r/TalesFromRetail

I work at small grocery store during the summer and have worked there for a few years with the usual truck crew, so I help everyone all over the store load and unload U-Boats for their respective aisles. Anyways me and another coworker are working down the juice and chip aisle about midday and coworker tells me he’s taking his 30-minute lunch and leaves me alone with the stock.

I go on autopilot and stock the shelves as I always have and an older gentleman walks over without a carts and ask if I can assist him. Placing the box down I smile and ask what I can help him with, he looks around and says “Do you know where your white water is?”

Now there have been some strange names I’ve learned over the years like potato straws and pickle candy, but never had I heard white water. My thinking process is he is down the juice aisles looking for a white liquid that his grandkids probably want. So I’m thinking and thinking and ask “Are you looking for white Gatorade or this white Hawaiian Punch?” He looks refocuses on me and says “No it’s… you know… white water… drink it everyday”

Right at this time coworker walks around corner back from lunch and I ask him same question, completely stumped he also asks the old man Gatorade or possibly a new energy drink. At this point the customer is getting slightly agitated, “You boys know what I’m talking about.” I ask him what other food items can go with white water to which he says “It goes great with bread and icing”

Thinking, short-circuiting, then saying “…do you mean milk sir?”

“YES, that’s it forgot what it was called,” me and my coworker look at each other in bewilderment and tell him it’s on the other side of the store in the fridges… how do you forget the name of milk and come up with white water?! Other strange things have come from other customers but this is by far the most funniest interaction I think back to.

I work part time at a small store and this older guy bought a few things this morning. Nothing unusual. A couple hours later he comes back in, walks straight up to me and puts two dimes on the counter. I thought he wanted to buy something else. He tells me I gave him too much change earlier. Four nickels, I laughed and told him he seriously didnt need to drive back for that but he said he noticed it when he got home and it would bother him all day if he kept it.

Then he just left. I stood there looking at the two dimes like an idiot for a second. Ive had people scream at me over coupons worth less than that. This guy spent gas money to return 20 cents that nobody even knew was missing.

So a customer comes in recently and my ASM is helping ring them up for $3K worth of stuff and an install for the product; the customer says they are doing "$300 in cash and the rest on card." Were their exact wording. So, my ASM types in $300 and pushes cash, and he says "ok, go ahead and tap or insert your card." Which the customer does.

The customer then says "OK, ready to use my next card." As the receipt prints. My ASM looks at them, looks at my other coworker, and the coworker says "you said 300 cash, the rest on card, we ran the card, where's the cash? We're done."

Long story short. Takes a few minutes to realise that when the customer said "cash" they meant "Debit".... It took the customer 4 different people to explain to them, before they understood, that CASH means PAPER MONEY and DEBIT means DEBIT CARD because people DO IN FACT STILL USE PAPER MONEY!!!!!! 🤦‍♂️

To make a long story short, I was serving up a customer and had to point out that they needed one more item for the discount to apply for their purchase. They then showed me a sign that had slipped and revealed a previous sign that was a clear misprint behind it (the sign that had slipped was still visibly hanging onto the other) and started to complain that we had the honour the sign despite our best efforts to apologise for the error of the sign and explanations that we physically couldn’t give out the discount if the rules weren’t followed.
They continue to complain that it’s not right and that the store was trying to cheat them out of money despite the fact that there were literally 10 other signs with the same promotion in the immediate area.

I dont know maybe I’m just being judgemental but Christ. Now they’re making complaints and ‘reporting’ me because of the incident

I live in Potchefstroom, South Africa. I usually do my grocery shopping in Friday evenings. I’ve a checkers right next to my apartment complex. On my way home, stopped to pickup up produce. I was bagging some tomatoes. The display price said R26,99 for a kilogram. There was elderly lady who was bagging tomatoes too. When we went to weighing machine, the machine showed R29,99 for a kilogram. I usually let it go, but the elderly lady didn’t. She went and brought the price tag to show it to the person who was helping us with weighing the tomatoes. I was about to let it go. The lady held my hand and asked the person to give us the right price. He went and got his manager. The manager explained that the price was not updated on the shelves, but weighing machines were updated. Lady didn’t have any of it. She asked for an apology and made them give us tomatoes for free. I’ve never been more embarrassed for not standing up for myself!

Just found this sub. Worked in retail mgt throughout the 90s pique of outlet shopping, so I have about 100 stories, but this my favorite.

I was managing an outlet shop for a popular watch retailer. The company had a 2-year warranty on all watches but the watch had to be mailed in for repairs, we provided a prepaid envelope. A woman came in with a few watches that weren’t working and I explained the policy to her, but she wasn’t having it. After a few minutes of her trying to get a different solution out of me she said I guess they’re junk and left them on the counter and ordered me to throw them away as she left in a huff. I obliged.

A few minutes later she walks back in, having obviously realized how foolish she was. Her demeanor had changed and she kindly asked me if she could have the watches and the envelopes to mail them in. I smiled and said sure. I handed her the envelopes and lifted the trash to the counter. She looked at me perplexed. I said, you asked me to throw them away. I did. I’m not digging in the trash for you. They’re in there if you want them. She scowled at me but clearly knew she created this situation with her ignorance. She started digging through the trash to retrieve her watches and I walked away to help another customer.

I'm working self checkout, in a busy warehouse store. We can only take card payments there. If you want to pay with cash, it has to be at the regular tills. Sometimes we will help people out at the desk, if it's not so busy and their card payment wouldn't work or forgot they wanted to pay with a rebate check.

A lady comes up to the front of the line for self checkout and tells me she only has cash. I told her we can't take cash payments here and directed her to a till. She says It's ok I'll just scan my stuff and then you guys can help me at the desk. I'm thinking good luck with that, knowing I'm off in a few minutes.

At the perfect time, somebody's till tape runs out and I have to replace it. I'm busy doing that for a few minutes, meanwhile I don't dare make eye contact with her. I quickly helped another person, and then clocked out. She was stuck with my co-worker who's not paying attention at all.

By the time I got my stuff and was headed out, she was still waiting at the desk. The desk was absolutely swamped with people. She would have been on her way out already if she had just listened.