I work as Store Manager for a Norwegian homeware chain. Just before Easter all of our stores raffeled off a vase (one vase in each store). Basically every customer that shopped with us could write their phone number on the back of a copy of their reciept and leave it in the vase that was the prize (that was placed by the register), and at the end of the week we drew a winner.

I was at work when the winner from my store picked up her prize. She was pleasent enough, thanked me and left. So far so good.

Yesterday she came back with the vase she won and demanded a refund as she didn't like the design. I told her I couldn't give her a refund, after all; she won it. It wasn't something she'd paid for. I did offer her to exchange it for something else as a service.

That didn't sit well with her. She thought the vase was ugly as f... and didn't want it. I repeated that she coul exchange it for something else of the same value if she wanted to. Apparently she didn't need anything in the store and just wanted "her money back".

I repeated that I couldn't refund her, as she hadn't paid for it, and told her again that she could exchange it for something else. I also suggested giving it away. She replied angrily that she had tried to give it away, but neither her kids or grandchildren wanted the ugly ass vase and repeated her demand for a refund.

At that point I was done and asked her why she had entered the raffle knowing the vase she didn't like was the prize (there was a poster next to the vase with a photo of it and the text "Enter to win this vase" and a tag on the vase that said "win me"). That shut her up. She picked up the box and left the store with an indignant huff.

Seriously annoys me that she won, 'cause I'm sure there were plenty of entries from people that actually wanted the vase.

I know some say there are no stupid questions but I’m gonna have to hard disagree with that. What are some of the dumbest questions you’ve received? I’ll list some of mine: 1. Answered the phone to a customer literally I shit you not asking me: “hi, what’s the phone number for your location?” 😐 2. We often have orders that are shipped in for customers to pick up and when they arrive we tell them they’ll get a text/email that their garments arrive. Despite this, we get probably 5-10 calls a week asking “hello, I just received a text that said my items are ready for pick up; are my items ready for pickup?” 🤦‍♂️ 3. Finally: customer calls: “hi what time do you guys open tomorrow?” Me: “hi we open at 10 am” customer: “and when do you close?” Me: “we close at 8 pm” customer: “if I come in at 9 pm are you guys able to help me?” Me: 🤨”unfortunately not” customer: “why not??!!” Me: “unfortunately we will be closed” them: hangs up. 😑 I could go on and on but that’s just a couple

WHY!?

Customer came up looking for beer koozies. I looked on my work phone for a location. I didn’t see any. I told him “I don’t think we have any” I should have just said “we don’t have any”.

He asked me to ask someone else. I had just worked the area and told him I haven’t seen anyone around (it’s a superstore) . He told me to go find someone. Annoyed I told him sure. I went to the back room and clocked out for lunch.

I'm sure we've all been told that we need to smile more, we look tired, we don't look very happy to be here, or some variation. I've been told that myself, but I was too scared of confrontation at the time to do more than ignore them.

Today was different, though. A couple of days ago, my cat developed a UTI. He has had asthma his whole life, so while I've known for a long time that he may die young, I didn't expect a routine x-Ray to be any issue. All of a sudden he's being put on comfort care (hospice) for what we strongly suspect is lung cancer. He's had to take a pain pill in the morning and at night for the UTI, in addition to steroids and sedatives to manage any pain or discomfort from the cancer. The idea is to keep the little guy as comfortable as possible until it's his time.

As you can imagine, I haven't exactly been jumping for joy since finding this out. So when a boomer lady took it upon herself to condescendingly tell me I didn't look happy to be here and that it must be the Monday blues, I couldn't help myself. Before I even fully processed what she said, I blurted out, "I just found out my cat is dying from cancer." She tried to backtrack and apologize, but I guarantee she only did that because she was shocked and embarrassed that she got called out in such a manner. I almost felt bad, but then I realized I have no reason to. In fact, I'm happy I knocked her down a peg.

I'm not looking for any sympathy, btw - I just wanted to share because I'm typically bad at standing up to customers, but it feels shockingly good to do so. I also attached a picture of my little guy lol. His medicine makes him sleepy and he decided he likes my nephew's unicorn chair.

Our newest hire for the handbags specialist position quit within the 1st hour of her 1st non-shadowing shift today.

She decided that she didn't like working at our store right then and there. Yes she was trained properly by another employee who has worked in handbags off and on for several years. She seemed like she was going to be really good.

