My Best and Worst Stories from Working Retail
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
- Please leave your funny retail stories in the comments! As a follow up-
I have many more stories than this, but they are just not fun to tell or listen to. Mostly- men behaving inappropriately. Every woman who works a service job has stories like that unfortunately. But with this video I wanted to look back at some of my most memorable funny stories 😄
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I used to be a donation center attendant, just sitting in a room accepting non-profit donations. One day, this very thin, frail older woman (think late 60s, early 70s) walks in and asks me to grab her things from her car, so I do. As I'm dumping them onto my sorting table to give her bins back, she says, "Gosh, I hate to get rid of all these things, but they just fit me like they used to!" She leaves to pop into the grocery store and I start sorted. She had donated a pair of vinyl thigh-high stilettos, at least 4 leather corsets, a dozen high-waisted leather skirts (in at least 3 types of animal prints), and a big ol' storage container's worth of bodycon dresses in every color and fabric imaginable. Go hard, lady, go hard.
that lady sounds amazing honestly!!
This has to be one of the best stories, haha!
True story from working at McDonald's. I used to work the drive-thru all the time. A lady came through.
"You're 22 and in college right?" she said.
"Yep," I said.
"So you're too old for my 17-year-old son, huh?"
"Yeah, and I don't really swing that way."
"Give him a few years and it'll be fine!"
There's two seconds of awkward silence.
"I mean I'm not into men."
"Ooooh! That'd be a turn-off, too!" and she drove on through.
I used to work in the McDs drive thru, and one guy threw his sandal through the window at my coworker because he wouldn’t give him free fries. My coworker put his shoe in the garbage and wouldn’t return it, and my manager backed him up. We told the guy we put it in the trash compactor.
I worked at Gamestop when I was 16, and every day there was ALWAYS some dude who refused to believe that a 16 year old girl could possibly recommend a game to him. I would recommend a game, he would look at me incredulously, then ask my male co-worker the same question. I always loved it when my co-worker would give him the same answer as mine.
Emma Zaugg I work at the New Zealand version of GameStop, and this happens all the time too!! Smh
i worked at a phone shop and you always got guys who refused to take advice on tech from a girl i would always direct them to my new male colleague who wouldn't be able to answer the question and come to me for the answer and i would put on my biggest smile and answer why maintaining eye contact.
"When I started I was trained in the fitting room."
Me, having worked in a fitting room for close to year: Is this gonna be a poop story?
I was helping an old lady, I’d say in her mid 70s, look for a pillow. We were struggling to find just what pillow type she wanted, but she had the best response, by sharing with me this piece of wisdom you all should know... “I find that pillows are like men. You only know what they’re like once you’ve slept with them.”
I work in a local theater and I once had a woman buy tickets for her and her five children to see Fantastic Beasts and where to find them, they were in the movie for a solid hour before she comes out and in an accent I couldn’t place says ‘I need money back, this is Devil.’ And I was so confused at first I just said ‘I’m sorry?’ And she repeated it like there times ‘This movie has devil, there’s devil, need money back.’ So I figure out what she means And reply ‘Oh the magic... In the Harry Potter movie?’ And she nods so I explained that we don’t give refunds but I could offer her passes to see something else, so she agrees, I give her the passes and she comes back the next day and takes her children to a horror movie...
BleachTune ooooohh wow this is my favorite one so far
I work in a bakery in a grocery chain and one day while I was scheduled to make cookies, a lady on a motor cart stopped at our cookie bar and started singing all of the cookie names. I walked around the counter to see if she needed help or had any questions, and she spoke in the most charmingly thespian voice "No my dear, I am SINGING the cookie names in hopes it will keep me from purchasing any." So I leave her to her singing. A few minutes later I see her driving past the other side of my cookie bar with the most unamused look on her face. She looks at me, and without stopping her cart she says, "I am afraid to tell you that the singing did not work." And in her hand is a big box of cookies. She still comes in from time to time but the look on her face paired with her way of speaking amused me. I couldn't laugh, though. I'm not allowed to laugh at customers (not that I'd be laughing AT her, she was just a humorous person).
I work at a very dog-friendly art store and we have a customer who shows up with her dog in the sidecar of her motorcycle. The dog wears goggles.... doggles?
V TAD I want your job
A DOG FRIENDLY ART STORE??? sign me up
Last summer I worked at a small boutique and there was an old lady that used to come every day. She wolud always stroll around the place and talk to me and girl who worked with me but never bought anything. One day she told us she will not be around much anymore because she is going to have knee surgery. A week later she came by just to tell us her knee is alright, in case we have wondered. We loved her
One of my favorites was when I worked at a Taco Bell in Texas. A middle aged man in a cowboy hat came in and as he was deciding on his order he looked at me and said "Man ya'll sure have a lot of ways to wrap meat, beans, and cheese!" "...yes sir, we sure do."
You know those horrible customers that complain about how much a product costs, then looks at you dead in the eye like you, a simple employee, is responsible for how high the price is -_-
oh gosh soooo true ... my supermarket was absorbed by a bigger chain and so our whole store was reworked and we got a whole new range of products from the new chain while fortunately our whole staff stayed the same ... after all the changes we had our regular customers complain for months ... 50% were like 'why the hell is everything so expensive now? why do you do this? I dont find anything anymore. you will lose me as customer if you dont give me a discount blablabla' and the other 50% were like 'the new productrange is sooo much cheaper and better in quality! no wonder the old chain went bankrupt...'
it is fucking annoying if you repeat yourself over and over again about having no influence on the prices and almost no influence on the new products ... really people just use your brain a little more ok?
Silver Feathers I give them directions to the nearest goodwill
Silver Feathers seriously I don't own Target, Susan. Yelling at a person with zero influence...nice.
“Huh, yeah I’ll probably just buy it online.” Knife through heart!!!
I hate when customers do that! Sorry that the hairspray you picked out was like $10 but that brand is gonna be $10 everywhere else and it's not the store's fault!
I used to work in a hotel.
EVERYONE ordered room-service in their underwear. EVERYONE.
Lady Marmalade I take pizzas to people at hotels all the time and I can confirm this lmao
For me it's just a courtesy thing. Like the LEAST you could do is put on a shirt and gym shorts lol. You can take them off directly after.
At the very least put on a robe! People are so gross.
There was a big cocaine bust at the hotel I worked security at on a day I didn't work. The thing is, the police left the guys rifle they found in the room in our office for like, a week afterwards before an officer came by to pick it up.
I had to ask people if they wanted me to come in and put the tray down, or if they wanted to take the tray at the door themselves. Sometimes people would ask me to come in, and there would be another person lying in the bed with the sheets completely covering them. Because they were obviously naked under there.
In my first month of selling shoes at Sears when I was 16, a man vomited in front of my register. I'm super squeamish, but in an effort to be a "professional", I went to the back to get cleaning supplies. When I came out, a man in a FULL hasmet-like suit was placing orange cones around the barf and yelling at me to get back. Apparently, we had a very strict "do not touch bodily functions" policy? It still makes me giggle 20 years later.
How to be Fancy
I read "oranges" instead of orange cones and I'm laughing so hard right now
How to be Fancy I wish my store had the policy! I've had to clean up vomit and mysterious brown smudges in the changeroom at my store!
I saw Sears and cracked up - I have the craziest bodily fluid stories from my 3 years there, let me tell you 😂 I wish that had been implemented when I worked there, definitely had to clean up blood and vom 🤢
I worked for Hannaford (a grocery store chain in the Northeastern US) for about 8 years, in multiple departments and locations, and I have a TON of funny work stories, but I'm just gonna tell 2 of them.
