Once upon a time, my second job ever was as a merchandizer (vendor) for an unnamed beer company TM . At the ripe age of eighteen, I'd travel around from site to site in a barely functioning van, ensuring that our product was better stocked and more nicely presented than our competitors. I was somebody finally doing something on my own without an adult breathing down my neck and, with a fairly rural route, I spent a significant chunk of time driving and reflecting on whatever thoughts an eightee…

Some companies have stupid rules, there's just no way about it. Like Gamestop buying a game back for a miniscule percentage of the price they turn around and sell it for… or being told that “You have to wear pants at Target.”

Working in retail makes you develop a thick skin, as you have no choice but to deal with people who have obviously never heard the word ‘no’ in their entire lives, let alone been taught basic manners. Anyone who has worked in customer service of any kind will be sure to tell you that the number of times they've been told, ‘I’ll never shop here again!' would surmount the times it was actually true. In other words, people like to talk, but they don't put their money where their mouth is. One cust…

The hype around new gaming consoles can be so outrageous that people feel overly entitled to their new device. Whenever there's a new console release , there is a lot of hype. Gamers are psyched to try new games or play old ones on a brand new system. And let's face it, these consoles are not cheap whatsoever, with most of them costing hundreds of dollars. That was also the case with this cranky customer, who just wanted a new gaming console the second it was released. This customer clearly had…

This employee works for a retail store with an online presence on eBay.

It's no secret that entitled people consider themself to be immune to the social courtesies and rules that the rest of us follow. They think that an action is just fine as long as it gets them ahead. There are your bulk-standard entitled acts, and then there are extremely petty acts like this. There's such a minor benefit to be had in a “grocery store fuel rewards heist” that it's especially insane to undertake that behavior. Like, bro, you're really going to steal my $0.05/gallon fuel discount…

To work in retail, you've got to have thick elephant skin because boy are you gonna meet some pretty tough customers. Your patience will be continuously tested, and the levels of dumb you'll encounter in a day will surpass anything you could have possibly imagined. These two Karens thought they could outsmart a quick-witted employee who caught on quickly to what they were doing. Using the self-checkout counter, they attempted to walk out with half of the things they had in their cart before act…

A hasty and rude retail worker quickly corrected this woman when she pointed out a pricing error on a chef's knife she was interested in. She relented in revealing the mistake to the worker and ended up with a deal on a great knife. This story was shared to the r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/TIL_eulenspiegel , the woman in the story, where it earned 19k upvotes as of the writing of this post. When she went to the department store, she was greeted by an "older man" who was extremely helpfu…

We've said it once, and we'll say it a thousand times: When making a demand from an underpaid retail worker who would probably rather be somewhere—no, anywhere else than standing here listening to you, you'd better choose your words wisely. You might end up with exactly what you wished for—just… not quite how you pictured it. (The monkey's paw curls .) That's what happened in this classic case of malicious compliance, which was shared to the popular Reddit sub of the same name by Redditor u/Lai…

There's nothing like working a really demanding job and not getting support from your manager. It really just puts the salt directly to the wound, doesn't it? If you have ever worked retail, then you know exactly how demanding it is. The actual work you do for the store, like restock, organizing, etc. isn't the hard part. The most difficult part is dealing with the customers and, let's be honest, your coworkers. If you don't have a team that can work together, then you are going to fail. That b…

After being ignored for over a half hour while shopping, this dude had a complete meltdown! While sharing his story to r/AmItheA**hole, this dude made sure to preface his story. He wrote that he's been around service workers his whole life, and worked service industry roles before, so he apparently knows what it's like to be in that line of work. However, he clearly forgot that when he went to a store and got ignored. The first red flag is that the OP thought he'd get great service inside a dea…

It's not easy working in customer service and don't let anyone trick into thinking it is. The actual work is not hard, anyone can learn it. But dealing with the customers… That takes skill! Especially when it comes to dealing with entitled Karen customers . This is the kind of customer who marches into the place like they are the king or queen or rules over it and then asks for the impossible and throws a tantrum when they can't get it. For example, a person on Reddit shared a story of an entit…

Mistaking another customer for a worker is always a disastrous experience: You're embarrassed that you made a mistake, and they're confronted by the fact that someone thinks they look like a “lowly” retail worker. Depending on how much of a jerk the not-retail-worker customer actually is, they may just brush it off and leave you to stew in your embarrassment. Still, there's also the chance they explosively take offense to the situation. When this happened to this blind customer, who had mistake…

It's almost alarming how many customers assume it's their right that an employee drops everything to help them, whether the employee is on break, off the clock, or busy helping another customer. This was Karen's assumption as well, as she scoured the store for someone wearing what resembled a uniform. This same Karen expected a retail worker to help her, even though the worker was on break. She took offense when told that, and went straight to the manager, as any good old Karen would do. There…

It's important for all you perfectionists out there to remember that not everything always has to be exact. Sometimes it's ok, better even (for everyone involved) if you just leave things to a little bit of healthy approximation. Sometimes the best answer is the one that is delivered quickly. Although, engineers, surgeons, and scientists need not heed this advice—you guys just keep doing your thing. This is the logical purpose behind measuring rice by the cup, water by the gallon, and crickets…

You know that moment when you're tasked with doing your manager's job for free and then subsequently shamed for it?