Employee of the year goes to…

It should be understood, at this point, that straying into a store with a uniform consisting solely of a specifically colored shirt—whilst wearing that same color of shirt—is a risky move. It should also be understood that even wearing a similar color shirt is likely to attract every Karen and disgruntled manager within a 100-meter radius. If you choose to do this, you do so at your own peril, but at least you can write a story about it later to share online. This guy happened to stray into a l…

Getting fired from a job where you didn't work is a bit like losing a race you weren't entered into in the first place; it's really hard to be upset about it when you didn't even know you had something at stake. This customer shared their story of witnessing another fellow customer ending up on the wrong end of a stray Karen's fury when they visited a “Wall of Marts” during a trip to the United States. They share their surprise at realizing that the people they had read about in “People of Wall…

At a certain point, cutting costs to extreme measures will just cost you more in the long run or cause your entire business to fold under its own weight—or both… simultaneously. The short-sighted pursuit of profit is a trap that businesses often fall into—and why not? It's an easy methodology to follow that makes sense and follows logical reasoning: Spend less, earn more. The issue is that you have to spend money to earn money, and not investing in proper resources can cost you more when you ne…

It's often said that we should seek to better the world by helping those around us, but what if those people needing help are demanding help and being incredibly rude about it? Better to let the world burn if that's how it's going to be. There's no shortage of entitled people who have a 6th sense for the goodwill of others and look to latch onto that goodwill-doer like a leech and absorb all of the goodwill that is to be had. This student was helping a retired teacher from their school when the…

Unnecessary rules and processes must be followed to the letter—because some manager who has never actually done the job decided it must be so. As long as they only waste your time, they'll remain in place indefinitely as you're hounded mercilessly about the resulting drop in productivity (thanks to these new processes.) However, as soon as these processes infringe upon the time of the manager who made them, it's miraculous how quickly they can disappear, which means the easiest way to get rid o…

Look. If you had one shot—or one opportunity—to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment. Would you capture it? Or just let it slip? This guy certainly did not miss his chance to blow when he stumbled on the succulent opportunity of a lifetime: a goldmine of prime rib priced down to absurdly low figures. If it weren't for the fact that he intended to (supposedly) cook this meat for a Veterans' charity, I'd probably have to say that he is the AH here. Having worked retail in a previous lif…

One cashier was rolling their eyes at this incredibly unaware customer who just couldn't seem to focus on the task at hand. Wake up, Karen, it's time to pay for your groceries, not blab with your friend! On the r/Talesfromretail subreddit, one frustrated grocery clerk shared the daily struggle of just getting customers to listen to them. On an unexpectedly busy day at the store, the cashier wasn't able to leave their post for a second due to the massive influx of customers. But still, when this…

The ability to admit fault and regret one's actions is, unfortunately, not one everyone possesses. Those people's ego eclipses their ability to feel remorse, and accepting fault would be accepting the possibility that they are fallible. For everything you can say about this customer, at least they were willing to feel immediate regret once their demands were met… There are a lot of instances of this same thing happening where the customer would be celebrating the fact that their complaint cause…

Shoppers can all agree that getting a good deal on a purchase is the best feeling in the world, but some Karens take the coupon hoarding to the next level. Although it's fun to get a discount every now and then, extreme couponing is the bane of every retail workers existence, especially when the person wielding the magazine clippings that'll save them $.50 cents acts like a tyrannical maniac to every worker.

This customer wasn't happy about the service she had received or the price she had been charged—especially surprising considering she had been given a discount. She thought she could even get against the shop for the perceived slight against her and decided to execute a ‘malicious compliance’ by paying her repair bill entirely in pennies. She failed to calculate the fact that the owner might be happy to oblige her preferred method of payment—simply to watch her have to haul in sacks and sacks o…

Play stupid games… Win stupid prizes. Every now and then, you run into someone who thinks they are above the rules of society. These individuals think they are so clever and have it all figured out when they are really just ignorant of the fact that some rules are there for a reason. A firefighter encountered one of these individuals at the local grocery store, where their friend was the general manager. The individual in question was a gentleman who felt that they were above any sort of specia…

This is precisely the type of thing you encounter while working in a bike shop. Of all the customer service roles you could ever work, working in a bike shop will confront you with some uniquely bewilderingly entitled experiences. The idea of “you haven't done enough for me for free” will somehow recur time and time again as 1-star reviews bombard you for going out of your way to help someone who doesn't understand how much they don't understand about their bike. Bonus points here for being bla…

You can't have your cake and eat it too—and the employees that work for you are people, not cake. I don't really know how to unpack that statement further, but let's just say that you shouldn't be surprised when your workers want greater compensation in exchange for the increased responsibility you've been giving them. If they're doing the job of a manager already, make them a bloody manager. The amount of hoops that retailers want their employees to jump through in order to achieve a promotion…

There are glorious times in customer service when doing what the customer has asked necessitates doing technically nothing. It's a rare occurrence but oh-so-good when it happens to chance upon you. When this worker promised to give an angry Karen a refund, they did so by promising to refund the amount that it would cost them to park on the street: Nothing. This left the Karen happy to go merrily on their way, and with the problem now out of sight and out of mind, she was never the wiser. It's g…

Get ready for the oldest trick in the retail handbook: First, insist workers close and lock the doors precisely at closing—not a moment sooner, so that you don't miss any sales. Next, schedule workers' shifts to end precisely at closing time and make it as hard as possible for the workers to claim the inevitable overtime they accrue while trying to complete basic closing tasks that need to be completed after the doors are locked. If they try to claim five or ten minutes daily, just tell them th…