The first one was from when I worked in the Pharmacy as a technician. At this time, I was known for dyeing my hair a lot, I had blue, pink, green, rainbow, all of it, for like, 2-3 years. Both customers and coworkers were entertained by it, though some didn't get why I liked it. Anyway, one of my favorite customers went away for a while, and then came back, and by that point I was in a low-money situation, so my hair had faded and the roots had grown out so much that basically my hair was back to it's natural color, with a little bleaching near the ends. This customer comes in for his prescription, greets me, and then looks confused. "Oh, your hair looks so normal.... Are you feeling ok?" I explained the money thing to him and he left and it was whatever, but I've always remembered that fondly. Like, this guy I only saw at work was really concerned for me cause my hair wasn't as colorful as usual. :)
The other one is really short. Basically, around the time I was new at Hannaford, I was bagging groceries for this woman and her baby. The baby was about a year old, wasn't talking yet, but was alert and seemed happy to be there. I always make small talk with kids while I'm bagging, and this was no exception. So I said hi, and this baby just stared at me, for a solid moment, let out this HUGE GASP and then immediately starts going off in baby talk. For like, 3 minutes. Looking me in the face, babbling away excitedly and waving their arms around emphatically. To this day, I still have no idea what this baby had to tell me, but clearly something amazing happened and they needed to tell me all about it. :D
OKAY so I moved to Portland, OR from Salem about two years ago and when I first moved I got a job at Voodoo Donuts. I worked noc shift on the weekends a lot and mostly served drunk dudes. So one night this group came in and they were really into my sweater. It was a black distressed knit Misfits sweater from Hot Topic. They pretty much immediately started offering me money for it. I was like “nah this is my roommates I can’t sell it” and they just offered more. I even told them it was a $50 Hot Topic sweater and they still offered me $300 for it. They set down three $100 bills in front of me and I was finally like “okay whatever take the sweater”. So I called my roommate on break to tell her the story. She wasn’t mad, we split the money and I had just completed my 90 days so I got a free t-shirt to put on. The guys probably just wanted me to take my shirt off, but jokes on them I had a high-necked bralette on that also came down about three inches at the bottom so all that showed was a little strip of stomach😂
I think the ‘they didnt want to do that’ is a very important perspective to show a teenager, who isnt quite used to thinking about other peoples troubles and such. GI issues suck and whoever did that definitely felt more terrified and guilty than any worker would have. Your manager was a very wise lady
I work at a small, local theatrical costume shop. Obviously, the most busy time of year is October. It's not uncommon to work 10 or 11 hours shifts for a week straight during that month, and so all of the workers get a little out of it. One time I answered the phone, and it immediately started ringing so I asked the first person to hold. The second person had a quick question, so I finished with them pretty quickly and went back to the first person and instead of asking how I could help them, I said, "Sorry for the wait, how can I hold you?" I realized what I said, and beyond that, I realized there was a customer standing three feet from me who gave me perhaps THE most judgmental look I have ever gotten from a customer.
A coworker one time was helping someone who had been assigned to be Woody from Toy Story for an office party, Trying to be friendly, she said, "Oh, yeah! 'There's a snake in my boot!'" The guy just stared blankly at her.
The same coworker, during October, went to the front to greet a customer as they came in, and greeted the customer with the name of the store as if she were on the phone instead of talking in person. There was a tangible silence for a good 5 seconds after that.
There was also the time a woman shopping for a 20s party asked me if we had masks on sticks, "like what they have in the Great Zaxby."
The other week, this precious little boy was in the store with his mom & brother, and he pointed at a Benjamin Franklin costume and said, "Look, they have Narnia costumes!" They both were confused and tried to explain that it was a Ben Franklin costume, and his brother pointed at the name and said, "Look, read it: Benjamin Franklin." The little boy pointed at another place on the package and said, "But it also says 'A Narnia." I realized he was pointing at the size, which for kids costumes is done by age, and listed in a couple languages--so he was pointing at where it said "años."
There was also the guy who rented a yeti costume, had his friend dress up in it, and while the guy and his girlfriend were hiking, the friend (in costume) jumped out of the bushes to "attack" them. The guy "killed" the yeti and pulled something out of the yeti's mouth--an engagement ring. As of a year or so ago, the guy and his now-wife were still happily married.
I used to work at a seaside resort hotel reception. Night shifts were amusing. Once, a naked guy came in from the pool area, hiding his unmentionables with hands, and said that his friends had stolen his clothes while skinny dipping. Another time, this drunk guy uprooted a rose bush from the garden and walked around the hotel lobby, hugging it.
Ok ouch on the rosebush one, haha.
XSemperIdem5 He later took it up to his room, too :D
I work at Starbucks and I have two stories that almost always make me laugh when I remember or re tell them.
1. There was one day that we ran out of cold brew. We had several disappointed customers which is expected. One lady tried to order cold brew and when I told her we had run out she goes “wow, my whole plan for today just changed”.
2. It’s our morning rush and I’m taking orders in the drive thru. The standard iced coffee comes with classic sweetener and no cream, so we always have to ask what people want in their iced coffee. One lady aks “can I have a venti iced coffee with cream” and I reply “of course! Did you want the coffee sweetened?” And instead of saying “hold on” or “let me ask” she just shouts “AMANDA!!!” (Who I’m assuming is her daughter in the back seat) and everyone working who had on a headset starts cracking up and now it’s an inside joke with some coworkers to yell “AMANDA!!!”
I work in a convenience store and apart from the normal-sized bottles of wine, we also sell small single-serving size ones too. One time I had a customer with just a normal mix of things, but as I was scanning he stopped me to say, "Can you do the wine next, please?"
And I scanned it, and he went "oh thank GOD" and just downed it right there in front of me.
"I've been in a traffic jam for. Six. HOURS," he added.
Sebastian Cromarty I'm very sad for him.
truly iconic
I don't have a retail story but your Newfoundland accent is so cute
I worked at a McDonald’s and a kid vomited in the slide in the play area. Since I was the smallest worker on that particular shift and the only one who could fit in the slide I had to clean it. My manager wrapped me up in plastic bags, gave me some gloves, and rubber banned wash cloths to my elbows and knees and sent me down the slide a few times.
Down the slide??? Omg.
LMAOOOO
I’m living in my bed, 9 months pregnant, snort laughing and crying at this! I want this to be what puts me in labor because it’s magical
Hahahha 😂 I can’t stop laughing sorry lol 😂
(2022)
I worked in a movie theater for 2 years, definitely had some interesting experiences:
-Just the fact that people would show up 20 mins before the premiere of a big movie like Star Wars and then act SHOCKED that it was sold out and demand that I find seats for them
-Once an old woman came and literally spoke to me in riddle. I was working the box office and she told me she "was looking for a movie in which there were more than 3 but less than 6 tickets left and near the left exit of the theater". It took awhile lol.
-People coming in and not knowing the name of the movie, just vaguely saying, "oh it's the one with that older actor" and expecting me to instantly know what they're talking about.
-My coworker and I were messing around once and I put up the barrier rope to block off the theater he was in, he ran straight into it and tore the whole thing off the wall... oops.
-My manager threw an entire slushie at one of my coworkers. (Also, popcorn fights were a daily occurrence)
-Things we found in theaters included: whole watermelons, full sets of top and bottom dentures, an entire baby's outfit, and a whole lot of $$$ (check your pockets before leaving, y'all!)
-Also once a person did smear shit all over the bathroom but thankfully cleaning it up was above my pay grade.
-People sitting through an entire movie and then asking for a full refund because they "just didn't like it".
-AND THE CLASSIC: "Enjoy the show" "You too". (Don't worry, literally everyone does this)
I have sooooooo many more but that's everything I could think of for now! Loved the video Ang, I love hearing about all the strange things that happen to you lol :-)
MadduBear the riddles one LMAOOO
omg the "asking for refunds for a movie they didn't like after watching the whole thing" is soooooo real. I had a lady sit through "call me by your name" for over an hour and 15 minutes and then wanted a refund because she didn't realize it featured a gay couple and was uncomfortable with sex/romance between two men.
My other favorite was people coming out after a movie ended and complaining that there was someone loud/on their phone/kicking their seat during the whole movie and wanted us to do something about it AFTERWARDS but didn't come out to tell us about it during the movie or move to a different seat.
I currently work at one and I can confirm pretty much all of that
MadduBear my FAVORITE thing is the split second after they say “you too.” when they’re walking away and the expression they make when they realize what they said. 😂
I work at a movie theater too and totally believe that lmao. I once caught a middle aged couple sneaking into a second movie and when the ushers went in to ask them to leave, the woman stormed out and screamed in my face accusing us of embarrassing her?? For catching her wrongfully in the theater lol?? I've never seen anyone so furious demanding the numbers to corporate.. like lady, you're literally in the wrong here. Worst part is she got her money back for her original movie AND re-admit tickets for another time!! (and when she came back it was awkward as hell lmao). Ever since then I've reeeeeally disliked retail.....
But yeah. Also, my coworker walked in on a couple having sex in a theater once. And another coworker saw a guy shitting into a trash can. So that happens.
