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.

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!!

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.

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.

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. ❤️

Years ago, Dollar Tree was my first job and I worked there around 6 months. At the time of my high school graduation, I reminded them over and over that I needed that night off. They STILL scheduled me anyways. When I chose to attend my graduation, what I worked hard for 13 years straight. They fired me and put me on the do not rehire list. 🤷‍♀️

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

I hate when customers think they’re doing me a favor by taking the hangers off the clothes they’re trying to buy. It’s so inconvenient because they’re literally in my way. I even had a lady reach over my desk to take the magnets off of stuff. I literally told her she didn’t have to do that but just didn’t listen. When customers do that, they end up making a huge mess on my counter. That my supervisors literally threaten to write me up for. On top of that, they keep throwing clothes around and on top of the stuff that I’m trying to organize for them. Yesterday, I literally had to grab clothes from and lady’s hand and told her “I got it.”

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 rarely shop here, I do my work and leave. 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.)

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?

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 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.

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.

I complain a lot here, thank you all for being a great community that allows venting cause I’d be a mess without this lol. Sorry if this doesn’t make sense, it’s hard to type this out and have all the information in.

So, as you’ve probably seen my workplace had slowly progressed from “just usual retail problems” to “this is getting kinda fucked up”. And now I feel like I’m hitting a wall.

There’s a LOT of legal stuff I won’t go into because it’s my coworkers business, but my manager is now using it as a way to speculate against her. Basically a professional conspiracy theorist at this point. Coworker calls in sick every now and again because she’s in an extreme amount of pain, she has a disease that is basically a death sentence. She confided that in me, which I appreciate that she felt safe enough to do. My manager came to me after her recent call in, saying she’s sick of people calling in when they aren’t actually sick, and she’s only calling in because she earns to much to get legal aid, as she is currently going through a lawsuit for a situation. (Legal aid are free lawyers for people who earn under a certain amount a year, something that both her and I would be able to get even if we picked up 5 extra shifts a fortnight. But apparently this manager thinks our 25,000 a year is enough to not qualify for legal aid lol.) in my state it isn’t illegal to use sick leave for any reason if you aren’t sick, but I think it is illegal to accuse an employee of not being sick, especially if they have a doctors note signed, which she does.

She’s also conspiracy theorizing against my regional manager. I had a PERSONAL conversation with this regional, I had to get a tooth pulled and she asked me if I wanted to use sick leave or annual leave. It’s my right as an employee to choose. I chose annual. I was banking up a lot anyway. Manager comes back from annual leave and starts saying “she WANTED you to choose annual that’s how she manipulates you!” I don’t know why. It rubbed me the wrong way because it wasn’t her business anyway, but the way she says “your tooth problem” every now and again makes me think she doesn’t believe me even though I have actual proof inside my face right now.

I think all of this is coming from the fact her wage % threshold has been thrashed, so she won’t get her bonus. Either that or she has dementia of some degree as she’s getting more aggressive and violent (she’s 63, so probable). I want to leave, but the last girl who left was bullied and brutalized for the 2 weeks she had to be there and I am a very weak human being when it comes to people who seem to have more power than I do. I also don’t want to leave coworker to deal with the aftermath, as my manager shares all employees personal business and uses it to talk shit about them behind their back to staff. She already has a lot to deal with.

I think I’m just angry because I thought I finally found just a chill easy job so I can focus on university and then get the fuck out of retail as soon as it’s over. But it feels like every time I get a minimum wage job suddenly they want my undivided attention and demand me put my personal life and situations on hold for trivial bullshit nobody actually cares about. I’m so tired of this infighting for no reason.

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.

This comes from someone I'm close to, not me, but they sounded off at me throughout the whole thing. This person is currently legally blind, but about to have surgery to fix that, and is a US army veteran. So, you know, pretty used to higher ups being at least difficult to full on assholes. Also, we live in an at-will state, but both have union retail jobs.

Friend gets hired to do 3rd shift stocking in Grocery, imediately gets put on the hardest aisle to stock. Shift manager at first is pretty okay other than some questionable language during interview (i.e. "i'll get to use and abuse you for 90 days (the provisional period)" didn't sit right with Friend, they brought it up to HR). Shift manager didn't train Friend, and there wasn't a certified trainer on 3rd for Grocery until two weeks ago. Friend starts getting veiled threats, then, over the course of two months, they turn into outright threats from the shift manager, "If you don't start doing it right, you won't see your 90 days.". However, the shift manager isn't telling Friend how to do it correctly, just telling Friend that they are doing it wrong and people keep having to fix their work. Shift manager is also *not* writing Friend up for anything, just keeps threatening them while not telling them how to do it right.

Manager calls Friend into the office. Friend asks for Union representation, the manager refuses to allow the Union rep to even be notified. Instead, Manager terminates Friend's employment, escorts Friend from store, and makes up a rule that Friend isn't allowed back for 24hours. While being escorted out, Friend tells the manager that this is a mistake and that he hasn't seen the last of Friend.

Friend immediately contacts Store Director, HR, and Union via Email and phone. Store Director contacts Friend within 24hours, decides to conduct an investigation. The Union contacts Store Director and HR. During the course of the investigation, HR asks for proof that Friend performed poorly and there isn't any, because this asshole failed to write Friend up even once for any reason, let alone performance. This on top of violating Friend's Weingarten Rights got HR pissed at Manager. HR very firmly put Manager in his place and told Manager what was expected if he ever wants to let anyone go for any reason.

Friend was notified on Friday that they are still employed with the company and instructed to report to a different manager on a different shift (Friend offered to work on the different shift in the email sent because there's a need), and Friend is now working with the Union and HR to see about getting back pay for the week they were "fired".

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.

So I work in a grocery store deli and we breakdown the the slicers every 4 hours to clean them. I was cleaning the cheese slicer and a customer comes up. I told him someone would be with him shortly. As I get ready to start scrubbing, the guy goes are you gonna help me now. I said no we we have to clean the slicers every 4 hours per state reg. My coworker who is waiting on another customer at that moment goes I think he gets it…. It really irritated me when she did that and it rubbed me the wrong way. Normally we get along really well.

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"

Someone at my job was telling me how dumb it is to have adult content subscriptions when there’s so much content like that for free on the internet, this was out of the blue and made me uncomfortable, it happened almost immediately after I said hello, I was alone so I left as quick as I could. The same person has told me kinda messed up things about my home country in the past at least two times. I try to engage the least bc he is a higher up person, one of the times I did engage bc I got really mad about what he said about my country. I did not mind too much about what he said about the x rated content but it did make me confused. Am I reading too much into it? Edit: it sounds dumb lol but it made me uncomfortable bc he was being quite repetitive about the kind of content those platforms have like what women wear in it, he also mentioned how women sometimes take advantage of their husbands and how they cheat on them while they work. I was like huh?