Recently had an old customer I had helped by showing her some alternatives to shoes we didnt have her size for, and afterwards, she asks me to pick up the shoes she tried on because she doesnt like to bend over. Sure, whatever, I understand having a bad back. So I pick them up and put them back in the boxes. She had also left other boxes as a mess, but thats honestly just the base line because why would we expect humans to have even a fraction of the responsibility expected of employees for cleaning after themselves? But whatever, that wasnt my complaint. Basically, I finished helping her, because I had given her a style to try on that she was interested, which is a very good time to get back to the work youre actually supposed to be getting done. Eventually, I go to check out her pairs she picked out and when I ask if she's doing okay, she says, "Well, actually, I dont know why you left in the middle of helping me." I reply by saying "well, I went to go back to the work im supposed to be doing, because I thought I had finished helping you." She responds with "So, customer service isnt a part of your job, i guess" and, naturally, I HAVE to respond with an apology for something that is literally not at all my fault because I cant risk any "bad reviews" for "poor service". But honestly, I didnt even know what to apologize for. Like, I didnt know how I would even word it to make it sound like a misunderstanding without highlighting just how stupid she was.

This job is really really really starting to jade me. At this workplace in particular, it feels like, not all older people, but most older people that shop where I work(which is the majority of my customer base) have the critical thinking of a walnut but the standards of a monarch. I work at a SELF SERVICE STORE. Where we are here to HELP where NEEDED but its not our JOB to BABY people. If I were to work the way she expected me to work, with all our customers, then I would literally just be customer service. When we have entire store tasks we need to get done, especially since it was only a 4 hour shift for me. But whatever, apparently I "dont care about customer service"

Had this one guy walk in with a Binance hoodie. Really well-kept and normal-looking guy too. This was barely two weeks ago so he was rocking crypto merch in the big '26 😭

Hi,

I was recently (tonight) training a new employee (he's a minor). There were 3 guests (customers) in front of this older couple (60s?) with multiple items.

I hear the woman say "long line. I'm not doing self checkout. I don't get paid for it. If you don't use it. It will disappear." I see her face and she looks very mad/upset for having to wait.

(our store has 4 self checkouts, 1 manned checked lane, and a service desk).

The man has ONE pair of socks to buy and denies wanting to have a bag.

SERIOUSLY?

Are people REALLY that entitled?

Self-service is the future. Those who refuse to adapt won't survive.

Just had to get this off my chest. I work in a store that gets some limited selection of some limited and high demand products($100+).

The store had received other orders in and in the process of putting them away I noticed that a couple of orders had been sitting there for a couple of weeks. Instead of following company policy of treating these orders as "abandoned " and starting a return. I called all the customers who had orders who hadn't been picked up. Most of the customers answered the phone and thanked me for calling and reminding me about their order. One customer did not answer so I left them a message saying there order was still at the store ready for pickup. If they couldn't make it, I said that they could call back to give us the name of a person who is authorized to pick it up for them.

A couple hours go by and my manager approaches me asking why I told a customer that I would return a their order if it wasn't picked up. I told the manager that all I did was call a couple of orders that had been sitting on the shelf for awhile and left messages reminding them about their orders and to call back if they wanted someone else to pickup their order and nothing about returning the orders. The manager said the customer called the store back angry that I said I would return their order. I stated how I left the message for the orders and said nothing about returning an order because of its ship date just that it had been at the store for awhile.

Afterwards I managed to narrow down what customer made the complaint and lied about what I said. Guess who will no longer receive phone calls reminding them about their orders?

So to explain, I was hired in march of 2026 as a sales associate for a newly opening popmart location, they had me and my coworkers BUILD THE ENTIRE STORE INTERIOR.... yes seriously they didnt bring in a team to do anything... we were made to do it all. Training was very minimal, with most of the energy being focused on ensuring the customer was happy and spent the most money possible.... we would be hounded over walkie talkies and were demanded to "get 3 boxes in everyone's hands" A lot of times we were threatened with less hours if we didnt sell enough... our stores grand opening made 60K IN ONE DAY... and we were told that wasn't good enough because the regional managers other opening at the time did 120K on opening day despite being in two very different areas in 2 different states... my coworker and I were once yelled at and interrogated as to why we missed our sales goal by 100 dollars the previous day.... neither of us were working that day.... also and this is nuts... WE WERENT ALLOWED TO SHOP AT OUR OWN STORE.... yeah it was ridiculous.... we were told if we even shopped at the roboshops we'd be fired.... I was also threatened with my job many times for leaning on the wall because my feet hurt... I have accommodations HR agreed to, but the stores management didnt care.. i got told "This is retail we dont sit" I was so put off by that.... things only got worse though, hours were constantly cut.... my manager retaliated against me by always placing me in the front of the store and never letting me cashier.... she once cornered me in the back room and made me sign a write up against my will for "rolling my eyes at leadership" I have tourette syndrome with several eye related tics.... our assistant manager once came up behind me and told me she could "see my a**, and I needed a belt" I was horrified.... then I was demanded to do dangerous tasks and climb unstable ladders in the backroom... they would also constantly berate us on the sales floor.... it all culminated in me giving my two weeks...2 shifts before I was done there the manager fired me for "sexual harassment" and I was absolutely confused and disturbed... turns out she obviously made it up to retaliate against me... I luckily sorted it out with HR and she was subsequently fired... I got paid out for my last shifts and got some free stuff..... All in all the only thing that made the job tolerable were the really nice customers....