I've worked at the same Target for almost six years now. One of the most memorable stories is about a guest we called "ball guy." He would come in every single day, sometimes twice a day. You knew he was there before you saw him because he had a huge cluster of keys hanging from his belt that jangled against his leg as he walked. He would get a ball from the toy section and bounce it around the store. Then he'd get a drink at Starbucks. Then he would get a different ball and bounce it around the store. He would also purposely leave things where they didn't belong. It was so annoying and we all hated him. One night he was throwing his ball really high, trying to hit the signs or whatever, so our head of security came over and asked him to stop, but ball guy got mad and was like "how old are you to be telling me what to do?" (the security manager was 21) and he got really nasty about it so he was BANNED FROM THE STORE.
I just started working at a department store and I've already had the same "poop in the fitting room" experience that you had. We're pretty sure it was this elderly lady who just had an accident, but cleaning it up still wasn't a fun time and it took six cans of Lysol to get the place smelling normal again.
My favorite experience so far, however happened to me the other day. There was this little boy who had to be about one sitting in a shopping cart. He was staring at me as babies tend to do and so I waved at him, and let me tell you I nearly screeched with delight when instead of waving back at me he did the sign language sign for "I love you". It was the cutest thing and made my day at least ten times better.
I worked at a local grocery store. A Middle Eastern gentlemen came through my til and it was starting to pick up in pace in the store, with a line developing. I decided to call a grocery guy to assist me and I called over the PA the usual phrase, "Can I can get a packet to til 1 please? packer to til one." The man turns to me and dead ass says "What did you call me?" I think he saw the surprise and horror in my eyes because he immediately switched and started laughing, saying he was joking. I almost died. Pretty funny though.
One time while I was working in retail within the clothing section. We had a situation in the dressing room. A woman had been in there for an hour bringing clothes in and not taking it out to the attendant. The attendant called security and the woman didn't open the door when they knocked. They kept knocking for like an hour and finally broke in after no response. They found her unconscious and she had peed herself. She was in the middle of shop lifting when security came and thought it was a good idea to do drugs. Long story short, she was shop lifting, got caught, over dosed and then was taken away in an ambulance with police following. It was a wild shift.
I work in a health and beauty shop in England, and we have targets on certain fragrances and other bits that we have to try and actively sell. Valentine's Day a guy came in looking for a perfume for his wife. He ended up buying a fragrance from me that I was talking up that we needed sales on. He gave it to me before he left cause he thought I liked it so much 😂
I work at a second hand retail store and I have seen/dealt with it all. Best one tho is as I was finishing up someone's purchase and saying goodbye, he was saying goodbye too and automatically added 'love you'
I used to work in a department store and we found poop on the floor on at least two different occasions.... like not in a fitting room, just in the middle of an aisle. How did they do it? we'll never know.
didn't you guys have cctv? I hope you didn't have to touch it
Eleanor Medhurst that happened there i work and they checked the cameras and saw a dog pooping there!
Makes actually sense if it's a dog. The Winners I worked at they kept finding bags of urine and feces on aregular basis, luckily it wasn't me who found it
The question isn't "How did they do it?" but "Why did they do it?"
I work in a grocery store and my god, recently someone took a shit twice on the floors. One in an aisle, the other at one of the registers
I once triggered an evacuation of an entire shopping centre and the implementation of a bomb threat alert while working in a clothes shop (NEXT). Somebody had left a bag in the fitting room which was a bit odd (the bag was odd, leaving stuff behind happens all the time). I called security over to come and pick it up so that it could be returned to it's owner. Security takes one look at it and is all "nope!" and calls in the local police (this is the sort of town centre that has bobbies on the beat as a regular feature). The constable comes in and is all "nope!" and calls for back up. Back up comes in and it's a sodding bomb squad with dogs. The dogs come in and they go freaking wild for this package on full alert. The bomb squad is all "right then". Shopping centre evacuated (no madam you can't try on one more thing. No we can't just do a quick transaction for you. This is a bomb alert. We are leaving. Put that back please.)
So that's what 40 shops and an entire food court on a Sunday lunchtime. Fun times. And of course it was raining because of course.
So the bomb squad goes in with their little doohickies to take a closer look and do a controlled explosion - this was around the year 2000 and we are in an area (i.e. the North of England) with a history of IRA attacks so bomb threats were taken seriously. Then the bomb team were able to take a close look at the suspicious package.
It was a leg of lamb (maybe a pork joint, I don't remember now. definitely a big chunk of meat) and a can of oven cleaner. The perfect combination to make any dog including trained dogs super excited.
We evacuated an entire shopping centre because of somebody's Sunday roast.
I used to work at Value Village and once a man with a big puffy jacket walked by the fitting rooms where I was working, unzipped his jacket, and the tiniest little dog poked its head out. He made the shhhh 🤫 face before I could tell him that only service dogs were allowed in the store. And then he left.
I had that recently but it was a bunny in their jacket instead.
MKMonster Ohmygosh... I love bunnies so much, I don’t think I’d be able to keep my cool if it had been a bunny, lol.
MKMonster saw a guy once walk into a Starbucks just casually carrying a bunny.
XSemperIdem5 😭💖🐰
when you mentioned what your manager said to you about the mess in the changing room, it reminded me of a similar phrase you said in your "worst day ever" video about the woman you sat next to on the train which actually changed my perspective when you posted that video!!
When I worked at a smaller chain video game store, during my first week, my coworker left to go on a break while no customers were there (there was only two of us working). I'm cleaning when suddenly this man runs in the store wearing a ski looking mask over his face, and yells, "Give me all your money!!" One look at him and I had to try so hard not to laugh? The "ski mask" he was wearing was a full metal alchemist beanie he pulled down over his face. He lifted up the masked and said, "Hey wait....I don't know you." AS IF THAT WOULD MAKE IT ANY BETTER? Turns out he was a regular customer who would stay at the store for hours to annoy the employees with trash anime and racist/homophobic early 2000 humor no one cared about
On the topic of children-
I'm a dog groomer and in the first salon it was pretty open between the check in area and the grooming area. There was just a little gate with a latch separating the two areas. There was also a large kennel right next to the gate on the grooming side. So this one day this little boy figured out how to unlatch the gate and came onto our side. His mom just continued to talk to my manager as her son crawled into the kennel, shut the door to the kennel, and started barking at his mom. My coworkers and I weren't sure what to do but we were pretty sure the mom was going to scold him and tell him to get out.
BUT NO. She's just looks over and says "Awwww are you a doggie?" No wonder this child just waltzes into kennels! His mom doesn't care at all!
I have a lot more stories (especially dealing with poop because I'm a groomer) but that was a really odd customer service situation where my coworkers and I felt helpless.
I have a story too! Don't read it if you're easily grossed out.
I used to work at a cafe, and one day this lady came down and apologised for having 'missed' the toilet. I grabbed blue roll and some spray, thinking that she'd accidentally peed on the floor, and went to wipe it up.
I opened the door and it literally looked like someone had taken 4 giant chocolate thick shakes and poured them round the floor in the toilet. I do not know how a human body could physically hold that much diahorrea. It took me two hours to clean it up. At the end, I had literally two bin bags full of shit covered blue roll. It got on my shoes, my clothes, even a bit in my hair. I ended up throwing away my clothes.
Although it was horrific, I didn't blame the lady. She was disabled, using crutches, and it must have taken a huge amount of courage to come and let us know. She was clearly so mortified, but she still told us staff so that no-one went in there and had to deal with it. That takes guts.
I worked in an open kitchen fish and chips restaurant for two and a half years. aside from all the times we found weed stashed in the bathroom, or one time there was a guy doing meth in the ladies' room, even casual customer interactions were wild sometimes. one man wanted me to put hot chowder into a medium sized pepsi cup because he didn't think our soup cups were worth the price; another time someone threw a hamburger at me because I forgot to leave off the pickles; but the best was when a guy got so stressed about how long it was taking to make his burger that he left the restuarant. I chased him down as he headed toward the ferry dock and when he saw me running after him with a bag of food, he yelled "I DON'T WANT IT ANYMORE" and full tilt sprinted away.
