r/retailhell

9:30am. I'm cashiering, just got in 15 minutes. I'm exhausted because this week I work 40 hours. I'm at my checkout, LIGHTS ON. LOOKING IN THE DIRECTION OF WHERE CARTS GENERALLY COME FROM.

Woman approaches from OPPOSITE direction. "Are you open?"

Me, friendly, "Yes, ma'am, thats why my lights are on," points.

"Oh well. You don't look ready to serve so I'll just go somewhere else."

Y'all are too damn comfortable dehumanizing retail employees, full stop. You make no room for us to be tired, or sad about the state of the world, or ANYTHING. Hell, even doing our job! I was DOING MY JOB! Boop beep boop beep. I'm in retail! Don't bother being polite or anything, I have no feelings. Yeah go ahead. Kick me. Whatever, right?

I'm so damn sick of y'all. Thats it.

Don't know who needs to hear this, but if a store closes at 9 PM, it closes at 9 PM (or 10 PM or 8 PM or whatever). That goes for all stores and if you're a customer, don't expect the store to be open after that and don't expect the store to be kept open just for you. Yes, this is targeted because I had three customers call in and complain about being kicked out after our store closed. Like... no shit? The store is closed, I wanna go home. Get out!

Yes I do, sir!
But only when someone says something funny. Sorry your super clever jokes about “items without stickers being free” didn’t make me lose my shit.

It’s always struck me as so weird and aggressive to crawl up someone’s ass for not giving you the response you want. I’m not rude. I’m just not gonna sit there and fake laugh to humor your stupid ass.

I work in a deli. People will approach the counter and say things like, "give me some chicken." Okay, 2pc, 4, 8, 12? And they stare at me. "How much is a 4pc?" Then, "what's in it? Does it come with sides?" I made a coworker snort laugh the other day when I said, in the most neutral/nice customer service lady voice ever, "i actually do have a menu right above me, it lays out all the information. I'm here if you have specific questions though, I understand those things can be confusing sometimes!"

Also, the ones that dig through the rotisserie chickens, looking for the flavor they want but refusing to READ THE LABEL. I for one line them up neatly, if you're looking at a lemon pepper bird, all the birds behind it are gonna be lemon pepper as well. There is no need to pick each one up, shake the bird around, open the bag to smell or touch it, or in one instance, poke the seasoning and LICK HER FINGER. Just look at the sticker I placed on the bag.

I was walking back to work on my last break for the day when an older man who I had served earlier today jumped out of his car in the carpark and greeted me with “I had been waiting for you to come off break, I watched you leave and I’ve been waiting for you to come back so that you can serve me”.

Sir, there are about 4 other people who can provide the same service that I can. Why can’t you have gone inside in that time. Now I have to worry about being watched while I’m outside minding my own business eating sushi. *sigh*

So I work at an op shop where it's not uncommon for people to ask if they can get a discount on something (either because there's a tiny amount of staining or damage, or just because they don't want to pay the listed amount.) If it's a piece of clothing that has stains or damage and doesn't have "as is" written on the price tag to indicate it's been noticed, I will humour them and go to the back to ask. But for non-clothing items such as media, it's pretty much always a "no" and I explain that they can get a full refund if it doesn't work properly.

On Monday, a guy comes up to the register with a stack of DVDs, puts a couple on the table and holds the rest up saying, "I want these, but I only want to pay a dollar for the lot."

Before I can even ask why he wants that or why I would say yes, he opens one of the cases and says, "They're fucking rooted." (Rooted = "fucked" in Australian slang)

He shows me that the discs have scratches on them. I tell him I'm not allowed to discount them. Keep in mind that our DVD's are dirt cheap compared to buying them new. A single disc is $2 and for multi-disc DVDs it's basically the number of discs plus $1. Before I can even tell him that he can bring them back for a refund if they don't play, he says, "I'm offering you a dollar for them."

I tell him again that I'm not allowed to discount them, he dumps the pile on the counter and says I should put them in the bin. When I turn around to put them behind me he says, "Don't fucking worry about it" and walks out without buying his other DVDs.

