Working in retail is not for the faint of heart. On paper, the job might include folding clothes, greeting customers with a smile and ringing up shoppers once they’ve found everything they need. But in reality, it can feel like working in a war zone. Aggressive customers, ruthless managers and being required to stay on your feet all day can suck the life out of anyone.
And if you’re lucky enough to have never worked in retail, you can learn all about the experience from this list, pandas. Retail workers have recently been sharing some of their wildest stories on Reddit, so we’ve gathered the most shocking ones below. Enjoy scrolling through these tales that might help you learn to appreciate your office job, and be sure to upvote all of your favorites!
#1
My first job other than babysitting or casual household labor as a teenager was at an antiques store. Mostly I just came in after school to dust and vacuum, help with heavy lifting, etc. But if the owner had an errand, I was fully in charge. It was quite a nice job.
One afternoon, a lady came in to shop. She brought her notebook, and borrowed my measuring tape when she found a dining room table that suited her style.
“I would like to order this table, but 4 inches longer.”
Um…
“Ma’am, we aren’t sourcing our European antiques from a workshop, you know? I can refer you to someone who could build a reasonable facsimile to your specifications, but there’s literally no way for me to order what you want.”
An absolute s**t fit was thrown.
Apparently, she called my boss the next day. Boss suffered no fools, didn’t need money, and only opened the shop because her husband retired and boss didn’t want to stay home with him all day.
I don’t know exactly what was said on the call, but I got a $20 slipped into my hand – the way grandmothers do it – when I got to work that afternoon. “Baby, you earned this for putting up with that old b***h.”
And $20 was real money circa 1985!
Image source: Flashy_Watercress398, Christelle BOURGEOIS/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#2
Had a woman berate me for 5 solid minutes about why I was working on Christmas day. I finally said “because of people like *you* that can’t plan ahead. “
She abruptly left. I didn’t tell my manager for a year. Never heard about a complaint.
Image source: bentnotbroken96, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#3
Worked at a pet store and a dude brought in a dead fish and demanded that I, 17 year old kid, tell him how his fish died. If that wasn’t funny enough, a bystander rescued me by asking “don’t you have a fish autopsy kit?!?” It was funny enough to get the dead fish dude to leave me alone.
Image source: VonYellow, Pablò/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#4
Best buy. Lady comes in with a 10% off coupon and asks me how much it’ll get her off on an $80 antenna. I explain $8 to which she is surprised, and angrily picks the $50 one. While ringing her up she asks why the antenna is $45 and when I explain how 10% off works again, she replies “I thought you said $8”.
Image source: TheNutsFlush21, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#5
Target we have a “code yellow” for missing kids. Whole team drops what they are doing and we all help. Usually child is found within minutes.
One case on a slow night the missing boy, 10, could not be found. Parent is frantic and getting more frantic. “Would he have gone to the car on his own?” I offer. Which got me screamed at about he would never and he’s been kidnapped and I’m not taking things seriously.
He had gone out to the car on his own.
Image source: Whitealroker1, Mahdi Bafande/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#6
Was working retail at a Sam Goodies record store many years ago and training a young girl at the cash register. She was very quiet and shy. It was her first job ever and she was very very nervous.
An older gentleman came up to the counter with a cassette tape that he was very excited about. Apparently he had been looking for it for quite some time and had finally found it at our store.
In his excitement, as he spoke, his dentures popped out of his mouth, bounced across the counter, and hit this young trainee right in the waist.
She let out a screech, threw her hands in the air, and jumped backwards about 5 ft.
The old gentleman yelled “Aww Thit”… reached across the counter, grabbed his dentures and popped them right back in. The whole event took about 3 seconds.
It was hilarious ….but this young girl was just shaking like a leaf and in disbelief of what had just happened to her.
It was hilarious.
Image source: YELLOW_TOAD, Sean Benesh/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#7
A customer once refused to buy granola from me because I’m not vegan. The granola was vegan, but I, a salesperson who had nothing to do with making it, was not. They said it was against their morals.