I have countless ones from the years of various retail oh my, one that lives with me that isn't a funny story that I want to share, I worked for a plus size clothing/lingerie store and I did bra fittings, etc. A lady would come in from time to time to purchase some bras and panties. This is about 12 years ago keep in mind but this lady was trans-gendered and thankfully I grew up with my best friends mom who was a psychiatrist who treated a varied clientele from her home office so it was always normal to me to interact, and respect all types of people. These other ladies I worked with though.. they would always gossip about it, and always point it out and giggle. That lady sticks with me to this day, it must have not been easy to return to the store to be fitted and purchase essentials when all eyes were on you. Retail really preps you for life and I get why everyone says "everyone should work in retail at least once" to be able to understand what it's truly like.
I used to work in a charity shop, and this one day, we had a new guy in. So he and I are working the register, and this woman comes in. Quite friendly, nice customer. Well. We were trying to shift some of the stuff we had out so we could put out some of the mountains of stuff we had in the back, so we had all the baby clothes on sale for 10p each. Everything, coats, rompers, the works, all 10p. This woman bought, legit, 200+ items (it was some stupid odd number). Me, being the OCD person I am, kept a running total of all of them, a little piece of paper with little checks on it to keep count. Well, I'm bagging them up and finally finished bag 15 and I realize my paper is gone. To this day I don't know what happened to it, whether it ended up in one of the bags or whatever, but I had to unload every bag, then repack, counting every tiny little piece of clothing. It took me about an hour to finally check this woman through. My boss bought me a cupcake for that one.
I work in at a Starbucks drive thru that was renovated almost three years ago, it used to be a KFC. We still get customers that drive up to order and say "Can I please have a 3 piece meal with mashed potatoes?" I'm always so in awe of how they don't realize its Starbucks??
Oh god where do I begin. When I work at a pet store I got a phone call asking for doggie birth control. Then the customer went on to say that their dog was pregnant and needed something to "get rid of the puppies!" Between trying to explain birth control doesn't work like that and there is no such thing for dogs, I ended up just telling him to go to the vet. AND I STILL GET THAT QUESTION 5 YEARS LATER....USE GOOGLE PEOPLE...
I'm a large animal vet. One time I was driving out to a horse with a large wound on it's front leg. It was above the carpus so not too worried about joint infections etc. The lady who owned the horse was acting super cool, she wasn't worried at ALL about the blood or the wound or anything (sometimes you'll get very squeamish owners!). And she kept telling me how NOT scared of blood and open fleshwounds she was, etc (people like to try and impress their vet, forgetting that we deal with gross stuff on a daily basis). However, she didn't tell me she was afraid of needles! The second I pricked my syringe in the neck of the horse to sedate it, she fainted! And all I could do was wait for her to wake up! There was no one else in the stable and I can't treat a sedated horse, I need someone to hold it while I sew together the wound. So I basically stood there, and she finally came through and was like "I think I need to call my friend if you're going to sew in stitches" and I was like ".... yeah, I think you do!". Lol her friend came and the horse got treated. But it was funny standing there, like "uh lady, get up! I'm a vet, no clue what to do with a human!" :D
I worked at a hardware store for years when I was a teenager, and let me tell you, being a teenage girl in a male-dominated environment was..... great...... Not! Customers would take one look at me and ask, "Are there any men around to help?" even though I could do a lot of the same work, if not more of it, than some of my male coworkers. One time this old lady very reluctantly asked me for help and when I helped her she didn't believe my advice!!! And then asked, "is there a man that knows what he's doing?" and so I said, "sure, ma'am," walked to the service desk and yelled, "ANY MEN BACK HERE KNOW WHAT THEYRE DOING?? I NEED ONE." and my coworkers lost it. I gave no fucks.
I used to work at Home Depot and like I’ve had some interesting stories? Like I had a customer who forgot that actual nails are a thing (he was looking at all the liquid nails to hold up his house trim and wanted something super super strong) or the time someone wanted me to color match my apron for the color for their Halloween event because it was the perfect color for hell. Lol
Okay Ang. I work in a starbucks kiosk inside of a grocery store. My favorite morning, it was a Sunday morning (we don't get busy until around 8) and I was opening the store. My now-fiance who had only been on a few dates with me was also opening his department just across the way from me. Around 5:40 am I made a blonde roast for a man who tells me he's in a big rush. Checking his watch and jogging in place, in short shorts.
I give him the coffee (which took the longest of anything? If he was in a hurry...why?) after about 6 minutes.
He leaves.
My fiance comes over to say hello and good morning to me, and it has been around 10min since the man left. I am stationed very close to the front door.
The man RUNS in. And hollers. Then screams, "HELP! AN ASSASSIN! CALL 911!"
My fiance turns and walks away on one heel because he knows he is about to laugh at this man. I am trying not to laugh also. I say, "what?" with a smirk.
He starts hollering this story about either a gunman or a person with a knife (definitely black though, by this old insane mans account) AND COUNTS ON ME TO CALL 911...he has an iphone, I don't even know how to use the work phone. So he gets the attention of everyone else. He has a GIANT ERECTION
AND HE FINALLY LEAVES ME BE, but all morning for the next 2 hours he is standing in the front part of the store telling passerby he was robbed. Other people start asking me why the police havent come if there was an armed robbery. I have to say "I don't know. Crazy."
We checked the cameras later. No one approached him. He walked to his car then ran back into the store.
My favorite story of mine, on Black Friday I had a person come into my store and complain to my face that a mini fridge we were selling was too small.
Yes. You read that right.
A MINI fridge was too small.
I used to work in a flower shop and so many weird/funny things happened. The one that comes to mind right now happened during the Christmas season. A woman came up to me with a white poinsettia, except it wasn't white enough (they tend to be cream/lime, not pure white). And this was very upsetting to her, because the white orchids she'd previously bought from us matched the exact shade of her curtains, but the poinsettias didn't, and now she was at a loss on what to do. I recommended maybe buying either a different coloured poinsettia to contrast the curtains, but that was just unthinkable, or keeping the white orchids, which was also unacceptable because orchids weren't seasonally festive enough. I didn't suggest she change her curtains, because I had a feeling that wouldn't have been a welcome suggestion.
I don't know exactly what she expected me to do, but she was very upset that I couldn't make the flowers she wanted match her curtains at home.
I used to work at a convenience store/gas station and was primarily a second shift employee. An older man started to come in frequently during my shift and talk to me, which was pretty normal. I had a lot of regulars that would stop in and chat. After a few weeks he came in and handed me what I thought was a fabric rose and left. I thought that it was strange, especially since he was an older man and I was maybe 18 or 19 at the time. Well..when I got home my Mom took a look at the Rose and realized that it wasn’t just a fabric rose but it was a rose on a stem made from a folded pair of red lace panties. EWWWWWWW!
I worked in an upscale sex shop and had one person come in who asked to try on a see-through negligee. I unlocked the dressing room and after a short while they came out in said negligee and nothing else, came to the counter and made small talk about how 'as I could see, they had already had their bottom surgery and were getting their top done soon.' I'm happy for you. Please stop walking around the store naked. As a side note, I did not, in fact check on the accuracy of their story but maintained eye contact the whole time.
Also got calls every now and then asking "Do you have breasts?" And every time (just in case it was an actual customer) I'd ask whether they meant the silicone fillets with the response being, "No, you, yourself, do you have breasts??" I'm not sure how it was funny for them as my reaction was never more than just hanging up.
There were really awesome stories too. One man was looking at the vinyl maid dresses and needed to know how big the sleeves would fit. I asked approximately how big he thought the arms of the person he was buying it for were and he quietly said it was for him. I explained the sleeves were very gathered onto very stretchy elastic and that he shouldn't have a problem with it. I then left him to finish his shopping. On the way out he tipped me $10! Super sweet guy.
I have a volunteer job at a science museum and one day, without knowing, I signed up to work a shift on the day of the lunar eclipse. Our museum reached max capacity more than once that day and I think it’s the most traffic the museum had ever seen. So many things happened that day like I saw a lady pay $50 for our solar eclipse glasses that were just included in the cost of admission (somewhere in the 10’s) but this takes the cake. So, all of the volunteers have to wear a smock and a name tag. We’re pretty easy to spot and even if you’ve never been to the museum, it’s not difficult to work out that we’re staff. I was working outside and most likely was going in to refill my water. Now, in order to do this, I had to walk past everyone that couldn’t get in because we were at max capacity. As I’m walking past them all, a woman from the line yells “WHY ARE YOU CUTTING IN LINE?” and I calmly turn around, look her in the eye and say “I work here, ma’am.”. She was so embarrassed and everyone in the line was embarrassed for her and felt bad for me. It happened in front of my one manager and she kept asking if I was okay and I just laughed it off.