Tame story compared to what you guys post, and he's not even the worst customer I've had to deal with. But for some reason this interaction really set me off. I practically threw his DVDs into the bin and actually had to take a bathroom break to cool down for a minute or two. Maybe the way he was cursing and acting irritated from the moment he came to the register?

You mean to tell me that the busiest location of one of the largest gas station chains in this part of the country.....just lost the business of.......a millennial white woman without her license...? I have bills to pay, how will we ever cope!!!!

So I work at a gas station/convenience store whose company's name may look similiar to Kircle K. And I really need some help here.

So, Im primarily a closer at my store and the only person on my shifts except for maybe an overlap with mid shift for the first hour. Our store locks the doors at 10p and we use a window to help customers until 12a when our store officially closes. My shift starts anywhere between 4p-7p until 12:30a where we HAVE to be completely out of the store with our drawer count done, clocked off and the store alarm set.

My dilemma is that most of the closing tasks cant be done until 10p/we arent allowed to do them until after 10p, which only gives me 2 hours to: put out bakery, count/shutdown lottery, count cigarettes, sweep/mop, do dishes from bakery, replace polar pops bibs that need replaced, redo inside trash for 1st shift, stock/clean coffee bars, polar pops area and roller grill area. And even on slower nights, I still get 5-7 customers at the window, interrupting me doing tasks.

Lately management has been cracking down on us not getting everything done, even though ive really tried including me shutting down roller grill and putting out bakery earlier than really allowed, but there are some nights where I haven't been able to sweep and mop.

Do any other closers or managers out there have some tips for me? Even if its like a tip on how to count cigarettes faster?

For some context, I'm Canadian and I work in a gas station where we also sell age restricted products, including cigarettes. The legal age in my province for purchasing such products is 19, and we are required by law to ID anyone who looks under 30. Today, I had a customer really have a go at me for it.

So, I had a shabby (albeit younger) looking couple come in, who I'll call refer to as Felicia and Kevin (I couldn't think of a better name for him). Now, for the sake of covering my bases in ensuring that I don't risk selling to someone who could be under age, I requested to see both of their ID's. Well, this pissed Felicia off because while she had her's, Kevin had left his at home and only had a picture of it on his phone, which I could not accept as an appropriate alternative. The reason for this is because anyone can take a picture of their ID and then doctor their date of birth to make it seem they are of age.

Anyway, Felicia gets uppity with me because she doesn't want to go all the way, back to their place and "we always take her ID anyway." I stuck to my guns, telling her that without proper physical ID from Kevin, I cannot sell the cigarettes even if she was the one going to buy them. For those of you who are reading this and wondering, Kevin was mostly silent and passive. So they step outside and I see Felicia making a phone call as I ring up other customers. During that period, we have a rep for our tobacco company come in to take a look at our inventory, which they do occasionally. I'll call him Rep. So, Rep does his thing and I'm doing my job ringing up customers, when Felicia and Kevin come back in with a third person, who I'll call Dick, who assumed that Rep was my boss and go off on him, because apparently it's my fault that he had to go a get Kevin's ID and bring it over on his lunch break. After Rep corrects him on his assumption, I take over from there.

Felicia slams both ID's on the counter and demands her cigarettes. Before I do, I politely but firmly tell her that my reason of IDing both her and Kevin is due to potential consequences for myself and the store for selling to someone underage and that they are responsible for having proper ID with them, which Felicia took offensively because "I DID have my ID either me!" and "We're all over 19!" When I meant that it also applied to Kevin. Done with her shit and having said what I had to say, I get her cigarettes and ring her up just to be done with her.

And here's this little gem for you guys: while I was completing the transaction, Dick proceeds to tell me on how I need to do my job better as he takes his leave! (Like seriously what do you think I was doing, you simpleton!) On top of that, Felicia whipped out her phone and took my picture, saying she was going to complain. (Go ahead, their likely going to praise me for doing a 'terrible' job!)

After they had left, I realized how much I was shaking. I could even hear my own pulse in my ears. For a moment, I wondered if I should have handled it differently. Maybe I was being to rigid about the ID thing. However, Rep and my supervisor, who had witnessed the interaction go down, said that I was in the right. After being reassured, I printed a copy of the receipt and circled the date and time. I'll be seeing my boss when I go back in tomorrow and see what he has to say. He's a reasonable man but I'm still going to get his input.

