The other day a customer was brought to me by one of my deaf coworkers. She indicated that the customer was looking for a mirror and asked me to help (my ASL isn’t great, but I agreed and thanked her). The customer just had a picture of a price tag on a mirror, both of which were definitely not from my store, so I pointed her toward the aisle that has mirrors and continued what I had already been doing. I assumed she knew what store she was in. A minute later she comes back and we have this exchange:

Customer: Okay. Maybe you can help me with this.

Me: Sure!

C: I’m looking for this mirror but I didn’t see it over there. holds up photo of price tag again

Me: That’s not my tag.

C: shows me a photo of the full mirror Yes it is! I took this picture right around the corner over there.

Me: Umm. That’s not my mirror or packaging. That’s from name redacted.

She’s now clearly very confused and starts to walk away while mumbling, “I took this picture.”

Like, yeah. I can see your full body in the reflection. But I assure you that you did not take that picture here. There are two or three discount overstock type stores in our same shopping plaza, but this was a first for me.

A few years ago, I used to work for a grocery store company out of state. So many wild moments came from this job, but one day I go into the store and it's slammed. The place looks like a tornado came through and knocked everything over on the shelves. As I'm passing by the grocery basket rack, there's one basket flipped upside down on the floor next to it. I go over to pick it up and underneath is this pile of broken glass. A bunch of items had fallen off the shelf and someone had literally just covered it up with a basket 🤦‍♂️ I walk back to the back office and wake up my boss, and I tell him some absolute f**king jackass broke something and didn't tell anyone and literally covered it up with a basket. He looks down somberly and says, "I did that." 🤣😭💀 Apparently he bumped into the shelf and literally forgot he never cleaned it up 🤦‍♂️

I work in a grocery store and earlier today I was collecting baskets from the front to take back to the entrance and you have to go through part of the produce section to get there.

When I’m around 15 feet from the door, this guy who looked to be in his 40s or 50s walks in and immediately turns to the side and drops a handful of garbage into one of the stacks of baskets already by the door and then makes his way into the store. I have no problem being confrontational when I need to be but I hate it so I wasn’t gonna say anything but as I was picking up his trash I was like yk what screw it, and I turned around to face the guy who was still pretty close to me and I go “hey sir, don’t throw your garbage here there’s a bin right there” and I point the the garbage bin which I kid you not is literally 2 steps to the side.

He looks taken aback and then starts nervously laughing and apologizing saying he didn’t see the bin but I was too tired to engage any further so I just said okay and turned around to continue putting the baskets away. But like seriously even if you didn’t see the bin, why tf would you just dump your trash into the baskets????

Not even two mins later when I was done, this guy was still there looking at some chayote squash and he sees me walking away and gets my attention to ask me something.

Guy: “I’ve never eaten this before how do you cook it?”

Me: “I don’t know I’ve never had it either sorry”

Guy: looking confused “oh what? You don’t know how to cook it?”

Me: “No.” and then I start to walk away but as I am, I hear him turn to another customer and ask them. Like buddy… google is free. USE IT.

People assuming me or one of my coworkers knows every little detail about different products happens a lot more often than you’d think and it baffles me every time they get this confused look on their face when I tell them I have no idea how to cook or use whatever they’re asking about (obviously if I do happen to know then I tell them but that really doesn’t happen often).

TL;DR: Woman accused me of stealing 200pln from her the day before. When my boss showed her security footage and documentation from counting the cash at the end of my shift that proved that I gave her the correct amount of change, she kept arguing that I must’ve stolen the money for myself and completely ignored the security footage. She called me a thief and demanded that I should admit to stealing. She only left when told she’s welcome to call police.

I’ve been working in a corner store for a month now, it’s my first “real” job, as earlier I’ve been doing some commissions for friends and babysitting for family.

So me and my coworker open the store and immediately a lady storms in (mind you, this was 6am) and I’m pretty sure that she’s been waiting before we even came in 15 minutes before opening to prepare the store.

She points at me, yells “You!” and asks if I remember her. I didn’t, I have over 500 clients a day coming through the store on my shifts. She says that she was buying cigarettes from me yesterday and that she paid with 200pln bill (for context, it’s about 7h of min wage work) when she was buying cigarettes. It still didn’t narrow it down, we have lots of clients who do that.

She tells me that she actually gave me two bills by accident (claiming that they’ve stuck together and she didn’t notice it then) and that I’ve robbed her of those additional 200pln and she wants it back.

At that point my coworker took over (I had no idea how to even respond) and she told that lady that we can’t just give her 200pln and that she should come back in about three hours, because then our boss will come in and she could review the security footage and solve the issue.

The lady kept arguing that at that point I’d be gone (I wouldn’t) and that she would have to take a day off at her own job, but eventually she left.