I work at a beauty store and we sell a $400 hair dryer. And one of the cashiers said that a woman came in to buy one because she “already had one and loved it but needed one for her Florida house.” And we were all just standing around in the back room like... who drops $800 on hair dryers, casually? People have too much money.
So I work at Zumiez, which if anyone doesn't know it's a skateboard shop that sells brands like Vans, Thrasher, etc. My job was to greet customers and make sales. I had a lot of instances where guys would ask for my number, thinking I was flirting with them. The back room there is really small, so most of our shoes are stored high up on the walls in the store. I have to climb a ladder to get to them. One time an old lady and her daughter came in looking for a pair of vans. It was summer, so I was wearing shorts. When I pulled the ladder out, the old lady started freaking out, yelling "don't go up there you're gonna fall!!" Luckily her daughter calmed her down, but as I was grabbing the shoebox, her daughter said "Sweetie you might wanna get down from there, a bunch of guys are looking at your bottom." I looked down and there was a group of guys looking up at my butt! I was so embarrassed and disgusted. And I had so many other instances like this one. Guys can be creeps :(
When I was 18-19, I worked at a small backwoods grocery store in the summer. One day, in the middle of the day, a regular customer, a pretty big guy probably in his 40s, came in blind drunk, walked straight to the booze section, picked up some beers, and tried to just walk out the store. However, he was so drunk that he fell down and the beers went flying. He just got up and walked away, leaving the beers. He was pretty embarrassed about it when he came in the next day and apologized to me and another girl who had been working there at that time :D
Oh my goodness I have almost too many.
One of my favorites has to be a slip of the tongue I made once. A mother and her daughter were in my store, and when they came up to the register, I handed them their bag and was very much intending to send them on their way with a cheery "Enjoy the rest of your day, ladies!" However, what came out of my mouth was "Enjoy the rest of your days, lady!" and we just stared at each other in shock over the inadvertent threat. We both laughed afterwards, but I am convinced I turned purple with embarrassment.
OMG! I work at Fabricland, and one time there was only ONE customer in the store, a lady with two kids. One kid was FAST ASLEEP in the stroller the whole time, and the other was like maybe 8 or 9 years old. I was walking around and my foot slide on something. I thought it was a piece of cello wrap that comes off the fabric..... but nope.... it was a piece of HUMAN FECES. My coworker asked the lady "Did one of your kids do this?" And she just said "Oh yea, probably."
The Washroom was a TOTAL mess as well. and like WHICH KID?????? The 9 year old????? Or the toddler who was asleep the whole time????
It's one thing that it was a child, but the fact that the mother reacted like that was just so surprising. She did not feel bad at all that now someone else had to clean up her child's poop in public.
I work in a luxury deisgner store and the other week when i was putting through a ladies payment she gave me a custard cheese tart to say thanks. I couldnt believe it! I have worked in retail for 8 years and i was so hungry and she made me so happy!
One time I was working at an office supply store and my night duty was to touch up/clean each aisle before we closed. We were taught just to go aisle by aisle because it was more efficient. So as I'm doing this, a woman happens to also be shopping aisle by aisle and keeps staring at me. I didn't mind cause whatever I'm just doing my job. She has this huge black fur coat on - mind you it was winter in Idaho so it was kinda normal - and whips around and gets in my face. She yells at me "I'M NOT STEALING ANYTHING!" and opens up her coat and two black Pomeranian dogs pop out of her coat and land on the floor. I didn't see them at first cause the blended in with her coat. I just stood there flabbergasted thinking "what the hell just happened???" and she left with her dogs.
I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO LEARN A NEWFIE ACCENT
I AM IN TOTAL AWE YOU DON'T REALISE THE TALENT YOU HAVE IT IS SUCH A TREASURE
Now I'm trying to remember my funny/weird customer service stories. DANG. One I can remember off the top of my head is akin to your 'I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!!!' guy story-
I was instructed to approach *everyone* always, make small talk, up talk sales, explain discounts, etc. After doing this for a year or more, I see a dude lingering near the entrance across from the women's bathroom. I know from how he's standing/where he's waiting he's waiting for a friend/family member to exit the bathroom. When I saw dudes waiting by the bathroom I'd give a quick greeting, recommend the much more comfortable couch nearby to sit on, and bomp away so they could wait in peace. So of course I approach just to give a quick greeting before I drifted off to start cleaning up the aisle.
This was a mistake. HOO BOY. I opened with my usual greeting, only for him to launch into this incredibly weird rambly story about how everything is ZOMG sooo much cheaper in OTHER STORE!!! and asking me if I knew why things were priced this way. I awkwardly shrugged, and apologized saying I had no real hand in pricing. I explained the deals going on best I could, but he kept interrupting me. I tried to make two conversational exits to leave, but hell naw, this guy was insistent on me hearing out his woes and how he can get 40 pair of pants for 5 dollars in OTHER STORE!!! Which turned into him... weirdly talking about opening his own brand store. Another customer, an older woman had to come to my rescue holding up a pair of pants going 'Could you help me at the register?'
Right as I was starting to leave, the dude had to throw in one last thing. "Hey, could you like... uh give me a name for a bag?"
I shared a brief look with the other customer before awkwardly going, "Baggo." and leaving. The dude excitedly and loudly went, "Baggo!!" When his mom finally came out of the bathroom he told her he came up with a BRILLIANT idea. I could literally hear him from my register which was pretty far away. I legit was going 'baggo' under my breath the rest of the day and chortling.
i work retail, and my boss always bring : the day I got this man wanting to make dipaer for his parents is the day i stopped caring ''
[i work in a fabric store]
But my funny/weird storries are all in the same category, people wanting to make weird stuff.
but the funnies it that ine day, i had someone she wanted to make an outfit to look exactly like Queen Elizabeth, but everytime i showed a fabric it was '' ooouh yess lizliz would love that '' or it was '' naaahhh too basic for lizliz ''
everytme she said lizliz i wanted to laugh so bad !!!
omg that's hilarious. i work in a fabric store too and my favorite answer to "what are you making?" is probably "a diaper for a baby goat"
I had a similar experience to the "I have a girlfriend!!" guy, haha. I used to work at Toys R Us and part of our cashier shtick was to ask people if they had rewards cards. No? Would you like to sign up for one? So this guy says yes, and I kind of got the sense that he was just trying to humor me and didn't want to talk much, but we have to put in their phone number and email so we can attach them to the card, and the second he says yes, he'll get one, I say, "Okay, great, what's your phone number?" he shakes his head and says, "No, sorry, you're too young for me, you're not my type," "No, no, for the rewards card!" and he'd say, "Oh, okay, [number]," and it continued down the line like that, every time I asked him for a new piece of information he would tell me he "wasn't interested in me like that." NOT LIKE iT'S MY JOB...
So I used to be a waitress in a country pub here in the UK, and one awful dine and dash story stands out. One day, towards the beginning of the lunch rush, a family with two young toddlers comes in and sits down as normal. They place their order and everything's fine, but after a few minutes I notice a bit of a kerfuffle going on, so I go to the table to check if everything's OK. The mortified looking dad just shouts 'He's done a poo!', pointing to one child and the general vicinity of the floor. I was shocked, but being a family restaurant, we had children throwing up and stuff not too infrequently, so I reassure him it's OK and directed them to the baby change facility. I go to the back to grab the cleaning things and the family have disappeared, leaving their meal unpaid for. The worst part, however, is that I never found the poo, which still haunts me to this day.
So I work at Staples and have been there for a year now. There's been some pretty weird things I've seen while there but here are some of my highlights:-In my first few weeks of working at Staples a woman came in with a purple plastic basket, came around the cashier's desk and showed me and my cowrker what was in the basket... two rabbits. "Look!" And then she left. That was all she did.-Another time I saw another woman holding a rabbit over at the Copy Center. -My coworker told me she saw a woman with a monkey in a baby onesie in the store. The monkey also screeched at another of our coworkers.-I was ringing up an old gentleman's order and giving him his change when his eyes literally rolled back in his head and he collapsed. Luckily the customer next in line caught him and eased his fall. I then had to call 911 for the first time ever to get the man an ambulance.-A coworker of mine was fixing someone's phone and I heard him exclaim "Fuck!" Turned to look and there were flames behind the desk. The phone had exploded in his hand apparently. The fire died out pretty quickly and he was okay but shaken up. The customer was pretty upset though but things worked out in the end.