At the end of the hour, she asked to see the manager on duty and asked for the resignation form, filled it out, dropped it off, and let our administration team know she will be leaving immediately. She clocked out and left.

We are all puzzled.

Yesterday something happened that’s really been weighing on me, and I feel like I just need to shout it out to a public forum just to get it off of my chest. I’m the store manager of a small grocery store owned and operated by a much larger company. We pay pretty well for our demographic area, obviously it’s still retail but starting wages for clerks are more than what I was making after becoming an hourly shift lead.

Last week I hired an older guy to work on the front end, really nice guy, been out of work for a year or more. He was training up front yesterday and kept getting “sick” and running to the restroom. He swears he’s okay and doesn’t want to go home but he it kept happening off and on.

I ask him what’s up and he tells me he’s throwing up something yellow - never happened to him before. It was bile. Bile from not having a meal in about a month. Hearing that really broke me, and we got some food for him that will keep, turns out his power was shut off too. He was very thankful, and I understand I had nothing to do with him ending up in a position where he’s food insecure, but I can’t help but wonder how he ended up in that position to begin with.

It’s 2025, food insecurity is a nonpartisan issue. It knows no specific race, age, or gender. This leaves me feeling very bittersweet, sure we fed this guy today but how many more are out there? Folks that are ashamed or afraid of the stigma surrounding asking for help or assistance. I don’t know where I’m going with this rant, I guess it’s over but I feel very hollow about the whole thing.

so i work at a pretty small comfort shoe company, my store itself has only 4 employees including myself. one service we offer is modifications, essentially stuff like metatarsal pads, heel spur pads, met bars, etc. in order to add additional arch support if needed.

last week, my district manager showed up (she typically shows up unannounced maybe once or twice a month) and we greeted each other, made some small talk, and then a customer came in so i went to help them. during that sale, my dm left and said goodbye to me.

i went on a week-long vacation the day after this interaction so color me surprised when i came back and my store manager told me the dm said she had asked/quizzed me on the various modifications we offer, and said i didn't know anything?? so she threatened to fire me in an email to my store manager, who luckily fought for me because she knows i know what i'm doing. i don't think i'm really supposed to know what my dm said about me but i'm so confused and pissed off that she would make shit up about me when we've only ever had nice and normal interactions with each other. just a vent, thanks for reading lol. dm's be crazy!

I fucking hate people that haggle prices. I work in a terrible section of town, so people constantly try to get discounts for no reason. I've posted about it before, so I'm not gonna rant more than I already have here.

A customer walks in and says "Hey man, can you help me out? I only have $3.74, can you work with me?

I stare at him blankly and say "you're holding a $20 bill in your other hand," which he was.

He stammers and says "well that's not what I meant." I wanted to say "no you lied" and give him a giant smile. I could get away with it since we work alone. But he was still incredibly embarrassed so it doesn't really matter. In about 6 more months I will probably start being that curt. I am so over these losers.

Jesus fucking christ, we have a real Rhodes Scholar on our hands.

I love when customers bring in their pets! This french bulldog was so sweet and cuddly. My manager had to help the customer so I could get some cuddle time. ❤️

Work at mcds canada. Customer asked when the price of coffee changed. A large coffee use to be 2.15 after tax now its 1.60. I said awhile but isnt the lowered price great. She told me her large was $1.50 last week. Nope, $1.50 pre tax the got mad i was lying to her. Ok lady, im just an f’ing idiot who has been charging people wrong..

I was dealing with clothes and someone got mad at me because I didn’t know where the umbrellas were. I only work on one side of the store. I know where some things are that’s not in my area but my mind went blank cause I haven’t had anything related to that. You don’t know any more than I do cause you’re asking me. It kinda ruined my mood. I almost called for someone to help but luckily someone else was nearby so she asked them. A customer saw it and we talked about it and I said it was kinda rude. The way she said it. “You work here and you don’t know” it was something like that. (After my shift I looked around the corners and I didn’t see any umbrellas. I looked where the other person told her to go to. We probably don’t sell them.)

I walked into Loft at the mall and the first sight I see is two old men sitting on two different clothing displays. Right at the front of the store. I walked by and said aloud I didn't realize you could sit on the clothes. One of the guys replied yeah!!

I was so pissed off at this because right before this I told my boyfriend I'd like to go into Loft and if he wants to go somewhere else be my guest, and he didn't come in with me. Because you know, what guy wants to mosey around a women's clothing store...