But yeah, that's my experience. What about you guys?

a couple walks in all lovey dovey tell me they're getting honeymoon clothes for their vacation

our large handicapped fitting rooms always have groups of people entering together cuz they wanna show each other all normal things of course

it's also common we get couples of course but usually they can just fit into a regular fitting room or go separate next to each other...

this couple is like can we have the big one we'll need the space (to be fair they did have a lot of clothes and we have no item limit)

i was like yeah sure it's not busy rn ur good and I walk away to go ring at register

it's been like 15 minutes at this point but multiple of my customers are telling me they hear noises in the fitting room that sound like someone needs help or is in trouble, I step off when the line is down

i hear the noises 💔 it's very obvious what kind of noises I think I need not describe and im like I am NOT dealing with this so I got my manager

my manager came and she knocked on the door and they quickly tried to clean themselves up USING OUR CLOTHES FCKN BRUH WHYYYYY

the girl clearly had used our business pants to wipe her downstairs cuz they're was STREAKS OF YKNOW WHAT ON THEM and the guy had used a tshirt

they js giggled and skedaddled LITERALLY I was like I know u have no shame or dignity but holy shit maybe some common decency??! u don't wanna see my jizz, so why do I gotta clean up urs now smh 💔

and holy shit I know it's like a kink to do it in public but come on y'all in the middle of the day 😭 and the fitting rooms are only in the kids dpt for everyone men, women, etc.. customers need to have more respect for others istfg nasty ass ppl out here man

PSA: pls wash ur clothes when u buy them from anywhere always, this is reason #1 billion why 😭

edit: yes we did damage all of the clothes (ppl are like "I hope u aren't selling those" ofc not but u js never know these days w clothing stores ngl), we weren't gonna search for their jizz and possibly touch it so we cut the losses, it was $739 in merchandise, and we don't allow couples to go in one fitting room anymore 🙏🏻

Or the number of people coming in not even saying hi or anything at all and just showing me a picture of like a pair of sunglasses on their phone. Humans have totally lost the ability to act properly in society, and clearly not only younger generation

Yep, you are so very smart! I do in fact spend my whole life plotting against you, a meaningless customer.

I never thought you would figure it out but you did!

I personally set all the prices in the store and raise them on a whim for the sole purpose of making things too expensive for you!

I also take my time to figure out what products you will need on certain days and hide them in the back from you! I do that!!!

I am so dedicated to making your shopping experience miserable that I wake up very very early and break into our suppliers warehouses and destroy all of their stock that you need because I really just hate selling you what you need.

Sometimes I go above and beyond and actually orchestrate railway strikes to cause major delays or pandemics of bird flu so that animals get sick and the brands of pet food you usually buy have to cull their animals and start fresh with better testing and safety measures which causes shortages JUST BECAUSE I HATE SEEING YOU GET THE PRODUCTS YOU NEED!!!

I know everyone says Trump’s tariffs, but you caught me, THAT WAS MY IDEA!!! I MADE TRUMP TARIFF CANADA!!! I WANTED THE PRICES TO SOARRRR JUST CUZ I HATE YOU!

Of course I do this! It totally benefits me! The owners never misguidedly blame me for our sales going down because of shortages that are out of my control, they aren’t misguided at all because IT IS MY FAULT! AND I DO IT ALL JUST TO SPITE YOU!!!

You are so brilliant for catching me and totally justified in your decision to treat me like garbage!

I’m burnt out, I feel like as soon as one holiday/season ends we’re on to the next and it’s insanely stressful to have to endlessly prepare for holiday/seasonal crowds because there’s no breathing room anymore. There’s no catching our breath, getting the chance to restock (harder now in the U.S., which of course pisses people off). It’s just move straight on to the next, no trying to even out, it’s just go, go, go.