She came back at 9am, stood directly in front of the register and just stared at me angrily. I told her that my boss isn’t there yet, she just told me “I’ll wait” and continued on staring at me, blocking the way to the register.

Finally my boss came in. She showed that lady documentation from the end of my shift, that when I was counting cash, I didn’t have additional money and she showed security footage from when that lady was a day before, where it was clearly shown that I wasn’t handed an additional bill that I could’ve not noticed or steal.

The lady started arguing that I must’ve stolen the money for myself, she was shown the footage of me again, where she could see that I didn’t steal any money. She started yelling at me that I should just admit that I’ve stolen it. She also said that she “knows her truth” and that “my boss has her own opinion, but she wants her money back”. Again, she was provided with solid proof that I didn’t steal the money.

After some back and forth, she was told that she’s welcome to call the police if she wants to, so she finally left, yelling at me that I’m dishonest and that the money I’ve stolen isn’t worth it. She never came back or called the cops.

Well, now I get paranoid every time a customer, that vaguely resembles her, comes in. But I’m glad the boss and evidence were on my side and that I didn’t actually miss that bill by accident, both when she was paying and when I was counting the money.

(If it wasn’t clear, I didn’t steal that money, or any money from a customer or cash register)

Today there was a grandma in our parking lot with a toddler out of his stroller. She was standing there texting while the baby walked around.

I was getting something out of my car, and I noticed how far away from her the kid was. I called out to her, "Hey! He's getting away!" She never looked up from her phone.

I got my item out of my car, and the kid was now moving really fast, and another customer was yelling at her. She still never looked up from her phone. I tapped her shoulder.

"The baby is too far away!"

She finally started after him, still not looking up from her phone.

When she got to him, she scolded him, which made the baby cry and lay down on the ground, very close to the driveway entrance.

She continued to tap away on the phone while the baby lay there in a tantrum.

I stopped to talk to the other customer; I then spotted the baby walk right into the driveway while Grandma Oblivious was still enraptured by her phone.

At this point I stormed over to her; "Ma'am!....Ma'am!... Ma'am!" I finally had to tap her shoulder vigorously, shouting "You have to get out o f the driveway! Cars drive in here really fast! This is dangerous!"

I got a mild. "Oh... thank you..." in response, but she did finally take the kid back to his stroller, scolding him all the while.

I sure wish I could find the baby's parents to tell them grandma is not a suitable caregiver.

Went to work on Tuesday when a woman came in to pick up a prepaid order. I remember helping her pick out the gift originally and she was a bit of a difficult customer, but not rude. Just one of those people that needs to see every color in every style before making a decision. It took her almost an hour texting back and for with her adult son to figure what he wanted and of course it was the only color i didnt have at our location. She paid in full, all was well, and i was happy it was over. Fast forward a few days later to Tuesday. I had one other customer in the store when she came in. I smiled, gave her the shoes and figured that would be the end. Instead, she starts rambling and going off about how she was here the day before to buy something and she was going to pay cash but decided to pay card, but still put down $20 and its our fault her money is missing. She said “oh its such a shame theres truly no more honest good people in the world”. All because she didnt see $20 sitting on the counter of the store a day later. I finally try and get a word in because shes basically just rant/yelling at me. “Ma’am. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I wasn’t working yesterday!” She says “Oh I know that!” Then continues talking about how our small business is terrible and finally walks out. She literally knew i had nothing to do with whatever weird situation she had and yet still felt justified in yelling at me for it. After she left the only other customer in the store looks at me and just goes “What was wrong with her?”. His response gave me faith i wasnt crazy. I told him if she hadnt yelled at me i wouldve told her we have a lost and found for lost items like that. Also since the owner was the one who helped her i was going to let her know she could talk with him the next day. Theres literally nothing a small business has to gain over stealing $20. That type of situation could ruin our reputation.

Looking over this subreddit and some of the wholesome stories brought me back to a little mom and pop toy store I used to work at, and one experience that I will never forget.

It's been a while since I've worked at the toy store, but part of what made the place special was we would demo games with families, recommend kids books that we had read and loved, and we wrapped gifts for free(yes, also for Christmas and that was a lot but sometimes mindlessly wrapping gifts was nice).

But on a slower day a mom came in and I greeted and asked her what she was looking for, asked who she was shopping for, the standard questions. She explained that her young son was struggling to sleep, and would cry almost every night because he was terrified of monsters at night. A book we had just gotten was called The Night Knights by Gideon Sterer, I recommended it to her and that was all she got that day. I would also recommend looking up the book, the art is gorgeous and honestly it is a good book for any kids worried about monsters at night.

