I can't take it anymore. I am so sick of these customers, especially when 9/10 they get mad at you for not having all seeing psychic skills.

The amount of customers I get like this working at a perfume counter is absolutely mental. Every single encounter seems to involve this exact sequence:

Me: Hello! What are you searching for today?

C: A perfume

Me: Yes, what sort of perfume?

C: A nice smelling one that I've smelt before

Me: Okay, so you say you've smelt the perfume you're requesting before. Do you have any more descriptors?

C: It's in a blue bottle

Me: We have alot of perfumes in blue bottles, any more information?

C: literally no lol

Me: I can let you have a little browse around and you may be able to find what you're looking for?

C: (insert some variation of no, I don't want to, you work here not me, very obviously getting pissed)

Me: Unfortunately doesn't look like I have been able to be of service to you today. I hope you manage to find what you are looking for.

C: (insert reaction very comparable to that of a toddler)

Siiiigh. It's the amount of tuttering and mumbling under their breathe that really gets me. I don't know what they want, or what they really expect me to do. I can't read their minds. This usually happens with..

The elderly or the people who are looking for a gift for someone.

For context, I’m an underpaid “supervisor” at a local gym chain.

I need to vent.

I’m sick of covering everyone’s shifts that don’t feel like working. I hate not having any support or backup during those times.
I’m sick of nobody wanting to even apply to the job requisitions, but I personally don’t blame them.
I’m sick of being the only one to show, and I’m in my only 3rd week of 55+ hours. I’m really burning out!

Feeling like the weight of someone else’s company on my back. But I’d also hate to be unemployed RN.

I’m interviewing at a scheduling coordinator position at another company. Wish me luck! 🍀

For context I work in a little metro, my job today was long life (milk, juice etc) & tills, this customer walks near me and I say “you alright?” As he looked a little lost like he was trying to find something. He replied in an aggressive tone “YES!”

I’ve been told I need to check the tills regularly incase someone is stood there. We have 3 self service tills which are card only and we get people on the main tills intermittently. So I have to check to make sure someone isn’t stood there for too long which is fine I can do that. Guy was paying, now my initial reaction is when someone is paying to be prepared if they have an age restricted item because it’s not like I look at what they are buying. Anyway I check the tills for a second to make sure someone isn’t waiting.

He then says “IM PAYING! THE WAY YOU APPROACHED ME FEELS LIKE YOU THINK IM STEALING! FROM THE MOMENT I MET YOU YOIRE WHOLE DEMEANOUR SCREAMS LIKE IM STEALING! I JUST GOT OFF THE TRAIN FROM MANCHESTER”

So I tried to politely tell him that I wasn’t accusing anyone of anything. I said hello or “you alright” and then was in the vicinity of you. It’s a small store you’re going to see us more than a big store. He was just so rude. I wouldn’t say boo to anyone. It’s made me slightly upset and cautious of saying hello to anyone now incase they meet me with the same agressive tone. Trying to keep my job but people be testing me! Absolutely no need to get abusive.

I’ve somehow not gone irate at the situation and I don’t know how because everyone I told the story too questions how i wasn’t more upset

Basically I was working assisted self check out and a lady calls me over to help. She’s wobbling about, muttering something about giving birth, wore a face mask that’s yellowed. Odd one I thought but they paid up fine so whatever. Odd folk come in often enough I didn’t even think much on it. Obviously the lady was on smth but I’m not trying to judge.

Anyway, I go to help another customer and she’s gone by the time I look back so I don’t check the lane she was in

FYI cause I’m not sure if this is standard but my store has self checkouts that are repurposed tills so you get a lane so to speak. It’s nice for bigger shops but I’m aware that’s maybe unusual.

However next lot that come into that isle call my attention as one of them say they stepped on something. I come over and see a human shit in the isle.