Image source: Frankers95, Yulia Khlebnikova/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#8
Worked in a middle class British supermarket chain about 10 years ago.
Saturday morning shift, not overly busy but plenty of footfall.
Our chilled dairy section was more or less opposite the tills, when I started hearing raised voices from the chilled section.
Turns out an elderly lady, roughly 70 years old or so had collapsed face first into the cheese chiller.
Lying there face down in a mix of butters and non dairy spreads.
Fairly serious stuff, CPR being given by bystanders and staff.
I didnt get involved directly (only 17 or 18 at the time) only keeping other customers from rubbernecking and giving thid old dear some dignity, when i hear a large, disapproving huff from this is when a middle aged woman stood behind me.
Think, middle class Karen.
Hair up in bun;
Designer leather jacket;
Designer bag,
Designer boots,
Face butchered by so much filler and botox it was giving Michael Jackson a run for his cash.
With that quintesential, entitled British degrading tone.
In my nicest customer service voice.
Explain that there is an ongoing medical emergency and this aisle is closed.
She huffs again, getting impaitent.
Replies in the most condesending tone of “Well, I don’t have all day to wait, go and get me these things” as if I was her servant.
I again, politely inform her I couldnt as the products she wanted were directly where this elderly lady was.
She huffs and snarks, and proceeds…without any hesitation, to push me out the way with her trolley, push her way past another member of staff, parks her trolley next to the woman being given CPR, REACHES OVER HER and the staff giving her CPR, and grabs two blocks of cheese. Puts them in her trolley and trots off like nothing was happening, oblivious to what was happening.
I was in speechless disbelief on how cold people could be.
Retail. Never again.
Image source: TheDrunkenSoviet, Victoriano Izquierdo/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#9
Worked customer service at well known superstore. A few times I had moments of just complete brain shutting down shock at some of the s**t people tried to pull.
The most memorable was coming back from break I’d go through all the clothing areas to avoid customers. I went around a corner and bumped into a lady in the shoe aisle with an armful of boxes. I helped her pick up the boxes she dropped and went back to the service counter.
About 3 minutes later that same woman walked up, put the boxes on the counter and said she’d like to return them. I kind of stopped and stared at her. I told her I just saw her bring them directly from the floor over to here. She repeated she wanted to return them. I didn’t get paid enough to argue so I keyed in the code for a manager, made the return for her (like $200 on a gift card) and off she went. The manager and loss prevention got her before she made it out the door.
Another time two guys came in to pick up a moneygram. He showed a Cali license so I asked what he was doing all the way in Iowa. He told me he was on the run from the law. I just laughed and dismissed it as a joke.
20 minutes later a guy in a Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts cuts to the front of the line puts a badge down and tells me he’s a U.S. Marshall. I told him I thought the guy was joking about being on the run and the Marshall says “he actually told you that!?”
Anyways they pulled me to go speak with the store manager so he can let her know they will be arresting the guy as soon as he leaves the store. I ask if I can watch and the Marshall says sure why not and the store manager tells me to get my a*s back to work lol didn’t get to see it go down.
Image source: whatingobsname, Dennis Cortés/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#10
Not me, but a story from my sister who’s not on reddit. She worked at a craft store for her first job out of high school. One day, they had a bird in their store. No one could catch it, it would always fly away and perch on a high place in the store out of reach. It was in there for a couple days when it finally got too weak to fly very high anymore. My sister finally was able to approach it and offered it water and it drank it out of a bottlecap. My sister grabbed it and put it in a small cardboard box so it could rest and regain its strength for release. She put the box in the break room and wrote on it “DO NOT OPEN! BIRD INSIDE!”
Later that day they were in the break room and one of her coworkers walked in and *opened the box*, releasing the bird again. My sister asked her why she opened the box and she replied that she thought it was a prank or something. Thankfully the bird was only confined to the break room and my sister caught it again and immediately released it outside and it flew away.