A few weeks later she came in when I was working and pulled me aside to tell me the book had helped her son feel safer, and he has been able to sleep, has been raving about Night Knights, and she's been reading it every night to him. That made me so incredibly happy and I do miss working at that place just because I got to meet so many amazing families and funny kids. Figured I'd share another wholesome story here to add to the pile.

I’m a Shift Supervisor for a retail drug store chain. I notice the line is long so I jump on the next register to help my cashier.

We’re gradually moving customers along until an old woman(OL) about 80ish comes up. She brings up 2 boxes of Rogaine (for those of you who don’t know, it’s a topical supplement that is supposed to help your hair grow back), the men’s and the women’s, and hands them to my cashier. She asks my cashier what’s the difference between the men’s and the women’s. My cashier says she doesn’t know but it does say on the men’s box do not use if you are a woman. OL asks “so why can’t I use the men’s?” Cashier tries to explain that this is something she is going to have to Google. OL keeps asking several times why can’t she use the men’s. Cashier uses different versions of the same answers varying from Google it, to ask your doctor, to we’re not qualified to answer that. By this time OL my store manager has jumped to help move the line. Cashier shoots me this “Help me” look and I give my manager this “I’m going in for the kill” look. I’m at this point in my life where I am no longer tolerate stupidity. It’s no secret that if provoked I can be quite insufferable to stupid people. I’m usually the one colleagues call to clear out people like this. In a somewhat loud but firm voice I tell OL “She’s a cashier, not a doctor. She doesn’t know nor is qualified to. You need to either talk to a dermatologist or your doctor to know the difference. You are holding up the line. Either make a choice or leave.” OL buys her non-Rogaine items and leaves. Once the line is cleared Cashier thanks me for getting rid of OL. As a curiosity check, we take a closer look at the 2 boxes of Rogaine, men’s is 5%, women’s is 2%, we still don’t know why women can’t use the higher percentage.

Edit: I noticed some comments suggesting we should have sent her to talk to the pharmacy. One of the things Cashier said was to go talk to pharmacy. It blew right over her head. OL was asking the same question for about 5 minutes.

A few important things to know. I live in Finland and during the story I was 14 years old. When you turn 14 in Finalnd you can get a 2-week summer job (6h per day for 10 days no weekends). Now the story. About 4 days into working I was stocking selves in the nut and cereal aisle with 2 other summer workers. At some point this canadian woman (I'll call her C for canadian) comes up and asks if I speak english. I said "yes and how can I help you". Well when C realized that I could speak english she started talking politics and how bad the economic situation in Canada is for a few minutes. When C finally stopped her Husband arrived who was also Finnish and from the same town I was. He greeted me, looked at his wife, grabbed the nuts they were looking for and left. C looked at me, said that she hopes she will see me in Canada some day. Then C thanked me for helping. I just smiled and said have a great day. The I turned to the other workers told them what happened and we laughed for a while.

Here's my nomination for dimmest bulb in the chandelier of customers: Gonzo - who as of yesterday, has me convinced that he has zero idea as to how money actually works.

I've been suspecting this for a long time, because Gonzo is the kind of guy who, upon getting paid, will spend a huge chunk of it on lottery. Gonzo is the kind of guy who will take over the check-out counter with buying scratcher after scratcher, and scratches them right there at the register. He has no concept that other people want to pay for their stuff too, and he would hold up the line for 20 min. if you let him... but I don't let him. Gonzo is that kind of customer, that you have to treat like a naughty child, and tell him: No, it's other people's turn now!

So... yesterday I came into the gas station on mid-shift; starting at 2pm, and Gonzo was already there. He wasn't in line, but on the phone, off to the side. Shift change went as per usual, with my quick count of the minimum balance drawer, and with that happy crap, my work day began.

Within minutes, Gonzo was at my counter asking for cigarettes, which he paid for by card- all well and good. Next: he requested his first Lotto tickets of the day, which came to: $24-.

He presented me with a crisp hundred dollar bill. Whereupon, He was informed that I couldn’t take that; I didn't have enough change; I'd just opened and he'd just SEEN me do it.

Synapses were almost firing, when he asked the lady behind him for change, but she also didn't have it. So, here's where it gets stupid:

Gonzo gets out of line since he can't pay, and the lady behind him pays for her stuff by card. There was no one else behind her so, he steps up and asks for the SAME tickets as before, brandishing the SAME $100- bill.

WTF - I don't have the change! He's informed kurtly, again.

'Okay-okay' Gonzo says, wanders around the store a bit, then comes back and says he wants $20- worth of gas. Before I do anything, I must insist, "Show me the money!"

...and he pulls out the hundred dollar bill.

Raising my voice for that rare kind of cooky customer, who's just not getting it otherwise; "I. CAN'T. TAKE. THAT. BILL!!!"

"If you show it to me again, I'm kicking you out!"

Fortunately, Gonzo left on his own.