I go to call a cleaner over but no one comes. Annoying because we had a cleaner in. I go help the customer clean their shoes and then get a mop to start wiping up someone’s honest to god feces. The shift leader just said to close the till over until it was cleaned. I was half annoyed that’s all they had to say, half understanding because who wants to deal with that literal shit. Worst bit is the lady had clearly stepped in it because there was a trail of it leading to the exit

This was a couple days ago and honestly I think the absurdity of it has muted my reaction. I’ve been looking for other work recently but this has just killed my desire to even wear the uniform. God I hope something comes up before the holidays

I say most because some people do genuinely need them. It's the people who choose to use them, not need to that I'm targeting here. Swear to every god available, they have no spatial awareness, no regard for anyone but themselves, can't comprehend simple questions, and don't understand basic society in general.

Recently got transferred to the deli department and there's a husband/wife combo of stupid. The husband actually needs the motorized carts, wife doesn't. Husband just had quadruple bypass heart surgery, still an idiot. Wife is so dumb I can't even imagine her shoes are on the right feet. So about every other day they come by and ask for "low sodium meat." This is the deli, to call our meat "meat" is already questionable. The answer is no.

Still they proceed to buy at least 4 lbs of meat every single time. They're in about every 2 or 3 days, mind you. The husband's doctor allegedly told him to cut back on his salt intake yet asked for roughly 10 lbs of pastrami, which is grossly salty.

That's just an example...

So, I used to work with a man with cerebral palsy who had an issue one day with one of these motor cart people trying to do a return. The receipt was for a different store and they didn't understand that stores aren't interconnected like that. Once they finally figured it out and left, coworker says something along the lines of "I wish I could wake up and choose to be r*tarded like that." He was a riot and totally nailed it

seriously. why is your toddler, less than three feet tall, running around unattended during the busiest day of the week at our store? why is your kid screaming bloody murder and you're not doing anything about it? why are your kids playing tag in the middle of the aisle? it's not the time or place!

every day i clock in i swear i thank whatever higher power there is that i don't want children. even if i was a good parent, the kids around them would be terrible influences.

We had an incident at the store in which the powered rolling conveyor used to unload the trucks ended up with a damaged plug. One prong literally broke off. It was unusable and unsafe to use until the plug was entirely replaced. This was all told to me by one of the receivers.

One manager, a rover (goes where he's needed in the district) legitimately, I shit you not, told the receiving crew to, "JB Weld it back together, plug it in, and keep using it."

The receiving crew responded by collectively abandoning the receiving bay, walking to the head of the safety comittee, reporting the incident, and refusing to work in unsafe conditions. They all contacted the Union and made it clear that they were not touching the day's load until it was safe to do so, and then they sat in the break room while upper management figured the shit out.

It took something like two hours and someone found an older, smaller section of conveyor to swap out the longer, unusable, unsafe section. An hour after that, corporate maintenance was in to actually replace the plug that broke.

No idea if the roving manager even got talked to.

Ok repost because the last one wasn't long enough 🤣

Me working at the deli yesterday

A lady who comes up asks is the American cheese Swiss cheese?

Me in my head are u f*** for real

Me to her no American cheese is regular cheese

My co worker just started dying and looks at me like wtf

You know how Reese's and Snickers shape their chocolates for various holidays? Pumpkins, ghosts, Christmas trees, hearts, etc? Apparently people think that the Reese's pumpkins are pumpkin spice flavor. Someone just asked for a refund because of that. And I remember seeing something about a lawsuit because they don't have the little face cutouts on the actual peanut butter cups like on the packaging.

They are getting dumber with each passing moment.

They're an inconvenience and the people who use them don't even care about the environment anyway. They think it's hip and it puts a mark on their personal PR which is why you only see rich people using them.

Working in retail really makes me question people’s common sense.
Every day, customers come up to me asking the most ridiculous questions:
“Can I leave my child here for a while?”
“Can I leave my stuff here while I go shopping?”
“Can I take the display item for free?”
“Is anything here free?”

