how slow I was. I had only been at the register maybe 10 minutes, and she was the 3rd in line when I got there. My manager just kind of sat back and watched the lady scream at me - told me later it looked like I had it handled. 🙄 I was 18 and working my first fill time job. I was not prepared for that level of cranky.
"Fill time job" is probably a typo but it's so accurate it should be an official term.
In line at the market, I let a pregnant woman with one item who was behind me in line go first. The woman who was then now behind me called me a son of a b***h.
I worked in a grocery store in high school back before scanners and everything had a paper price tag stuck on the item. A lady who drove a Mercedes came in once a week, and I realized early on she was changing the prices on most of her more expensive items. (Even in the late 80s, Oreos were NOT .99. Next time she came back in my line, I charged her the actual price of the item because one, I could see the real price tag under the fake one and two, she was stealing.
She noticed and wanted to know why I wasn't charging her correctly. After I explained, of course she wanted a manager. Feeling proud of myself, I then explained to Mr. Manager what was happening. He sided with the Mercedes-driving thief and never did anything as she continued to come in the store and do it every time--but NOT in my line. I didn't like Mr. Manager any longer--big p***y!
Didn't see the earlier interactions, but I saw the last one. Guy had been stealing from the local supermarket multiple times, been caught multiple times and had police involved at least once. As a result the guy was banned and not even allowed in the store. I know this because the owner of the store was saying it to the guy while said guy had a trolley of stuff at the checkout. the amusing part was the guy saying "But I've actually got money and I was going to pay for the stuff *this time*".
I was working alone in a smoke shop, with a line of customers all the way to the back of the store. One woman gets up to the register and insists I stop what I'm doing to escort her around the (small) store to help her find s**t. I explain to her that she will have to wait, gesturing to the long a*s line. This woman starts cursing me out, dropping F bombs, and telling me how much I suck at my job. I just waited for her to finish, told her she still needed to wait, or she could check out with what she had right now. She chose to check out. As she was leaving I said "I hope the rest of your day is as pleasant as you are." She asked me to repeat myself, so I did, with deliberation and a s**t eating grin at the end. She left the store in tears. Some people...
Once I was in line in the States, and this guy was returning an item to be repaired, he had an extended warranty so that’s the deal. and the clerk with a Russian accent or somewhere near was being such an a-hole, so once finished the customer said sotto vocé, “a-hole” and clerk rather nastily asked, “ what? I didn’t hear you”. The customer turned and said, “I said you were an a-hole, did you hear me now”?. Clerk shut up then. I swear these foreigners one to the US and think they can be racist to native born Black people.
During college, I did stock work for a fairly upscale department store. A super kind female friend of mine was a salesperson in children's shoes.
One evening, a 6(ish) year old child walked up to her with his hand behind his back.I don't remember where his parent was, but he said, "I've got a surprise for you."
She knelt down and held out her hand while saying, "That's so sweet."
He dropped his poop in her hand.
Working as a Restaurant GM in Iowa 3 years ago (early 2021) it had been snowing all day and we only had 5 separate orders - 2 were deliveries, 3 for takeout - all day. It was decided that we would close early after both deliveries and the 3 take outs had been picked up. In walks this woman screaming something about how she had ordered food and her order was completely wrong and cold when she got it. I said, "Ok was this a delivery?" She said that it was so I asked her what name the order was under WHILE pulling up the Day's orders on the computer (there were only 5 orders all day). "So what was your name again? Are you sure you ordered from us? Because I don't see your name in here at all..." She replied with, "Oh, I'm sorry, it was Take out"
I looked at her and said, "Ma'am, this is a Complete list of ALL of the orders for today and I don't see your name on this list." Then she starts screaming again about how she's been getting screwed by us and we needed to make it right with her. As she's screaming at me she picks up the 3 takeout orders and throws them at me! Food goes everywhere, thanks lady. If you can, picture a Sheriff walking in behind the screaming woman as she's throwing his and 2 coworkers' food at me... 😳😁😂🤣
..."IS THAT MY FOOD YOU JUST THREW?!" He arrests her, puts her in cuffs and then the backseat of his cruiser and comes back in. I thanked him for coming in and "don't leave just yet sir, those orders are just about done." He looks at me cleaning the mess she made and says "Excuse me?" Right then the cooks bring out the 3 orders and handed him the food.
We closed up and went home.
A woman wanting to return a skirt from a store (Wal-Mart) that was clearly a brand-name from another (SuperStore), with no receipt. LOL. Manager got involved and she showed the customer the sticker on the skirt (Joe something). She cussed them and left. Of course it wasn't her fault!
I was about 14 or 15 working in a department store in the men's department. This lady came to me asking if I could help her with finding clothes for her husband. After some time of looking to no avail and her getting frustrated, she FINALLY tells me the clothes are too small. I ask her what size she needs. Me thinking pants size b/c that's the general area we were in. She says 32. I point to the section were the size 32 pants are and she says, this is the kicker, "PANTS! NO! That's his NECK size!" I'm like whoa. I tell her she needs to go to the Big N Tall store up the street. Neck size!? I had never heard of any body with a neck size that huge!
I was quite young and new to working retail so I was the guy who did exactly what people want and there was this situation.
A woman came in with no receipts or anything, just a HUGE cart of random things, and she wanted me to return all of it. Some of the food was expired and a lot of the stuff was worn out. There were dirty dishes and stuff like that. It was like she was trying to use the store as her personal garbage disposal.
I told her it was gonna take 10+ minutes to verify all this and she leaned over me the ENTIRE time, and when I said I couldn’t return this stuff, she just kept asking to return it. I said no, I explained why, she INSISTED on returning it. (Not word for word like this but here’s pretty much how it went) Like:
“I can’t accept this return.”
“Why?”
“We can’t sell it again”
“I’m not doing this back and forth, ACCEPT MY RETURNS”
“I can’t return this, we can’t sell it again.”
“I need my return”
“You don’t even have a receipt”
“i need my refund though”
“The most I can do with this is throw it out and since you don’t have proof of purchase I’m not doing that for you cuz we aren’t a garbage disposal”
I caved and she kept demanding me everytime. It was horrible.
I worked in a college bookstore for several years. I never personally interacted with a customer like that, but I heard stories about the mom who let her child use expensive shiny textbooks as skates, or whoever it was who stuck bubble gum on the edges of the all the books on the shelf so they would stick together all the way to the back of the shelf, or people that would mark up books before putting them back. I did have students arguing with me at the counter about how expensive the books were (this was about 40 years ago, so not as freaking expensive as they are now). First of all, I'm not the manager who prices them, second of all textbooks only had a 20% markup as opposed to the books in the general books and I am JUST the clerk and have nothing to do with pricing. I would notice the ski lift tickets dangling from their zippers and want to say "hey, don't ski for a weekend and you'll be able to afford all your textbooks.
I worked in a college bookstore for several years. I never personally interacted with a customer like that, but I heard stories about the mom who let her child use expensive shiny textbooks as skates, or whoever it was who stuck bubble gum on the edges of the all the books on the shelf so they would stick together all the way to the back of the shelf, or people that would mark up books before putting them back. I did have students arguing with me at the counter about how expensive the books were (this was about 40 years ago, so not as freaking expensive as they are now). First of all, I'm not the manager who prices them, second of all textbooks only had a 20% markup as opposed to the books in the general books and I am JUST the clerk and have nothing to do with pricing. I would notice the ski lift tickets dangling from their zippers and want to say "hey, don't ski for a weekend and you'll be able to afford all your textbooks.
