You buy it, you break it … wait, that's not right. A lot of stores have the policy of making you purchase an item if you break it. It's often found at antique stores or vintage shops, or other shops that are crammed with fragile items. Some of them make you carry your backpack on the front of your body, or leave your bags up front, to make sure you don't accidentally swipe something off a shelf. Accidents happen, and sometimes things just topple to the ground, making for an irritating purchase…

Some people have never considered that they can go for a shopping trip without bothering the employees. It's never crossed their mind that they could go grocery shopping without telling a teenage employee that the fruit “was better last week." This is the person who whines to a clothing store employee that the fabric seems cheap. Some customers get a thrill out of whining about unimportant, and sometimes unsolvable, first-world problems.

Retail workers could tell you a story or two about their most memorable customers . As a cashier, you may serve hundreds of people each day, so when someone throws a huge fit or is especially impolite, it sticks with you. Whether you're working in a clothing store or a popular spot in the mall or a fast food restaurant, you're bound to get some odd customers. Usually, customers ask the same few questions over and over. But there are exceptions. For example, one person shared that they had a cus…

This pregnant woman wasn't afraid to confront another driver . And luckily for her, a bunch of bystanders also had her back. Going through a pregancy changes everything, and the last trimester can be the trickiest for a lot of new parents. That's the stage where a pregnant woman's belly is too big for her to tie her shoes or get up from the floor when bending down. She might need to sit down frequently—carrying a whole baby around in your body gets tiring. And in general, pregnant women are sup…

The grocery store is a lawless place.

It's a little humiliating when you can't reach something on a high shelf. So much so that short folks have been climbing onto countertops, using broomsticks to destabilize out-of-reach items, and standing on swivel chairs for centuries just to avoid asking for help. But if there's no broomstick in sight and no counters to climb, who can we look to?

A customer was a bit too eager to shop at a new store in town. At some restaurants that are brand new, a “soft launch” will take place for the first few weeks they're open. During the soft launch, servers are being trained, the kitchen staff is learning how to make the food properly, and therefore the service might be a little slower than normal. That's all well and good for the restaurant industry, but there are no soft launches in retail. That didn't stop this woman from trying to break into…

Watching the grocery store cashier ring up your food items, makes every working-class shopper rethink that second box of gourmet cookies. As the receipt tallies your haul of hunted and gathered groceries, it's hard not to think of those days when a family of four could live off of a $20 grocery store run for a whole week– nowadays, $20 gets you a box of lettuce, 12 eggs, and a cluster of bananas (if you're lucky).

Hierarchy is the cornerstone of the business world. There will always be subordinates and superiors in the organization based on seniority and experience. But what would happen if you were caught in the middle of an argument, or perhaps a more accurate description, an ego clash, between two of your managers? Well, the story below is an account of a dissatisfied store salesperson. OP has worked at a single shop for the past six months. Six months is a century in the retail industry, particularly…

These coworkers just couldn't get along with their store's greeter. You'd think that as a greeter, you'd have to have a sparkling personality, or at least be pretty easy-going. Greeters are placed at the front of big chain retail stores to say hello to each shopper who enters. They can point shoppers toward the right sections of the store, and many of them check receipts as customers are exiting the store. A lot of times, these positions are given to older workers. That way they can sit down an…

These retail workers have a bone to pick with some of their worst customers. Imagine you're a customer at a retail store , about to peruse the clothing section or toy aisle or garden section. But you've got your to-go coffee cup with you, and halfway through your trip, you've drunk all of it. What to do now? If you're like a surprising amount of shoppers, you'll just take the cup and leave it on a random shelf. It might be half-full or totally empty, but either way, these shoppers think their i…

Following these orders struck this employee as odd, but they did as they were instructed . After all, what the bosses say goes, even if you think it's the silliest thing you've ever heard. Recently, there's been some online discourse about how small shops make enough money to stay in business. The basic premise of people's question is: How does a tiny store with just weekend foot traffic or tourist traffic manage to stay afloat? What if just a few customers come in each day? How does the place…

This employee got stuck working with a supervisor they were particularly not fond of. That happens in life. You can't always work with your work bestie. It makes a huge difference when you have fun coworkers. You both have to be there for an entire six- or eight-hour shift, so you may as well try to make it enjoyable. Some coworkers have a great sense of humor. Others you'll get to know on a deep level and know all of their interesting lore. Having deep conversations while folding shirts togeth…

This small business knows how to handle their most demanding customers. As a small business , you face unique challenges and have advantages that big chains don't always face. Especially in family-run businesses, the working conditions can be much friendlier to staffers. Corporate chains with hundreds of employees may seem cold in comparison---there's no way they can keep track of all those people. But at a small company, employees can have a little more leeway when it comes to their day-to-day…

The only people more confused than these customers were the befuddled employees trying to help them. If you've ever worked in customer service for any amount of time, you already know that some customers just need to rant and vent and get all their anger out. You can offer them solutions to their problems, and that's not good enough for them. Sometimes they'll just reject your ideas outright and demand a manager. As you can read about in one story about a block of cheese, some customers have no…

Managers never want to have to tell an employee they're being let go , but sometimes their hand is forced. If the employee is talking back to customers or caught on camera stealing money out of the till, sometimes the manager will have to fire them for the good of the company. When u/edge231 asked, “Managers of Reddit, what is the stupidest thing an employee did that forced you to fire them?” there were over 15,000 people who chimed in with their craziest stories. Folks, today I learned a fasci…