I worked for two Boston supermarkets over the course of 12 years. One of my most humorous stories of misunderstanding was when I was managing the cafe area one day. A young woman gets a cup of soup, and a napkin with no bag. I point to the plastic utensils, and ask "Want a spoon?". She responds asking "Wanna what...?". "No, do you want A spoon. One of these.".
Another day at that store, 8 open top freezers died just as we were closing, so a bunch of us from the front end stayed at the store until 1 in the morning help move the ice cream to walk-in freezers.
My pother job was with Whole Foods. I was really psyched to be working in a store that was more part of the medical community with both MGH and Mass. Eye & Ear right there. Up the street from the TD Garden, we also got a lot of Boston Bruins players. One Player (a regular of mine) came in with his daughter, and I scan his order. The little girl suddenly starts crying as I'm bagging. Loui (Eriksson) reaches into a bag, and gives her a little votive candle. I explained that if I understood Swedish, I would have been able to help her sooner, and he smiled.
The other Former Bruin who I saw regularly was Daniel Paille. He and his wife are this sweet couple who had been together since secondary school, I had met Dana first, and we were talking about using kale in vegetarian recipes, and how we were in New York State at the same time. She was a student in Buffalo and I was at Syracuse. she introduced me to her husband, and we saw each other at the store regularly. One time, it was after a bad workman's comp. accident (it took a year and a half to clear up dental, and ortho. damage). My first day back (with really deep tibial contusion, blunted meniscus, gnashed up upper lip, two teeth turned a little, and an incisor 3/4 gone, ... During that first shift back, the Pailles coincidentally came in. We traded quick stories of workplace injury (among which, he had once taken a puck to the mouth), and Dan joked about how well, insurance was able to help.
Neither of those players are in Boston anymore, but I still keep an eye on their careers. One's playing in Vancouver where his finesses style of play has more room to flourish, and the other moved down to minors and European leaves. Dan took a very cheap hit earlier this season, and having known the Pailles for that liver of time, I felt all the more inclined to say a prayer for his well-being.
I worked at a failing juice shop right out of highschool for a little under a year. One time in particular a family came in when all of our tables had the chairs up, we were sweeping and shutting down because we were two minutes until close, and they decided to order an entire sit down dinner. My coworkers made all of the more complicated food and left me with the most simple task of scooping a glob of pulled pork into a sandwich and serving it to the Man at the table. Being new to the shop and not always particularly bright, it didn't occur to me that it went without saying that I should have at least microwaved the pulled pork I dug out of the refrigerated tub before placing it on the sandwich. It still tickles me to think of the incidental justice in the moment he bit into a cold glob of barbecue pork mush. Well worth having to close late. My coworkers had a good laugh when I told them.
As someone who works in retail, I love hearing people's stories! The best are the ones from Walmart and Sears, no matter what crazy story you have, someone from one of those stores can top yours! My shortest weird story from working at Laura Secord is this, a woman returned a pack of chocolate covered almonds because "the almonds were too hard". Like, what kind of almonds have you been eating?! Also, love that brief taste of the Newfoundland accent!!
I used to work as a manager in an ice cream shop. It was a very relaxing job and I'd usually have the opening shifts where I'd mainly clean, make coffees and have chats with the regulars coming by on their way to work. One day I lock myself in and I notice the shop being strangely cluttered. I investigate and I even see that the tilldrawer has been dragged out and attempted forced open so I panic calling my boss explaining the situation. Thankfully nothing was stolen and I start tidying up the shop preparing to open. Then I open one of the freezers to pick up ice. There's a yellow layer of ice on all the ice cream boxes and we all know what they say about eating yellow snow. I take a box out and I waited a little for it to thaw and sure enough it was pee. The pesky attempted criminal had peed all over our freezer and having to thaw that out and clean the huge freezer was probably one of the weirdest and grossest things I've done during my ten years in retail!
Automated response is my curse. Once I worked a lot of evening shifts consecutively, and when the time came to work a morning I couldn't stop greeting customers with a loud, cheery "Good Evening!". Card payment is also forever ruined for me because whenever I see a terminal I blurt out "would you like a copy?". (All of course in an unnaturally high pitched customer service voice.)
One of the most memorable situations happened during the summer when one day it started pouring so hard that we quickly gathered everything from the tables outside and hid inside the cafe with the remaining customers for maybe an hour or two. After the rain subsided we went out and discovered that someone had stolen a single table... The weather conditions were absymal and it was a heavy metal table but I guess the Hulk was walking past and needed an umbrella ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I also had a couple of customers from hell who went in, confidently ordered a tiramisu, then after I told them we don't sell tiramisu, ordered a creme brulee, to which I suggested they take a look at the menu which was both pasted on the wall behind them and laid on the counter in front of them (or they could look inside the cake fridge right next to the counter). They settled on something we did actually sell and afterwards when it came to paying, they had the audacity to say "keep the change" when there was none.
Something my sister and I joke about often is when we both worked at Sam's Club (Bulk store, kind of like a lower quality Costco) and when talking about something she said "It's a mystery!" And the music over the loudspeakers made these weird tones. One of those moments that was just too perfect
I work at an mps hospital in food service and there is a new hilarious story every day; From quirky old ladies to klepto nurses to the dementia residents asking you how many sheep you've sheared that day (I told her at least 17, she was proud)
I worked in tourism for 2 years. I worked at my town's living outdoor museum and I had to dress up in the old clothing and stuff. I could literally write a novel about this place 😂
A highlight of mine was when this little old lady from one of our Chinese tour groups sat down on a bench to have her lunch and the first thing she pulled out of her bag was a full ear of corn! With the husk still on!! So she ate that raw. Then she pulled out a jar with raw eggs in it and she just drank it like it was water. I felt bad for sharing but she was honestly fascinating me! The next and last thing she pulled from her bag was this MASSIVE Tupperware container. She opened the lid, and there was an entire roast chicken in there! And she ate the entire thing!!!!
Because it was a tourist attraction, we had people all over the world coming and visiting, which meant we had a lot of different cultures in the area. There were so many occasions where people from Eastern cultures would literally pull down their pants and poop in the middle of the street (IN FRONT OF PEOPLE) and it was so confronting!!
I worked at Party City for about a year and a half and one of my favorite stories to tell is of this man who insisted over and over for his money back.
The game was used, opened, and he had no receipt. Not to mention he was doing this during Halloween and the line was wrapping all around the store (no joke). I was so tired and not interested that I called my manager.
Another fun thing is that on certain candies (15 for $1, 10 for $1, and 5 for $1), we had to count out how many pieces their were and a woman took a hand held basket and filled it to the brim for a baby shower. So I asked, "how many pieces do you have?"
Her response:
"Oh, I don't know, I thought you weighed them."
"Nope! We have to count exactly how many pieces you have so I can charge you correctly."
I believe she had somewhere around 1,200 or so pieces, maybe more.
I used to work as an usher for Broadway in Chicago and sometimes the patrons would be so absolutely rude or do very strange things. Something I remember the most and will haunt me to this day was when I was ushering Hamilton (which was the best thing about the job, you get to watch the plays, even if you have to watch the audience as well and be on your feet the whole time). I was on one side of the mezzanine and I could see someone on their phone across the way. It wasn't in my section so I just let it go thinking the other usher would tell them something. When people are on their phones it's very obvious because the house of the theatre is completely dark and if light isn't coming from the stage and is a white light illuminating an audience member's face they're clearly on their phone. I could tell this man was swiping on his phone because it would be so bright and then split seconds in between it would be dim. After two songs I realized the other usher definitely didn't see him from the angle where he was standing and decided to go over and tell him something. I cut through the lobby on that level and went back inside to tell him to put it away. The interaction was as follows. Mind you he was on the older side if that helps set up the picture.
"Excuse me, sir. Could you please put your phone away?"
"No."
"...I'm sorry?"
"No. I'm on Facebook. I'm not taking pictures or a video."
"Yes, but it's distracting to the other patrons."
"It's too cold in here. You need to turn up the heat. I need to do something to stay warm."