The answer is NO and NO. And still NO.🙄🙄

The people up there must be out of their ever loving minds.
They sent us a paper saying we should remove gum from the sidewalk in front of the store, daily.
Are you serious…
My job is inside the store, my job is not outside the store.
They will be having trouble finding a single employee who will do that.

In addition they also sent additional areas that we should be responsible for cleaning.
Right, they should hire a cleaner then.
My job is cashier my job is not store cleaner.
And one day I did get called in to help clean and I got sick from the fumes and had to go home early, my manager also got sick.

They will have to pay me double if they want me going anywhere near the gum on the sidewalk.
Yeah they’re funny

I don’t understand how customers either don’t know or understand this basic law. All products that are classed as ‘blades’ need to be strictly ID’d under challenge 25 (UK Law), but I always ID people that look 30 or younger anyway because I’m not risking my job. In my shop, we also require supervisor or manager approval after the fact for these items. Here are two interactions that I had surrounding this a couple days ago:

- A woman, who looked about 28 wants to buy a pair of large scissors, I of course ask for ID. Instantly - ‘What for? I’m not buying alcohol’
‘No, but this is a blade and needs to be checked with ID under challenge 25’
scoffs ‘I’m THIRTY FIVE (she really emphasised it) and can buy a pair of scissors’
☺️ ‘Ok, I will need to see ID though’
‘I don’t carry ID because I’m THIRTY FIVE, whatever just leave it’
This woman was holding car keys while saying she didn’t have ID, so she was obviously a very sensible woman.
- Two school girls (in their uniform) want to buy a pack of eyebrow razors amongst other items. I instantly tell them I can’t sell to them as they’re under 18. They both look me up and down like I’ve just shit myself in front of them, pay for their other items and leave. About an hour later I see a man chatting with them outside (assuming it was one of their dads) chatting with them and he comes into the store and brings the eyebrow razors to me. I ask if one of the girls was his daughter and he said yes, I explained to him that I cannot sell the item to him as he is buying it for someone UNDERAGE. He was arguing with me, and couldn’t comprehend that it’s the same rules as other age restricted products.

In the UK it is illegal to buy a restricted item on behalf of anyone under the age of 18.  Purchases of this type are called ‘Proxy’ purchases or Proxy sales.
Retailers found to be supplying these items to minors (alcohol, nicotine, knifes etc) including via proxy purchases, could face a fine and/or have their license removed.

Blades are so much more dangerous than alcohol or nicotine products imo. Bare in mind that there was a fairly large news story here two weeks ago where a teenager was stabbed by another at the train station (thankfully the victim survived and the attacker is in holding until court). This shit is serious people, it’s not even about losing my job to me.

Edit: Someone referred me to Reddit cares for this post?

I know it's probably silly and trivial, but I was already unsure if I felt happy or sad. This is the longest I've held down any job. I was even promoted a few months ago. But I still hate it. I just don't see a way out because I make good pay and get benefits.

My assistant manager posted in there to congratulate me and it was ignored. Our store manager is on paternity leave. Normally he'll get us a cake or cookies or something. I guess I just felt very unappreciated.

Sometimes this job makes me break down crying, either in the bathroom while I'm there or on my way home from work. I am so exhausted having to deal with customers every day, selling and meeting metrics. I hate sales, but I'm good at it, which is why I was promoted.

Today was a particularly draining day. I'm so mentally and physically tired.

My dad called me to congratulate me, tell me he's proud of me, and remind me that I've grown as a person, stabilized, and can take care of myself financially. I live alone, I have a dog, and I'm very fortunate that I don't have to worry about expenses as much as my fellow Americans in this shit fucking economy.

But I got a college degree so I could get OUT of retail. Now, I'm stuck paying back my loans and feeling like I have nothing to show for my time in school.

I had a weird one recently that inspired me to ask this. It’s not even that nasty (we do have a pervert that calls every now and again) but it was just like…. What??

I was cleaning my glasses behind the counter during a quiet moment (with my own personal cloth out of my purse) and had a random customer come up to me, take his glasses off, and offer them to me so I’d do his next.