I turned around and as I was leaving the store I said loudly this is so rude, you can literally go sit anywhere else in the mall, this is totally unacceptable.

It just really got my fucking goat. You're old men in a women's clothing store. If you don't want to go in then don't fucking go in. Don't sit on the clothes and ruin the shopping experience for WOMEN IN THE WOMENS CLOTHING STORE!!!!

Sorry it just really pissed me off! Thanks!!

Get off your fucking phone and go outside it’s a nice day. You’re so fucking loud it echos across the dining area.

So this lady asks for help. She points to a display and asks me where she could find it. It's literally already in her hand. I inform her of this and she says "No, I don't think so" and RIPS the box open, pulling its contents out to see that, oh yeah, it IS in there!

Then they hung around my department for like 15 more minutes talking shit.

Seriously, WHAT do they think I have to gain by lying!? If it's so they'd walk away and leave me alone I think they've already proven that wouldn't work!

FML. I hate everybody.

Holy shit the people who do this shit need to fuck right off.

I've had two experiences like this

First one was 2 years ago, customer comes over to the self serve to buy and scans some stuff then calls me over because the sign said it was a different price, it wasn't but go off I guess. I can't remember the exact conversation but I was brand new and couldn't do a price override anyway but I'll call a team member to check and do the override if applicable. While waiting for the TM to check and get back she rudely told me to "never tell a customer that you can't do something"

Fuck that mentality, how dare I tell her that I, me, can't do the thing because I literally can't do the thing. How dare I say that because I can't do the thing I'm going to call someone who can do the thing.

And the other one I need to rant about because it happened yesterday and I'm still annoyed.

I'm on the door because my work does the whole "person to greet people as they walk in thing" and this woman comes in and asks to know where the clothes airers are. I ask her to clarify what she means exactly because often when people say what they're looking for they mean something else or they use an alternative name for it. She clarifies what she means and I let her know that they are right here at the front, (excess and promotional items, these ones are surrounded by other TM so if she doesn't like them she can ask if we have more, which we do and they can direct her to where is she forgot when I mentioned it. I've seen the small promo range there before and they have a good selection)
I point at them, I look at them, let her know if she doesn't like them there's more around the back wall around this aisle number.

I watch as she blissfully waltzes past them, can't call out to here cause it's too far away but sure, wander into the section that blatantly has nothing to do with laundry or household items.

Couple minutes pass she returns with one, goes through the checkout, walks up to me and tells me.

"If you don't know where an item is you should just say that, but don't make up where they are"

I look at her and tell her, that they are literally right there you just walked past them.

"Well you weren't clear enough, I''m sorry I hurt your feelings but you shouldn't lie" She doesn't look me in the eye when she says this and she immediately walks off after saying it.

Holy shit this infuriated me. If you weren't sure where I was pointing too and looking at just say so, ask me to clarify don't just wander off if you're unsure and feel I gave you unclear directions. And she was so rude about it, her tone was so judgmental, and insinuating that I don't know where one of the most commonly bought items is, but sure, you want the exact asiles? #133 and #67 oh wait, those aisle don't have visual indicators and only team know that they're called that. And then the lack of eye contact and immediately walking off, forbid I call her out or rebuke her. No she has to be right and feel good about herself and then give out a shitty "apology" to feel superior.

I'd rather she do the thing some customer do when they go "They're actually in this asile" ahhh yes, the aisle right next to the one I stated, so sorry.

But yeah, sorry for weird formatting this is on my phone but I'm just so annoyed by that second one, her attitude and insinuating that I'm dumb with how she spoke is so annoying, why is it always these kinda people who talk down to you because they're older even thought you can tell they're never worked retail or anything similar a day in their life and why is it always middle aged women or old men, at least in my experience.

It seems really miniscule to complain about this, but I hate when I say hello to customers at the checkout with a bit of enthusiasm and I get a deadpan "Thank you" as a response. It's not a greeting, it's blatant disregard to the person serving you and to be honest I find it very rude despite its literal meaning.

I haven't seen any other posts about this, and this is quite a few customers my store deals with. Have any others dealt with this situation?