“DO NOT OPEN! BIRD INSIDE!” became a meme among her friends and coworkers. Emails with “DO NOT OPEN” attachments that was just a goofy bird picture or gif, actual boxes with “Do not open” on them that contained stuffed bird toys or bird figurines. She left that job some months later, but she left an impact!
Image source: robo-dragon, Matt Bango/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#11
We had an employee whose daughter died. We sent her flowers, gave her time off, told her to come back when she was ready etc. She then came back a few weeks later working shortened hours with a “support friend” by her side. She soon got fired for letting the “support friend” use the services for free.
A couple months later- she came in as a customer and HER DAUGHTER (that had died) WAS SITTING IN THE CAR PLAYING ON AN IPAD. We called her out immediately- it was awkward.
Image source: OwnSpinach5286, Colin + Meg/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#12
Working at a sports bar / restaurant there was a little office party going on and the boss ended up biting an employees earlobe off. We found the earlobe outside the next day, earring still in it, and gave it to the police.
Image source: EconomyGuest5889, Megan O’Hanlon/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#13
Had a lady come in, disgusted at the state of the store (she was on her hands and knees looking under the racking), she left and came back with plastic bags, gloves, a mask, and cooking tongs. She proceeded to start pulling dust bunnies out from under the permenant racking.
She asked for a broom, to which ai politely obliged. End of the day (store closing), I walked her out and thanked her for bringing this to our attention. Never saw her again. Manager called me an a*****e for letting her go on like that. She wasn’t bugging anyone and she seemed calmer the more she did this.
The whole thing went on for about 3 hours.
Image source: SleeplessBlueBird, Rahul Jain/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#14
2 ladies were doing a bold shoplifting spree. City police were at every store exit, waiting for them to leave the premises. Store security was tracking them thru the store. We were told to leave them totally alone if they came into our area.
Sure enough, here they came into my area.
One woman was pushing a stroller with a little boy in it, approximately 2 years old.
The other one was pushing of those old-fashioned baby carriages (like from the 1920s) with a blanket thrown over it. I heard later that someone had asked her about her baby, and she said it had breathing problems and needed privacy, thus the blanket over the entire carriage.
They shopped all 3 floors of our store, filling up the carriage, any room in the stroller, and filling girdles under their clothes, getting physically larger the more time they spent in the store.
They finally attempted to return to their car with $5000+ worth of merchandise and we’re stopped by police.
Rumor has it they even had 16 pairs of earrings stuffed into their underpants. The baby that has breathing problems was revealed to be a plastic baby doll.
Image source: Delsym_Wiggins, Rayner Simpson/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#15
I work as an optician, and (quite recently!) had a client come in for a “check up” (at the optometrist’s, for sight). His eyesight was about -3.50 and -8.00 (those who wear glasses know that this is bad news). He shrugged and said “ah! Will do. Been working as a truck driver with this vision and I see great!” (he doesn’t wear glasses).
Me and my colleagues thought about asking for his work schedule to know on which days we shouldn’t leave the house….
Image source: imagine_enchiladas, JSB Co./Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#16
I once accidentally locked a pregnant woman in the store to take my break.
I was working the store in the mall alone and we had just had a rush. Everyone cleared out I locked the gate to take my dinner break.
When I came back 15 minutes later, a security guard was trying to figure out how to get her out. Apparently she was in the fitting rooms and I didn’t realize it. She was so mad, naturally, and let me know she was going to complain to corporate. I called my manager after she left to own up to my mistake before she heard from the customer. Later the customer called me after she calmed down and let me know she wasn’t going to tell on me and asked me to be more careful next time.
The manager let me go the next day due to my own admission.
Image source: italiangel24, Colin + Meg/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#17
20 years back I was working at Walmart and someone asked me to hold a ladder so they could change the pricing on the sign, this was suspended over the photo center.
Well, as he went to change a number the hook or whatever holding it up let go, the entire sign made out of heavy metal and plastics smashed me right in the face, somehow missed my nose and I was left with an inch gash above my upper lip and a tear on the right side that of my nose where it’s like connected. I have scars now.