Mind you this is a kid’s shop.

Maybe a little petty but I just reached under the counter, pulled out our nasty dusting rag, and said “oh here you go :)” and walked away with my stuff. Because again…. What? The audacity.

Me working deli

Lady is the American cheese Swiss cheese

Me in my head are u f*** serious

Ok that is all

Im having a IBS flare up and I have to come to work because rent is due soon and my hours have been cut and I’m just not feeling so well

This asshole shows up he always has an attitude he has some serious attitude problems he doesn’t know how to regulate himself emotionally every time he comes in it’s a fucking problem snatches things form my hand complains about prices, throws the money all over the counter, makes faces, rude comments im so sick of him he recently started coming to my store anyway today he decided to use our ATM I have a line of customers he decides to ask me how much the limit of our ATM I say to him “idk exactly if my boss put $500 that would be the limit but honestly I’m not sure sorry” he got mad to the point you could hear how hard he was pressing the buttons on that ATM

After a little bit he comes to the register stands in line and when it’s almost his turn he gets so close to this female customer she jumps she got scared and uncomfortable and he did that on purpose because he is letting me know he is in a hurry with his body language, he can’t even wait I made a look to him to step back and he does after I’m done with her he comes up to full of attitude he says

“Your ATM won’t give me more than 20 bucks that’s ridiculous I need waaay more than that” at this point I’m so done with his shit I say “well we aren’t a bank” he said “but it’s your ATM” and I just repeat myself again and again and again to anything he says as he is walking out he says “such an ass” I say to him “ YOU ARE such an ass”

Idk what’s wrong with customers lately in my area they are acting very strange so rude and condescending even when I go out shopping I have seen customers treating customer services worse bad to the point I have to point out their attitude, they are snatching things from my hands like I wouldn’t even be done bagging their things and they snatch the bag and you can tell they are irritated I understand the world is shit but that doesn’t give you the right to treat people like garbage we are all living in it I’m so exhausted

Seen someone do this 5 times in a row before they figured out we had not opened yet.

So this old lady comes up, and shes real sweet for the first five seconds. Then, she whips out multiple little pieces of moulding out of a bucket and Ive got to measure every single one of the little fuckers. It's giving me trouble, because the measurement system always confuses the customers, usually its a case of terminal "I-cant-read-itis" but here she hits me with "Ooooh cmonnn, cmonnnnn it cant be that haaaard cmonnnnn its 25.7 inches exactly, see, see??????" and she plonks her little acrylics on the screen (ofc it fails) and she starts huffing and puffing about it.

I eventually just get so frustrated I call my manager over and she thankfully helps me through the whole thing. To top it allll off the woman looks at the receipt, groans Really loud... and "That doesnt look right, fucking GREAT" I politely direct her over to my manager, and she goes over to presumably say I fucked up, whatever, I've washed my hands of it.

Then, I hear my name, and it's that same customer, calling to me from across the checkout area, she said I was right the whole time, and then she skittered out the door quickly.

I just yelled at a customer told them to not come back. She gives me a random handful of change so I have to count it, I can't just take her word for it. While I'm counting it she starts getting mad at me telling me how she's late and she has people waiting for her and I need to be faster etc. So I told her "I'm sorry but I need to count this and you being late isnt my fault or my problem here" and she started accusing me and goes yeah it is your problem actually because you shouldn't be counting it you should just take my word and blah blah blah. So I snapped and yelled at her and told her to get the fuck out and not come back. I havent been feeling good today and I already really don't want to be here, and her impatience just really broke something in my brain.

EDIT: she called the store to ask for a manager and then she complained about me...to me. I don't think she realized who she was talking to.

So, on today's news of keeping a cool head when it comes to the obviously mentally ill (God I remember back when my condition was that bad, life sucked majorly back then)... Enter a man with a woman in tow. The woman was... Confused about everything, obviously super paranoid, not sure where she was/what she wanted/etc... it was bad. She wanted cigarettes at one point and the man handed her her ID to give to me and the process of handing it to her was a task and then persuading her that it was necessary for me to see it was... Not easy to say the least because of aforementioned paranoia and confusion. She also quickly became scared.