So, I went back to the lobby and told my supervisor what happened and she came with me to go confront the man. We we went back into the theatre he had put his phone away. I like to think he knew I wasn't going to take his crap and do something about it. I'm glad he paid 200+ to scroll through facebook.
Oooh XD I love these stories so much! Im working part-time at the supermarket while studying at uni and it's been 4 years now. I have so many weird stories to tell :D for example one customer I will never forget is the old grumpy bean-dude.
I was restocking shelves and he came up to me without greeting and said:
Where are the beans?
I go: Hallo sir! What kind of beans do you need?
Just beans!
... I mean we have dried ones, frozen ones, fresh green beans, canned ones with and without sauce ... (we were standing in the canned veggies isle)
FOR SOUP YOU IDIOT!
... and he walks off.
Turned out he wanted dry kidney beans for his soup and asked 2 co-workers the same grumpy unspecific way until he found them himself. seriously wtf??
When I worked at Fashion Bug (I still miss that store SO MUCH!!), one night a customer and her mother came in. Their BO was so awful, as soon as they went in the fitting rooms, my manager and I sprayed air freshener.
Oh, it gets worse: they didn’t buy anything. After they left, the fitting room REEKED. Not only that, the clothing they’d tried on stank SO BAD we had to DAMAGE. THEM. OUT. My manager had me run up to the Walmart at the end of the shopping center to buy some of that scented baking soda stuff that you sprinkle on the carpet and then vacuum up. All because their BO was that bad.
I worked in the cafe area of a science museum, where all the exhibits are interactive. From the cafe you could see the crane exhibit, where kids could lift up foam blocks and stack them. The wheel to control the crane was always a bit loose, so it would break all the time- it never became unsafe to use but without the wheel it didn't work properly . On one particular day, the wheel had broken off and we had put up yellow barriers around the crane. However one man didn't realise that it was out of order as the barriers added to the whole building site appearance of the exhibit. So he started using it whilst his kids helped by hooking blocks to the crane. The wheel came off when he touched it, and he panicked, tries to put it back, looked around to see if anyone notices. He saw me watching, looked terrified and grabbed his kids and full on sprinted out of sight 😂. I saw a lot of other weird things happen on the same exhibit- one time a kid got his brother to hold on to the hook of the crane, and then used his brother as a wrecking ball. Luckily they didn't get hurt, safety wasn't at risk, and it certainly put a smile on my face to watch people messing around during my longer shifts.
I work at irregular choice and the number of folks that assume our (mostly high heeled) shoes are for children is wild, I understand they are colourful but what toddler needs a 5inch heel? However, I must say nothing brings me more joy than seeing customers faces when you demo the light up shoes, pure joy!
so i used to work for HEB, a local grocery store chain in Texas. towards the end of my time there (worked for 6 years, so i have a ton of stories) i had tendonitis, so got to wear the big ol' boot. i worked in deli and cheese shop, so while i was booted i stuck to just cheese shop to minimize risk. a gentleman needed help picking out cheeses for a cheese plate, so i come around the counter. he sees the boot and asks 'how did you get that?' and i mention that i was a dancer for 10 years and sometimes old injuries flare up when you're stupid...he says 'oh, like an exotic dancer?' and mimes, badly, suggestive movements. this is a man in his 60s. he makes a joke about not telling my parents. i explain that i was in ballet, classically trained. he just laughs and winks, then walks away. apparently he didn't really need help?
one time i was making some casual small talk with a customer while handing him back his change when suddenly he unzipped his jacket, placed his hand on his stomach, and said, "i think i have a massive stomach ulcer." i was so confused because that came from out of absolutely nowhere so i just went, "oh, maybe you should go to the doctor then?" and he was like, "nah, i don't like doctors" and then he picked up his coffee and walked away without any further context
I usually don't comment on stuff, but I just had to share this because of your story. For about a year I worked at a shoe store, and for a couple of months there was a guy who would come in sometimes who would ask to use our restroom. Our only restroom was employees only as it was back in the stock room, so of course we had to tell him no. Once you told him no he'd say "Oh well, too bad", poop his pants, and then walk around the store like that. I really think he must have been unwell in some way, but the fact that it happened a few times made it feel like some kind of prank.
One of my favorite things working retail was that like half of my customers could not figure out how to wait in line. More than half of our customers would make a second line outside next to the real line, and if we told them to wait in line... the customers would get pissed. And then people would come in the real line and think everyone is cutting. It was a huge mess and everyone was always angry because adults Couldn’t figure out how to wait in line.
I worked at Ross dress for less, it’s like a discount store that’s cheaper than most thrift stores and Walmart. I always got people who demanded me to wrap their presents and put their dresses in garment bags, like they were at Macy’s.... we don’t do that here.
People would call us and complain that we don’t have the clothes in the Ross commercial in the store. It’s like Winters where we have no guaranteed stock. People would also come in and ask for us to find REALLY specific things and basically shop for them
I‘m a cashier at a retail store that sells home goods so we get a lot of older women who shop in our store. I’ve gotten in the habit of speaking very loudly and clearly to customers because I get asked to repeat myself so often. Sometimes I accidentally use the same volume when a younger person comes through my line & they’re so startled lol.
One time a woman came through my line who had bought around $200 worth of items and had some reason why she deserved a discount on each one! My manager ended up taking over the sale & after the woman left she told me that that woman had bought around $200 just the night before! People have a lot of time and money on their hands lol.
But the most memorable people are the nice ones. Within my first month of working there, they put me on the customer service desk while my supervisor took her lunch break. I was so out of my element & was struggling to deal with a line of customers plus answer the phone & deal with requests all by myself. One man came through my line and I had to take a phone call in the middle of his transaction. I apologized for having to take the call & thanked him for his patience. He was so polite and genuinely seemed baffled that I would even apologize for that. It really made my day to have someone tell me I was doing a fine job when I felt so frazzled.
I've worked at a pretty classy performing arts theatre in Toronto for 5 years and the stories my coworkers and I have... oh boy. These are probably my favourite. While tidying up we have found: a dirty diaper left under a seat, a wine glass left in the theatre FULL of urine, and someone left their used tampon. The patron issues are a whole other level... a woman once YELLED at me for 10 minutes because of where the wastepaper basket was in the bathroom. We've all had worse things yelled at us but that one was just particularly blizzard to me. Oh! And when I worked at a Halloween costume shop once someone came in and asked "Where are the costumes?"... they're everywhere, look around. Oh sigh... customer service...
I did a Disney internship for a semester and got the holiday discount of 40% (it's a beautiful thing) and I slowly bought like every cute kitchen thing I loved during my time there. Near the end my friends caught on and were like 'That is a fantastic idea'. So now I have a tubberwear box in the basement filled with my future Disney kitchen items for when I move out. :)
I could tell so many stories. But here is one of my favorites. The park had just closed and the fireworks had started. I was a photographer and my location didn't shoot during the fireworks plus it was raining. So I was hiding under an overhang and directing guests to where they can view the fireworks. And a family tries to go into the store where I'm standing near. Which closes with the park. And I told them that store was closed but directed them to either fireworks or a currently opened store. They demanded to know why it was closed and I told them the park was closed for the night now. They insisted that since they were staying at a Disney hotel that they got to stay after the park was closed. I kindly explained that we didn't have extra magic hours that night. I even pulled out my guide to find out which park did have emh that day. (It was Animal Kingdom, in the morning). They were very angry saying they spent the whole day at the wrong park. They then demanded that I, a lowly photographer, refund their tickets since the hotel told them that Epcot had emh. After trying, and failing, to calm them down I just pointed them to the direction of Customer Service. I'm sorry customer service people ;~;
Also I've seen mothers (on multiple occasions!) direct their child to go vomit in a corner so they (the parents!) can continue to get pictures and autographs with Mickey. That's when I've had to step in and direct Mickey out of the room while telling the parents where the care center is. I learned 100 different ways not to parent working at Disney.
One time, a woman tried to return 2 day old soup in a plastic bag and couldn't understand why we couldn't accept it. The same woman forgot to take her drink cups or fill them and demanded a full refund on a $70 order because we "forgot" her lemonade.