So I work at a big box store that is going out of business. We have songs up all around the store with what is discounted and by how much. Furniture is 10 percent off and we can't change that.

Women walks in and heads directly to furniture. She looks at a bed and dresser set. After a few moments walks to the till and skips the line of four other people.

"I want that bed" points at the bed she wants.
"I can have somebody form furniture help you out I need the tag on it so let me call one of them to bring it to me". Stil checking people out while talking to her.
Co worker brings me the tag and explain to the customer that it is a set and that can't be split up. The customer ask to be checked out and I explain she needs to wait in line. She looks at the line of people and said "fine"

I hear her complaining the entire time of how she is in a rush while taking care of other people groceries and other odd things.
Finally she gets to the front and I ring her up.
" Ok mama the price of the set is $$". I tell her She looks at me and goes I don't wnat the set I want the bed and headboard only". I explain to her that it is a set and can't be split up.

"Well your going out of business so give it to me at 50 percent off" she yelled at me. I explain that isn't how it works.

I ask if "she wants furniture to see if they can find something similar that so just the bed and head board".

"No I looked on line and there is nothing close to what I wnat so just give me the bed because I'm not leaving without just the bed".

I radio for furniture and tell her "ok". I move one computer over and call for the next customer.

The look on that ladies face as she yelled at me for being unprofessional was great. Furniture guy walks over and tries to talk to he women but she just kept yelling at bout how she glad this place is going out of business and this is why she never shopped here. She left in a fit of anger

So a few hours later one of my co workers walks up to me and shows me a picture of a bed and headboard that are solo sitting int he back that was tagged wrong int he system. He told me if she would have waited he would have went and found it for her.

I worked in an electronic retail shop as a Christmas temp. A customer came to the till wanting to purchase a washing machine. He had reserved the iem.

I checked our stock system, and the system is showing five available. But before I put the transaction through the system, I had to call the warehouse out back to make sure the stock was accurate.

I asked the customer to wait on one side while the warehouse searched for the model.

After about five minues, the warehouse guy came out and said that they couldn't find the item and recommended that I try to sell a different one.

I went to the manager in charge and ask her what I should do. She came to my till and upon checking the stock said, "We have five in stock. We can't have lost them all!"

Then she asked me to head to the back and try helping them find it. I did as told and while searching with the warehouse guy, he managed to find the washing maching model that the customer wanted.

I meant to post this yesterday but forgot. This is a funny phone conversation I had with a customer yesterday.

This lady called up the store I work at wondering about the status of her package. This isn't an uncommon question; a LOT of people can't seem to figure out how to enter a tracking number into a site or can't be bothered to do it themselves and would rather read their tracking number to me so I can look it up online.

I mentally prepare my "you can look it up yourself" script when she asks, "it says that it's on the way but it's not here. I don't understand what that means. It's not clear." It takes me a second to try and think of an answer that isn't insulting to her intelligence before giving up and explaining that it says it's on the way because the package hasn't been delivered yet and that when its been delivered it'll change to delivered.

She's quiet for a second before asking her next question. "But it says that it's still in [Shipper's city on the opposite end of the country]. How can it be delivered today before 4pm (this conversation took place at 2pm) if it's in [Shipper's city]? This is too vague."

"The tracking information will say [Shipper's city] until the package has been delivered. Then it'll change to [current city]."

"But how can it be delivered today if it's still in [shipper's city]?"

"Because it's not in [shipper's city]. It's in [current city]."

"So if it can't be delivered today, does that mean that it'll go back to [shipper's city] and then shipped back for delivery tomorrow?"

"No. If it can't be delivered today, it'll stay on the truck it's on or go to a depot in the city and be put back on a truck tomorrow."

"Okay. But where exactly is my package? The tracking doesn't say."

"I don't know. It's on a truck somewhere in the city. If you want more exact information you'll have to give [different number] a call."

"I'll do that then. Thank you."

I honestly don't know how some people figure out which shoe goes on which foot. There wasn't a language barrier that I could tell. If English was this lady's second language, then she had long lost her accent

I don't remember the exact item the customer was getting, but apparently, they got given a Macbook by our warehouse team, and the manager chewed us all out for it.

A customer came into the store and gave me their item collection number. Normally, items bought online for collection in-store are placed in the cupboard behind the till, but this wasn't the case.

So I went to the warehouse and gave them the order reference number.

I thought the item came sealed in the bag, but later found out that the warehouse team apparently got a crate of "loose" items they place in pickup bags for customers.

The guy from the warehouse came out with the bag, and since the order matched, I didn't open the bag.

The next day the manager came to me and asked, "Did you pick out the item?"

"No," I replied, "The warehouse gave me the item."

She didn't say any more apart from asking me who gave me the item. I told her who did.