The hr person asked me to come in a few days later to sign “paperwork so I could return to work when I was better” and it was a return to work form, they bait and switched me and had me back working several days later with stitches still in my face and my lip swollen like a golf ball.
F**k Walmart.
Image source: w1bz, Mike Mozart/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#18
I worked as a supervisor in a 24 hour convenience store, one night a coworker’s mum came in drunk and threatened to slit 2 of our throats because her daughter was a terrible worker who needed to be prompted to do even the most simple of daily tasks, so she had started getting told off frequently.
The daughter quit the following day and her mother was permanently trespassed.
Image source: TallShaggy, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#19
I worked at Walmart in the auto center. Got pulled into the manager’s office one day, and was told I was being written up for working on my own car. I didn’t. So I obviously argued with them. Turns out I worked on a guy’s car who has the exact same name as me.
Image source: Justin_inc, JJBers/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#20
While working at Home Depot one night we had a man come in who was clearly high on something. He wandered around the store for a while and eventually took a 50 pack of Olfa knife blades from the hardware department. He then took those blades to a shower display and closed himself inside the shower. He then proceeded to take out each blade individually and try to put them in his pants pockets in order to steal them. These knife blades being razor sharp, proceeded to cut up his hands and legs very badly. He was dripping blood all inside the shower stall. We called 911 for assistance, but before the ambulance got there, he already had left the store with most of the 50 pack of blades in his pants pockets while leaving a trail of blood from the shower stall to the parking lot. During this whole time, he did not say a word or show any sense that he was experiencing pain. The first responders intercepted him in the parking lot. We had to quarantine off the area and bring professional cleaners in to clean up the biohazard.
Image source: Virex393, Mike Mozart/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#21
Worked at a liquor store. Had a guy come in, so drunk *when he got there*, that he fell out of his lifted truck and bashed his face open on the curb. A customer came running in and said there’s someone bleeding in the parking lot, so my manager and I went out to check. He was absolutely hammered, no clue how he successfully drove there. Anyways, after getting blood all over me and my manager, he told us he wanted to sleep it off in his car. At noon on a Saturday at 95°F.
He got arrested.
Edit: Another story. The gas station next to us got robbed. Not the usual holdup, no, this was an inside job. They came at 3am with a saw and cut out the back wall where the safe was bolted, and hooked it up to a truck and yanked that b***h out and drove off. As far as I know they never solved it.
Image source: YandyTheGnome, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#22
Working at a Borders in downtown DC (18th & L). I was at the Info desk during the rollout of the proprietary e-reader and was wearing a “eReader Certified” badge.
An old lady came up to ask a question, saw the badge, stopped mid sentence and said: “oh. How nice. You can read.” Turned and left the store. My manager and I were cracking the f**k up.
Image source: Malnurtured_Snay, brewbooks/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#23
While scanning groceries, I hear a loud commotion, which included a shopping cart colliding into the service desk and two people rushing out of the store. My manager comes around shaking her head and I couldn’t help but to ask what happened.
Apparently, someone stole a display model of a microwave and tried to return it, saying that “they bought a faulty microwave” but didn’t have a receipt or even the box it came in. My manager had heard about the theft earlier in the day and squinted her eyes at the story about how this microwave had no cord and was extremely light to pick up, leading her to ask straight out if they were the ones who stole the microwave—hence them storming out of the store pretty quick.
Image source: EatinCheesePizza, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#24
Worked at Walmart for over a decade.
The three memorable stories:
1. I worked nights and was stacking food onto a cart so I could stock. Some guy asks my name. I tell him since it was clearly visible on my name tag (and because I’m dumb lol). He asks if I want him to “be my man”. I told him no because I had a man. He told me he had a woman and he’d “take care of both of us”. Told him no thanks and took off to do my job.
Three days later, there’s an ANGRY woman looking for me BY NAME because apparently I hit on her man.
I didn’t wear my name badge for about 3 years after that.