I can't remember many funny stories from my current job, but there are plenty of stories about people being terribly rude to us. One woman always orders a sandwich on a baguette and claims that because the crust isn't soft that the bread is stale and she'll call the health department. That's just how the bread is. Another time, a woman rambled on about how when we put ingredients on the side, we "rob" her by giving her less than the order comes with, but usually the opposite is true. We tend to fill our containers with more because the containers are large and the correct portions only fill them up about halfway, and since customers almost always complain about that, we typically fill it up so it looks full.
I still work in customer service (food service) as a joe job to support my acting. The fact that people cannot seem to understand that everything you buy costs money drives me bonkers. Oh, you want to add 3 scoops of protein powder, two types of berries, and a couple different types of superfood powders to your already full of expensive ingredients smoothie? That’ll be an extra charge for each item. The shock on people’s faces when they can’t just have all of the things for free gets old in an instant and yet it continues to happen EVERY DAMN DAY.
It costs US money to buy these ingredients. Why would YOU get them for free??
Also, the fact that it’s expected of you to tip bartenders in Canada but not baristas or people who make your smoothies and juices at juice bars, when it’s often more work for us than for a bartender to make your drink.
Okay, I don't know if anyone will read this, but I'm putting it here anyway. I tell this to like everyone. I worked at JCPenney in the women's section, so I would help out a lot of people both young and old. We have a lot of jeans and I kind of memorised how each of them fit so I helped out a lot of people like that. There was this one old lady that I was helping with finding jeans. She was super sweet and fun to help. The only problem is, in the dressing room, she would leave the door open to try on the pants and if they didn't work, she would come out in her underwear and talk to me. Thank goodness it was a slow day! So everytime she would go into the dressing room I would try my best to close the door as much as I could without being rude or her saying something. Needless to say that I found her a perfect pair of jeans that day, haha.
I worked at TJ MAXX from 16-21 and I remember messing around even with the adult supervisors. One of the best stories was when we were closing and we wanting to prank the boss so we put the supervisor who was a very small and thin man named Richard into a suitcase, wheeled him up front, and told the manager we found it full of merchandise as if someone was going to have tried to steal it. She kneels on the ground and opens the suitcase and Richard popped out and scared the life out of her and we were all crying from laughing so hard 😂
My first job ever was at forever 21 when I was 18. I remember one day we were super busy and this lady came in with her 3 kids. The youngest one was screaming and throwing himself on the floor. You could tell the mom was over it and just let him do whatever he wanted. He kept saying how he wanted to go to the bathroom but the mom kept telling him to hold it and they’ll go in a bit. I guess the little boy couldn’t hold it and more and stood on one of the tables, toward the entrance, pulled his pants down and just pooped all over the table and clothes. People that were entering the store saw EVERYTHING! And I saw the whole thing. I was mortified.
Thank you for the laughs; I had a crappy day but your stories made me laugh. Ok yikes on just 10%. I had up to 25% on most items if paid in cash or the store's own credit card.
I once had a lady ask me for help choosing bed sheets. When I asked her what size her bed was she said she didn't know. Yet I had to know? 🤷 How had she been buying sheets for years without knowing that?
I had people order stuff and get totally wrong items. A guy ordered a shirt and got a lamp. Some people got baby clothes and that's not at all what they ordered. It all came from the warehouses so it was a surprise to me too when I unboxed their order right at the register for them.
There was the guy who tried to return a pack of tighty whities he had in his closet for years. We didn't even sell that brand anymore and he was so upset we wouldn't give him a full refund for what he paid all those years ago.
I'm sure I'll think of stories later and I'll come back to tell them.
I'm working as a volunteer in a second hand store/thrift shop at current. for almost a year now. I've felt the same since I've started, along with the counselling studies i completed. Probably wouldn't have the social skills i do now if I hadn't become a part of this just because, not for working on the $. Just out of my curiosity, I'd started there. The only serious bad sides are; being a personal shopper for a sadly large lady whom is blind and her carer leaves her side in the shop just to get groceries next door. And secondly, I've become a babysitter for some parents who really aren't looking out for their children enough. There's so many stories I have and I've only been there since last May. Thank you for your content Alb, Love you lots.
I used to work as a bank teller. You see all sorts of stuff, especially people who are trying to cash fake checks and I was even robbed at gunpoint. I never got mad at them, I just felt sorry they were that desperate for money.
I worked front desk at a small hotel for a few years so at that point you basically learn a little bit of everything. One of my funniest stories was in my first year, we had this couple stay with us in just a normal room for a night. The next morning I was working the desk and before she checked out she asked "Hey do you have any rooms with really large showers?" My first thought was, hey she might have some issues with mobility and appreciate the walk-in shower handicap accessible room type we had. So I started describing that and she was like, "Oh it's wheelchair accessible, so it must be big enough for two people?" I said, "Yeah I suppose, big enough if someone had a helper." She was like "Hm hmm, okay thanks!" Then checked out. I didn't think anything of it until a little later, the summer high school student that was cleaning that room came out holding a big empty box of a shower sex accessory kit. Like suction cup handlebars, safety rubber mat, the woooorks. When I saw it I started to laugh, but laughed harder when she was like, "Who would even want something like this?????" Really incredulous and just perfectly innocent. I diiiied and my soul departed my body.
I used to work as a dog bather at a a pet supplies plus. Lots of weird things happened but one of the most awful was when one of the dogs sliced open his paw on the crappy metal kennel and there was blood everywhere! I called my manager and we took the dog to the vet. He didn’t even care he was bleeding, he was happy to get out of his haircut!
So I'm a waitress. It's summer in full bloom, the terrace is full of happy guests enjoying their meals and drinks and what not. And there's this lady with totally adorable german shepherd puppy. The puppy goes around the tables and is so happy to smell everyone and everybody pets him, it's lovely. But as I walk around a table where two elderly gentlemen sit, I suddenly hear: "Whose are these balls? Whose are these balls? They're captain's balls!" and one of the gentlemen is petting the dog right there as he speaks. It was so sudden and hilarious that I just burst into laughter and ran inside to tell all of my coworkers. :D
I'm totally writing a book about retail experiences!
every weird interaction I've had in the past 15 years I spent in customer service has been written down! haha. my favorite story would probably be when I was working at a drugstore/pharmacy. this person comes in, male presenting, quite old, and they put the following items at my counter: two bottles of nail polish, a tissue box, a giant box of condoms, pantyhose and proceeds to ask: "bet you want to know what I'm gonna do with those" me being 16 and stupid I just went "oh no it's ok. I'm sure it'll be fun (?!?!?)"
every Friday night for the entire time I worked there they came by my cash with those same items and told me I was a blessed soul and held my hands.
I used to work in a tearoom and we only had one toilet. It was a type of nerdy cafe were people would come play dnd or magic the gathering and stuff and there was this group of guys sat on a table, joking around and annoying each other. Anyway, one guy got up and went to go to the toilet, but realised someone was in it, so he decided to go upstairs and grab a game or something to play. The group had their heads down playing magic and they didn't notice him go upstairs. When their game ended, one of his friends decided to prank him and went to stand outside the toilet, waiting for him to finish peeing. When the toilet door opened, his friend jumped out but to his horror he had scared some random girl. She ran out and cried, he was mortified because he thought it was his friend. I offered her some water and was super polite but it took me so much effort to not laugh. Not at the fact she was upset, not at all but at how mortified this guy was and how easily it could of been something I would of done. (the guy offered to buy her a cookie or something but she was super rude to him which i thought was a bit pants)
During college I worked at an on campus cafe that also sold energy drinks. One night a girl who apparently had never had caffeine before came in and bought two 12 oz. Redbulls. She drank both of them within 10 minutes and put herself into cardiac arrest. Because of that she lost control of her bowels and went both 1 and 2 on one of our couches. My supervisor called for an ambulance and they had to wheel her out in the middle of our dinner rush, while we still had a line out the door! When I came in to open the next morning I was the one who had to break the news to our head manager, as my night supervisor literally told her nothing and just put tape around the couch to keep people from sitting on it.
I work in a craft store with gift wrapping services. One day a man in his 20’s came in and wanted a gift wrapped but wouldn’t tell us what it was, and seemed pretty cagey about it (we usually ask what it is so we can help them pick out the box and paper). This guy needed a lot of help with decision making so there was a lot of opportunity for some gentle prodding about what the gift actually was. After a while he admitted it was a remote controlled vibrator for a girl he’d been seeing for a month or so.... so my coworker had to discreetly wrap it in the back of the store so no other customers would see it.