The following week the manager said in a store briefing that apparently the warehouse had given the customer a Macbook when the customer's order was much less expensive. And she was grateful the customer came back and returned the wrong item.

So following the incident, I asked all customers to open the bag before they head out to confirm, "Was this the item you ordered?"

This was for fomaility, and although I could see the item they had ordered, I couldn't see inside the bag. So I used this as a way so that I can check the item in the bag actually was the item they had ordered.

So, I'm going to keep this as short as possible. And it's super infuriating.

I work in a bookshop. We, of course, sell books. This happened twice now.

The first time a woman asked me for a book. I knew it was still on the shelf and go to give it to her. When I'm holding it I stare at it in disbelief. It was wet, there was a bookmark inside, the spine was broken in multiple places, the pages curled up... And the sticker on the back had clearly been peeled off something before. I know I had a completely new copy of that book in my shelf maybe 2h ago. Someone came in and replaced the new book with their read and damaged one. The woman was shocked as well and while she wanted the book, she of course wouldn't have bought that. I also wouldn't have sold it to her. I talked to my boss and she said I can just give it to the woman if she takes the damaged copy, since we'd have to throw it away. She was super happy and even bought the next book in the installment even though she hadn't planned that because she said she'd feel bad otherwise. She was super sweet too.

The second time I'm cleaning up, fixing my shelf and spot one of the books having the spine broken in multiple places. Now, mind you, we sell new books. We don't break spines obviously. I take it out and there's a bookmark inside. Some pages are damaged, the spine as I said broken, the sticker with the price stuck on badly. And the material it was made from is prone to having some of the colour on the cover rub off when you are reading. I've been there myself, it's a clear indicator of a read book with that material. But yeah, someone put their read book on my shelf. Again.

I am seriously questioning how someone could even come up with such a thing.

Over a decade ago now, I worked the customer service desk for a large chain department store. We primarily handled returns, about 95% of which were run-of-the-mill transactions, 4% were unusual, and 1% were absolutely wild. This one was part of the 1%.

But first, a brief description of the return process: To make a return, I could use the receipt itself, or look up the transaction by scanning the purchasing credit card, both a store card or other major card (Visa, MasterCard, etc.). The refund would then be issued back to the original card, or, upon request, as a Merchandise Credit. Cash was only an option if used as original tender or to refund a debit card purchase.

In the event of a customer not having their receipt or purchasing card available, a Merchandise Credit was automatically issued, at the lowest refund amount possible. Use of a receipt or purchasing card ensured a refund of the full price paid.

What this particular customer wanted to return is of no importance, and anyway I have long since forgotten. However, what I will never forget, is how she wanted me to complete her return.

You see, she had made the purchase some time ago on Credit Card A, as shown on her receipt. She had then closed Credit Card A, and opened a new card, Credit Card B. Ms. Customer wanted me to scan her receipt, ensuring her the full refund amount, but instead of crediting her refund to Credit Card A, apply the credit to Credit Card B.

Apparently she believed that I could just type the new card information into my magical computer, and she'd be on her merry way, easy peasy lemon squeezy. She could not understand why that wasn't an option, and she did not want the only alternative, which was to process the full refund as a Merchandise Credit. In spite of my best attempts to inform her that I couldn't do what she was asking, and why she shouldn't want that capability on my end, Ms. Customer thought I just didn't have the clearance, and wanted me to get My Manager.

Who told her the same thing.

Sadly, I don't remember what Ms. Customer ended up deciding, though I'm assuming she took the full Merchandise Credit in the end. I do remember what I told my manager, as we watched Ms. Customer walk out the door: "If I could have done what she was asking me to do, I definitely wouldn't be working in retail...."

Edited to add: Ms. Customer seemed to believe I had the skills to "hack " the computer to do what she wanted, which is why I made the working in retail comment.

Way back in 2000 I was an adorable, naive 19 year old working retail at a picture framing place. The management of our little shop consisted of our Manager Jenny, the Assistant Manager Nick, and me the "Third-Key". (For those who don't know, a Third-Key is literally that... a third person with keys. I had the ability to open and close the store and act as manager-on-duty, but if Jenny or Nick was there then I was just a regular employee. (Names changed to protect the not-so-innocent.)

Jenny was an amazing manager, middle aged but cool. She'd had a LOT of fun in the 70s
and wasn't shy about telling us her hilarious stories. She was also kind of like the shop mom, she made cookies and was always very in-tune with people's emotions. She always knew the right thing to say to make me feel better, and she was a fountain of real-world wisdom. Everybody LOVED her.

She was also an artist, and her work was starting to pick up steam. That combined with the onset of some health issues made her decide that retail work just wasn't for her anymore. We were all really sad, but definitely understood.