Like in January we have New Years, and so of course we have people coming in for all manner of party supplies, but come January we have Valentine’s Day shit out already. Then Valentine’s Day happens in February, and then we move directly on to Easter which is in fuckin April, then directly after Easter comes graduation season/summer seasonal, then come July/August is when all the back to school shit gets going, and forget fuckin September because that’s when the Halloween shit comes out (which don’t get me wrong, it’s my favorite holiday, but slow the hell down), and then directly after Halloween, or hell, even before it when we’re still in OCTOBER, we get Christmas!

It’s exhausting, and I’m burnt out

The week of terrible customers continues…

I had a customer come up with an item that is supposed to come in packs of 6, but this one only had 5. She said this was the last one on the shelf and asked if we could see if we had a full one out back. I paged that department and someone said they would go check. They came up a few minutes later with more from the back.

The customer was happy we found one for her and took the full pack and gave the other employee the original one she brought up to take away.

As I was ringing her up, something shifts and she suddenly snaps that she doesn’t want it anymore. She says I didn’t listen to her because she wanted to buy the pack with the missing item because she calculated what she would get for a discount. She even pulled out her phone and showed me the math she did on her calculator. She didn’t want a new pack, she wanted the damaged one. I’m confused because she literally asked us to find her a full pack, but I asked if she wanted me to page that department again and have the employee bring it back.

She’s all upset now claiming that I don’t listen very well and that I should be able to understand simple things. I again offer to bring the 5 pack back and see what that department would offer her for a discount. She said it’s too late because she doesn’t have time for all this and that she hates how inflexible this store is before storming off.

I work at a meat department at a shit hole grocery store and lately this job has seriously been draining the life out of me. I am the main cleaner at night, so I have to have everything cleaned and ready to go for the next morning, and all the endcaps and ad items filled, all at a certain time since they hate paying overtime here. Last night I had a crap pile of dishes to clean and while I was trying to clean them my manager thought it would be a good time for me to run an overstock cart and tray up a bunch of these flavored tenderloins that he overorders because no one buys them. I was literally like wtf and he just left and went on with his night. So after I got this all done, I had so little time to clean everything to be done on time. Lately when I've been late I just clock out and keep going because they just cut my hours and this stuff has to get done, but this night I stayed clocked in. I ended up staying 43 minutes late. I come home super exhausted and depressed and the next morning I wake up even more depressed. The next morning I come in, and he wonders why I had to stay so late. I don't know what else I did but he started to act like a passive aggressive little girl and told me I was "so rude." Then thats when I snapped back at him and started cussing because this man makes me so mad. He's in his 40's and I'm in my 20's and he acts like such a princess, so I had so much pent up anger. Like you're calling me rude yet you're the one who unapologetically fucks people over. After that, he took his break and came back like nothing had happened. Idk if anything will happen because my store doesn't gaf about anything like this and I'm one of the more dependable employees that works back there. This place just likes to kick people when they are down and it's not gonna change for me...

A pensioner who struck a Fraserburgh shop worker on the buttocks with a box of cereal told her not to be alarmed because he was “just an old man.”

James Robertson smacked an employee of The Co-op on November 12 last year while she was bending over to stock shelves.

Robertson’s actions – which he attempted to downplay and branded “absolute nonsense” when he was charged – sparked a “heated” argument with his victim, who said she felt “degraded”.

On Tuesday at Peterhead Sheriff Court, Robertson pleaded guilty to a single charge of acting in a threatening or abusive manner.

A small win for retail workers.

Can someone explain to me WHY people insist on YOU putting the lipstick on when they want to try it on?

Foundation I get, eyeshadow sure, eyeliner i guess if were doing a wing tutorial but NEVER lipstick.

What magic do you think i possess that will make it look better on your limp wet lettuce lips that you dont? Just no tension having, dry as a desert, wanting a matte lip.

I hate it. I don't want to do it yet no one will just do it themselves.

Anyone want to hazard a guess?

Nowadays it feels like retail jobs often don’t pay enough to afford necessities like housing, children, a car, and other basic expenses. A lot of people also seem to look down on retail and don’t consider it a “real job.”I recently saw an Instagram post claiming that people who worked at places like Sears in the 90s could actually make a living wage and afford basic necessities. Is that true? I was born in the 2000s, so I honestly don’t know what retail wages/living standards were like back then.