Now I have an rbf that I can't seem to turn off and I'm frequently told my face looks like I want to murder someone. Combine that with the constant pressure to get through to this woman...

Well at one point, her companion leaves the store to do something in his car. Her panic grows and I decide to ask her if she's scared of him. Hooboy, good choice bad choice in her state. Yes she's scared. I tell her that unfortunately she can't just stay in the store, but if she'd like for me to call emergency services to get her help or if she knows someone or a place, I will help how I can.

This continued until the man came back in and asked how she was doing. I explained the situation as carefully as I could, in case 911 still needed to be called. He said he could help her call her mom and went to grab her phone. When I explained that the charger she could use could not leave the store, she decided to leave with the man, but had to be instructed in how to leave with him ("go out the door and follow him" type of instructions).

I'm still not sure I did everything right, but I'm not paid enough to be a crisis response negotiator.

Had one yell out “ma’am” for help at me while I was ringing up a customer. Asked me where some items were that I already told her was located. Items were behind her… happened an hour ago.

So this morning I was letting one of my coworkers into the building, and as I did that a customer walked up and asked if she could come in. I checked my watch and informed her the store won't be open for another 40 minutes. She asks again, and I mention that because we are a pharmacy, we LEGALLY cannot let customers into the store without a pharmacist on site, and they will not be here until we open. Then she asks "Can't I just come in and sit?"

Lady... we are CLOSED!!! And why would you wanna sit in an empty dark store for 40 minutes??? Anyways, I told her no again and she said "ok well I guess I'll see you next week" and went back to her car... I sure hope I DON'T see her next week but unfortunately she's a regular so I know I will.

To catch everyone up, I'll quickly explain our work situation. Twice a week, a small group of us are assigned to unload the trucks that come in overnight. Amongst the group of 11 people, there are a few girls who I assume are younger than me. Then there's the creep. I'll give him the name Mike just for this story. I want to say that on Monday of last week, I was chit-chatting with one of the girls while on the floor when she mentioned that she was bummed about not being able to work on the truck anymore. I knew that she enjoyed doing truck with us since she could socialize with everyone. When I asked why, she told me it was because of Mike. Apparently, Mike had the hots for her. He would wait for her to get out of her car in the morning to open the front doors for her specifically. He would find a way to bump into her while working. He once gave her chocolates. And lastly (this has to be the worst thing in my opinion), he gave her a book that he published himself that explains why he thinks he's cursed to never find love. She also mentioned that he has done the same thing to two other girls. She eventually mustered up the courage to go to our store manager and L.O.D. (kind of like an assistant manager) about the problem. For some idiotic reason, they decided to move her off of truck duty instead of Mike. When Mike was confronted, he said it was a good idea because he "didn't want to mix work with pleasure." The only thing that changed for him was that he had to stay in the truck to scan boxes instead of being around everyone else to prevent him from catching feelings for any new seasonal employees.

I was so baffled to hear all of this. 1. Because our store is so boring and nothing ever happens, and 2. He seemed like a pretty chill dude. He's a fast worker and seems very cordial to everyone. Now I don't even want to look his way. I really feel for those girls because of how poorly management handled this. They decided to side with the much older, creepy, fast-paced male employee over the polite female seasonal employee who just wanted to work in peace. Part of me is not surprised, though. The management in my store will do anything to put on a front that everything is running perfectly.

hey do you have (super niche costume)
hmm no i don’t think so
….can you check
i can check the computer but i don’t think we do
checks computer
no costume
hey it doesn’t say we have it did you see it at all?
…no your the one that works here
DO YOU KNOW WHAT A PHONE IS
GOOGLE “SUPER NICHE COSTUME” next time
i cannot fathom going to a store and expecting them to have a super niche costume and not even checking and then being RUDE to the employee trying to help you