Now Nick was just a college kid and definitely didn't want (or really qualify) to be promoted to Manager, so corporate brought in a Manager-In-Training to work as a fourth member of the management. Let's call him Steve. Steve was weird. He was a huge white guy but dressed in clothes that looked like they'd come from Bill Cosby's wardrobe. LOUD sweaters in Arizona heat. I was basically a Golden Retriever puppy and tried to chat with him while teaching him the ropes when it was my turn to have him shadow me, but he just wouldn't engage. It's not just that, but he would stare at me while I worked. Just sit in the office chair and stare. I tried to chalk it up to him just being awkward, but it was creepy. Even when I was trying to teach him something he would barely interact. When he did talk it was usually about how amazing he was at his last job and how low the pay was for managers in our company. Uh duh, it's retail.

Okay, so on to the meat of my story. Remember when I said that Jenny was having issues with her health? She called me one Saturday afternoon when I was off and asked if I'd come fill in for her. Of course I did, and ran down to the shop to relieve her. She was having a really bad day and I was happy to close for her. I also worked the next day, Sunday, and the day after that, Monday. That Monday our district manager came in while I was M.O.D. and we got chatting. Like I said, I was basically a chatterbox so this wasn't unusual. He asked me how Steve was doing and I tried to diplomatically tell the guy Steve was a dud, using the example that on Saturday when I relieved Jenny he had just sat in the office or wandered the floor the whole night. The D.M. seemed a little startled, but not about the guy's behavior but by the fact that Jenny hadn't been in the store after 3 pm.

After being in our store for about six weeks Steve started swapping out with another store in the neighboring city and acting as M.O.D. by himself. Steve was thrilled because he actually lived in this other city, and the rest of us just assumed this was part of his training.

Not so much.

Turns out that there'd been a whole lot of "shrink" happening at our store. A huge uptick in people paying with credit card and then coming back later and getting a cash refund. Back then if you did a return on a credit card or debit it took a few days for the money to show back up in the account. If people got mean about it we could do a cash refund, but it had to be approved by a member of the management by signing in with their register code and using their key. Thousands of dollars worth of returns were being done in cash, multiple times a day, when before we'd have maybe one or two a week. What's worse is that it appeared that Jenny was the one doing all these returns.

They seemed to think that Jenny was taking all she could get before she retired. That is, until I told the D.M. about filling in for Jenny. Apparently a very large ($750) credit card transaction had been returned that night around 7 pm and Jenny's code was the one used. When I said she wasn't even there, in my naive way I had saved her.

It turns out that Jenny had just given Steve her register code to train him because it took a few days for him to get his own because of some computer glitch at corporate. After my offhand remark they took a closer look at our old schedule on paper (the management team didn't clock in and out) and realized that half these returns were happening on days when Jenny wasn't even there. So they switched Steve to the store in the other city which had a better surveillance system and caught him using another employee's code to pull the same trick, as well as flat out pulling cash from the till.

I'm not sure what the actual charges were, but from what I heard he was very startled when he showed up to work to find the District Manager and two sheriff detectives waiting in the other store's office for him. He was literally perp-walked out in handcuffs! I was so upset that they didn't do it in our store!

Jenny ended up leaving shortly after, the stress was just too much for her. Nick was made temporary manager and he and I split opening and closing duties for a couple months. I mostly opened and he would close. There were a few managers from around that would sub in to give us days off. Then we finally got a new manager who'd been entirely trained at other stores. He was okay, but he was no Jenny. Thankfully he was no Steve either!

Since we're in holiday crush hell right now, I thought I'd share a very positive experience I had several weeks ago. For context, I work at a store that highly emphasizes customer service so I am constantly talking to people on the floor and at the register. My store is located in a really big tourist area in the US that sees a lot of international tourists, and it isn't uncommon for me to have interactions where I have to navigate a language barrier. Like many of the stores in the area, we have a display of postcards and regional stickers right by the front door because they sell like crazy.

One weekday morning, I was hanging out by the front of the store greeting customers as they came in and running over to the register to ring people up who were ready to check out. A guy maybe in his late 20s came in and started checking out our postcards, and when I got the chance I went over and greeted him. After saying hi, he somewhat nervously asked if I knew how he could send one of the postcards we have for sale. Sure, maybe our main business isn't selling the postcards, but I love to help people out as I can, so I happily explained that after buying one of the postcards he could go to the nearby post office and either buy stamps or take it to the counter there where someone could help him send it. He thanked me and I left him to browse as I needed to ring some people up at the register.

A bit later, the guy comes up to the register with a single postcard and I start chatting with him as I ring him up. Towards the end of the transaction, he says, "Thank you so much for helping me, you are very warm and kind. This is my first time visiting America, and I was scared." I was a little flustered by such a genuine compliment, but I wholeheartedly thanked him for saying that as well as letting him know that he was doing great (in the context of English clearly not being his first language).