2. The power went out in the section of town the store was in. They had us raid sporting goods for headlamps and flashlights and made us stock anyway. Store manager called someone by the wrong name that night and almost got a box knife in his heart🫣
3. The lawn mowers were stacked too high in garden center and were apparently touching the overhead heaters in garden center and they smoldered til they caught fire. We noticed on our lunch break and had an “extended lunch ” while the FD cut the flames.
Image source: sparksgirl1223, Mike Mozart/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#25
Worked at Walmart, the first wic order I ever did had 8 cans of tuna, this was when wic was still on check form so you had to fill all of it at one time. The lady with the check had 9 cans of tuna, when I explained to her she had one to many cans but that was perfectly fine it’s just one wasn’t going to go through on her wic check and she would be responsible for the cost she looked me dead in the eyes and said “NO 4+4 is 9 use your damn fingers” ummmm what?
Image source: Subject_Ad7956, Mike Mozart/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#26
I used to work in an Apple Store and I get an appointment with someone who has forgotten some passwords and needs help with their account. Simple enough. I meet with them and the guy is some sort of greasy looking anime guy, nothing really out of the ordinary. He hands me a notebook full of smudged red ink and says it’s his notebook of passwords. I’m looking at it and all the writing is smudged and illegible. I ask him casually why it’s all smudged, and he responds with, “oh yeah, I wrote it with my blood.”
“I’m sorry…?”
“All the writing is with my blood.”.
Image source: Big-Routine222, Niels Epting/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#27
I started working when my store was very understaffed. So understaffed that the managers were doing cashier work.
I had to use the restroom once in the middle of my shift, and apparently while I was in there some Karen got in a snit with the manager at the register.
So I come out of the restroom to catch the tail end of the argument. Important to note here is that managers and cashier’s wore different colored shirts, and it was just me and a bunch of managers that day.
So I come out from the back, in shirt that is colored different from everyone else at the counter, and the lady locks onto me. She starts lecturing me, a cashier, about keeping my employees in line, making sure they respect customers, all that jazz. She’s telling me to discipline my managers, in particular my boss, who she was arguing with.
Finally she runs out of air, and leaves in a huff. I look at my boss, he looks at me.
“She thought I was the manager.”
We both bust out laughing… and the lady comes back inside, screaming about us thinking she was a joke. We deescalate, I apologized and she leaves, but I never forgot about that.
Image source: TeddyBearToons, Curated Lifestyle/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#28
One time had a woman when I worked at Spencer’s Gifts chalk up a convo with me how she was buying her husband (soon to be ex husband) a tshirt for Xmas, after she went and speculated he was having an affair with a guy, she decides to go onto Craigslist to pretend she was a dude and straight up found her husband seeking men, husband had no idea he was taking to his actual wife and thinking it was some dude, would send videos/photos to him, then by the time she gathered enough evidence she presented all to his family and him on thanksgiving exposing him but yet here she was still buying him a “f**k you” t shirt from Spencer’s …….I was 18, first retail job, maybe 1 month into working there 😭.
Image source: BobcatOk5865, Mike Kalasnik/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#29
I worked at a Ross clothing store in high school. I smelled something foul at closing time and started tracking it down. Someone had gone in the middle of the very long pants rack and taken a giant dump. I told my boss who asked me to clean it up. I told him that I am a minor and it’s against the rules of my work permit. I had no idea if it was against the rules, but he believed me and left a note for the cleaning crew to clean it up.
*Editing to add that I once was out at a bar with some coworkers about 6 years ago and the single guy in the group started chatting up some girls at the bar. I overheard one of them tell him that she worked for Ross HQ. I couldn’t wait to tell her my story. Probably ruined my coworkers chances though.
Image source: gigitee
#30
I worked in a garden centre for a few years. There was a lady who’d come in once a year to drop hundreds on plants and plant accessories. She always refused the free delivery so it was down to me to somehow fit all of that s**t into her Fiat 500. The boot was loaded with compost and the rest of the car looked like a plant pot on wheels. Took nearly an hour each time, it would have been so much simpler and safer for her to just take advantage of free delivery.
Image source: anon, Faruk Tokluoğlu/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
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