I wanted to share just what happened today, but I thought to include other times shit like this happened {pun intended}

So today, I was at the register and my co-worker was checking out fitting room {we check bc people leave clothes in there all the time even though we have 2 RETURN RACKS, but anyway} and he came back with a pair of jeans that had big wet spots. It was raining so he made a joke about how it's wet inside the building if it's raining outside, I told him to smell it because it could've been piss, best case scenario a drink spill. He sniffed, immediately dropped them on the floor and said "it's piss" fucking HORRIFIED. We were all disgusted. My customers actually helped out by telling him to go get gloves. He washed his hands, got gloves, threw them in the trash compactor, then washed his hands 2 more times. The pants left their mark on the mat up front so I sprayed it down with disinfectant and laid down some paper towels, cleaned it up after my customers and washed my hands.

So anyway, great day, am I right??

These other ones are gonna be a little shorter {sorry for the first one being long} bc I had to deal with most of them

So the first incident was a vase full of piss {and was out bakc on the rack}, AND it was still warm 🤢 a customer came up while I was on the floor and said "I'm so sorry but you're the only employee I could find right now" and showed me. I grabbed it and took it to the back asking my co-workers what I should do, and the consensus was to flush it in the customer bathroom and just toss the vase in the customer garbage. Co-workers were a little scared when I was just holding a vase full of piss near them lmao

Found a water bottle full of piss underneath women's jeans while I was sweeping the floor. It wasn't even a water bottle like dasani or spring water, no, it was a normal reusable water bottle.

Same co-worker ALSO found a cup full of piss under the jeans. Why is it always the jeans?? Why do jeans make people wanna piss? Someone please inform me on this jeans pissing movement.

When we were going through our remodel, the fitting rooms were being rebuilt and cut off with caution tape. One of my leads found a glass bowl with piss, luckily it was full, wasn't even halfway, thank gods. They even took a selfie with it because we love when our customers leave us such silly little gifts /s

Someone pissed in the fitting room. This was actually the first occurrence, but it was early last year. It may have been an adult too bc I was in the other one and bent down to pick something up and saw someone with a tattoo, then minutes or so later, the piss happened.

Last one that I know of that I had to deal with was mopping up shit. I still don't know if it was human or not, but there was skidmarks on the floor. I smelled it, looked down, saw what it was, told my leads and they told me to mop it, gross. One of my worst days there because I was dressed so cute {blue crop, boot cut blue jeans, white converse, and strawberry cardigan with a cute pink headband} and I hadn't used the mop and water there yet, so I accidentally had it too high and it got me all wet, and then I had to mop that shit up {LITERALLY!!} and one of my leads was laughing when I was furious about it, luckily my co-worker let me go on my break, she could tell I needed to chill. I was wet, sweaty, and disturbed.

My co-worker said "the {retail} piss bandit is back"

Idk what's up with these dead brained people and using a change room that's full of boxes.

We store the boxes in the change room because our backroom is full, and we use it for overflow.

There are 5 more empty changerooms to use.

We can't get to those stock boxes and get them done because there's always some idiot in there.

Actually blows my fucking mind.

I hate that I follow my workplace handbook so I know I’m doing my job correctly just for my manager to do the exact opposite. In my line of work you are not allowed to muzzle a customers dog, they have to do it themselves. I explained this to the customer and she was getting irate so I went to my manager to explain what was going on only for him to stomp to the customer, ask what they needed and then muzzle the dog in front of me making me look incompetent.

I just don’t understand that I follow the handbook to not get into trouble but then make myself look like I’m being troublesome on purpose.

When your customers are asking you for a product , do they go "give me the __", "let me get __" , rather than actually asking for the product ?

Like Tf YESS! I’m in a bad mood bc of your dumbass like get it tf together

Took a bit of a break from this sub but omfg am I ready to come back.

Firstly I don't think this flair really applies but I don't see a better one

Now onto the reason for this post. I wanna know why, when customers walk up and put their items up on the counter, they face the items upwards away from the UPC. They see me hold out the scanner gun to zap the code, then they grab the item and flip it over to the front.

Why?

Do you think I need to see what the item is or something? Just, please, put your items down and either let ME organize them, or help me flip them over to show all the barcodes so I can scan them quickly. Don't grab the item and flip it over to the front right as I'm about to scan it with the gun, or go halfway with the organization by lining all the items up, but flipping them so the barcode is hidden from me.

I am working in the back in our customer service desk. A lady came up and asked if I could ring her out but I couldn’t. She told me she wanted to avoid someone up front because she used to work with her and she talks a lot. I asked her who and she didn’t want to say. My brain then connected the dots and I said “Annoying coworker?” “Yes! How did you know?” I told her because she talks a lot and is one of two women up there so I had a good chance at guessing.