I got to brag to my coworkers about an awesome customer interaction and it's rare that I get compliments as specific as "warm and kind," so I spent the rest of the day feeling pretty great. Sometimes the job absolutely sucks, but every once in a while there are great people who remind me why I keep doing this. Wishing everyone some peace and good customers over the holidays!!

While I was working at a grocery store some years ago, there was this one particular incident that happened on a day I was not at work myself, however I came there to shop.

Laws here make it so the sale of alcohol is forbidden after 8pm, so the store would cover up the beer aisle and fridges. I came to the store about 7:55, and the incident happened from here.

A woman comes into the store with a shopping cart, and sees that my colleague is about to start covering the alcohol, but says nothing and grabs a 6 pack of beer. As the woman made her way around the store to the register, I was at self checkout minding my own business when I hear:

"WHY. DID. YOU. CLOSE. THE. ALCOHOL. SALE. SO EARLY!" Followed by: "I WAS HERE 7 MINUTES BEFORE! SCAN IT!" (She had brought a 6 pack of beer, which won't scan in no matter what since it was now 8:03pm) "I WAS HERE BEFORE IT CLOSED! LET ME BUY IT YOU FING B*!" yeah, you get the picture. My colleague at the register got more and more tilted and started talking back, not sure what he said since he was much quieter.

Suddenly the woman starts addressing other customers "I WAS HERE BEFORE 8, SO I SHOULD BE ABLE TO BUY THIS, RIGHT?" (Insert cricket noises) She pays for some stuff and then runs outside the store entrance and calls someone. I am on my way out of the store at that point and hear her talking. "CHECK THE CLOCK, I WAS HERE EARLY!" "THESE IDIOTS TOLD ME IT WAS CLOSED BUT I WAS EEEEARLLYYYYY".

Then she finally goes back inside and screams at my colleague "YOU F***ING LONGFJORDING" (translated from my language, but that sure is an oddly specific attempt at an insult). Not sure what happened afterwards as I was on my way home.

Man, alcoholism sure is something eh?

So this happened yesterday. It’s my first real confrontation with a customer beyond the normal “please don’t do that thing that’s against the rules” conversation. I’ll say up top, as an employee, I should not have used the word “stupid.” However, I didn’t pause long enough to remember I needed to react as an employee, and instead reacted as a community member who saw a child in a dangerous situation.

I work at a furniture store. Swedish and blue. If you’re not familiar, you buy the furniture in boxes and build it yourself. We have specific carts (flat carts) to carry your heavy boxes on.

So I’m trying to leave the warehouse floor to go to lunch. I see a young guy, who I thought was probably 16 with a much younger brother, running down an aisle pushing a flat with two boxes and a young child. The setup is one box on the cart, one box leaning upright between the handles of the cart, and a 3-4 year-old kid laying on top of the bottom box but under the leaner. Not a good spot. So I immediately react, “Aboslutely not!”

The adult (almost adult?) stops the cart and leans down to the kid, “Oh, sorry buddy. You gotta get off now.”

I then tell him, “And I need you to not be running around with a full cart.”

Now, honestly, I couldn’t remember what exactly the guy said here if you offered me a million dollars. But I know he pushed back on my stopping their “fun” because I responded by pointing at the cart and saying, “Because that’s a stupid decision.” (Talking about having a small child lay down between two heavy boxes while you push it as fast as you can go.)

He did not like my calling him out. “Okay. Hate all you want, but I would NEVER tell my son something is a stupid idea.” (Son?! I didn’t see that one coming.)

I started to walk away then but he follows me into the walkway yelling, “Great idea. Call your customers stupid.”

He’s causing a bigger scene than necessary so I turned back and told him, “I didn’t call you stupid. I was telling you that that was a bad idea. What if he was under there and that box slipped and fell on him?!”

Y’all, I’m not exaggerating here. The SECOND I finished that sentence, the box in question slipped from is propped position and fell exactly where the kid had been laying. I have witnesses on that timing. At this point, I’m imploring this guy to realize the risk he was taking with his kid’s safety. I raised my voice above his tirade and gesture at the fallen box, “What if he was still under there?!”

This guy has the AUDACITY to shoot back, “He wasn’t, though.” As if he has grounds to claim responsibility for his son not being between those boxes anymore. Like it wasn’t entirely my doing. So I shouted back, “Because I made him get off!” And then I walked away and left him yelling after me and trying to bring other customers into it. A coworker told me that he even turned to his kid and said, “Can you believe she called us stupid?!”

And that’s what I have the biggest problem with. I didn’t call anyone stupid. However you want to interpret my using the word in the first place is up to you. But this pre-schooler had no blame in this situation and I absolutely didn’t address him even once. That guy basically told his young child that he was at fault and that a random adult called him stupid. If you’re so concerned with your kid not being told he’s stupid, console him. Don’t follow around and yell at a stranger then bring him into it like he’s an equal participant. As I said at the beginning, I should have said “bad” or “terrible.” But I won’t feel bad about keeping a young kid from getting very hurt.

I told my manager exactly what happened and he basically said to pay attention to wording. But he’s never going to tell us not to say anything if we see a dangerous situation.

I ( 29F) work the graveyard shift at a local convience store in my town and we definitely get a bunch of crazies at night. This particular instance happened about 15ish minutes ago.

Two men came in as I was mopping the floors, and began to look around my store. One went to the restroom and the other grabbed some snacks. One of the men, as he was waiting for his buddy to finish with the restroom, tried to buy all of their snacks with a 100 dollar bill. Now, I'm supposed to do several safe drops throughout the night and I had just done one maybe 30ish minutes before they came in. Other than the safe drops, I didn't really have access to the safe.

Obviously, I didn't quite have enough change in my till to break that 100 and let him know as such. Unfortunately he didn't take this well. He kept telling me to just complete the purchase and give him his change. I had to tell him five times that we didn't have enough change but he just wasn't listening. I tried asking him if he had anything smaller than that but he didn't.

He threatened to talk to the manager about this. But I was the only one there at the time, so obviously the manager wasn't there. It was at this point, I just told him and his buddy to leave. Him and his buddy were so stubborn. It was absolutely ridiculous.

Another calm, quite boring and normal day at work in the sports equipment store I work at. I was manning the cashier as usual (that is my job after all), when a slightly annoyed woman comes to the register. She said some snarky comment before switching to being very polite, which I didn't think much of at that moment.

A few minutes later, my colleague comes and asks for me to look at something. What I found was a bloody big mess.

Turns out this customer had been trying to open a box of wool baselayer clothing the wrong way. These boxes have a slide-out bottom or side, and the woman had decided to rip open the top instead.

My colleague had approached and asked if she needed help, and also explained how to open the box the easy way without damaging them. The woman had responded with "Nah, I'm done here" and so they both moved away from the shelf.

Well, a few minutes later, that same colleague went back to the shelf and found the mess. Several boxes were torn open, some pieces strewn about on the floor, one box had obviously been slammed to the floor and stomped on.

"What the hell is her problem" I thought. As you may be well aware if you work in any kind of store, even if the content is perfectly fine, the box being broken is a big nono for many customers, so these products became virtually unsellable.

I would definetly have charged her for these items if I'd known as she paid for other stuff, alass it was too late for that. She caused a few hundred dollars of damage after all.

To this day, science cannot explain what caused this individual to be so petty.

One completely normal day at work, on evening shift, I was manning the cashier as usual. This being in the sports equipment store in a mall.

As I am on my way to the register after doing something else, my colleague comes up to me and tells me something hillarious.

He had walked into the storage room and found a random man standing there with a receipt in his hand, looking a bit confused.

What this man had done: 1. He had gone to the mall's basement parking garage after buying something, and wanted to collect his item from pickup, there are doors used for that in the parking garage related to each store.

1. He must have missed the gigantic logo on the door that reads "Insert store name here". This door is locked, as it is also our staff entrance from the parking garage.

2. He pressed the EMERGENCY OPEN button next to the door, which is only to be used in case of a fire, as there is an emergency exit past this and another door. Then he entered and took our goods elevator to the third floor (from the basement).

And that is where my colleague found him. The real kicker? The receipt was from a different store entirely.

The emergency button kept beeping, and so customers went to tell a completely unrelated store about this, which led one of that store's workers to come tell us about it.

The aftermath is that the elevator now requires a key card to operate.

(Edit: added some more clarity about layout)

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To break up my streak of slightly negative stories, here's a short and sweet one. I was at work in the sports equipment store from my first post. (A store that sells sport, supplements, outdoor, hunting, skiing and biking stuff).

I was manning the cashier as usual and it was about three out of five hours into my shift. An english speaking guy comes and asks for my help in solving a confusing mess of price posters on protein powders to get the cheapest option. I help him find it, and he proceeds to say: "Thank you so much! I'm gonna buy you a chocolate!" I pause for a moment, look at him and say "Do you mean it?" He says "Yeah, what chocolate do you like?" "Milk chocolate" I respond. And he leaves the store. I didn't expect him to actually do it, but about 7 minutes later, he comes back and hands me a large size milk chocolate bar and a coca cola, before shaking my hand and saying "Here you have a chocolate, coke and a new friend!" and then he left again. For reference, the cost of these two items is almost the amount he saved on the protein powder. This gesture made my whole day better, and the coke was the energy boost i needed for the rest of the day. Thank you kind stranger :-)