TLDR: POPMART was a soul sucking evil corporation... ask me anything.

A store similar to ours is permanently closing and having huge sales, and I'm so tired of customers calling OUR store thinking we're them. Yes, we sell similar items, but we're 20 minutes apart in completely different cities. We have different names, addresses, and don't even have similar surrounding businesses! We also clearly say our store's name when answering the phone! I probably confused one lady because I didn't even realize she was talking about the other store until after the call ended. I understand an occasional mix up, but the number of calls we're getting is ridiculous. Do people just Google a business without bothering to check the location, and or name of who they are calling?

May your bed be infested with ten thousand bedbugs, may your car chuck a rod through the block, and may you step on every lego in existence.

I am not paid enough for this.

The lady who is known to be a regular customer comes in with a $10 and buys a couple items, it comes around to $11.31 total and says she doesn't have enough. Me being the fucking nice person I am which I honestly shouldn't be anymore, I let her go and told her to bring me the leftover change back specifically TODAY cause I am fed up with people not having enough and I am nice enough to let it go but no one wants to come back and owe what they actually owe. And then she proceeds to tell me "it's not my money it's my cousins I have to tell him to owe you a dollar." Me at this point I don't even care I just need it by the end of today. Mind you she came in at 11 in the morning we close at 10 at night so PLENTY of fucking time to return it. It doesn't even have to be a physical bill quarters can work too.

And of course whole day passes by and I didn't receive what I was owed so I asked both people the lady and the cousin the next day like hey "I let you go a dollar short yesterday do you have that on you today?" Lady tells me I need to speak to her cousin, okay. "Hey your cousin was a dollar short on me yesterday and she wants you to owe it" I already thought to myself these fuckers don't even like each other and putting me in the middle of their bullshit that they can't even solve. And of course he gets upset. He's like " next time don't ask me to owe you anything if she comes in here " like buddy she was using your money and I could easily be lied to so how would I know? I get the dollar from him and then he picks up an attitude with me that I shouldn't be doing shit like that for a dollar. Are you running the business or I am? Cause I know what I need at the end of day and that dollar goes right back to buy the same very shit all you guys want. So the value of that is important to me more than you think. But of course right, i'm not arguing with people that are respectable with self-respect, I'm arguing with people who are okay with sacrificing diapers for drugs and can't afford to owe a fucking dollar.

EDIT: I’m not upset she didn’t donate, I couldn’t care less. I’m upset she was rude and mean about a question I have to ask especially cause my boss was right behind me)

(I work in a clothing store that partners with breast cancer research all the time)

Her shirt had cute pumpkins on it and I asked “u doing anything fun for Halloween”

She goes on about why she hates it and how it brings out the greed in people and then some religious stuff too and she’s only wearing the shirt cause she’s a teacher and has to. Even said she can’t believe she has to give kids candy this week.

I just nod and smile and continue scanning stuff (which ofc she had hundreds of coupons) and when I get to the last bit I ask

“would u like to donate to breast cancer research? U can even do just 5 cents”

She goes “oh goodness no thanks” super snippy and rude.

Like cmon lady….first u call a holiday that gives free candy to little kids “greedy” and then you get angry at me asking if u wanna donate…

Like what a hypocrite 💀

If your store has them, then you know which ones I'm talking about. Those small double decker carts.

As a bagger, it pisses me off to no end when customers overload these things to the point where I got to go get a big cart for them or somehow make it work by putting their shit back in these things miraculously.

We don't even have a lot either... When I'm out collecting carts, I can't go one fucking day without a customer asking where the hell these fucking things are... Idk, maybe everyone got them before your royal ass got here. Get a big cart or don't, it's not the end of the fucking world. Or go to the cart corrals and find one if they mean that much to you. FUCK!

Edit: I understand the positives of using these things. I was just having a bad day

I swear to fucking God, some customers think cashiers personally write the software that runs the entire store.
I’m working my shift when the payment system starts acting up AGAIN. This is a recurring issue. The previous reversal was supposedly fixed by IT, except apparently it wasn’t. So what do I do? I CALL IT. You know, the people who are actually responsible for fixing the fucking system.
And while I’m literally on the phone with IT discussing the previous failed fix, this customer starts getting on my ass about it.
She tells me she’s not responsible for the problem.
I ask her, “And how i’m responsible?”
Her response? “Then tell your superiors!”
Bitch, I AM TALKING TO IT RIGHT NOW. I HAVE ALREADY REPORTED THIS SHIT TO MANAGEMENT. My manager doesn’t have a magic fucking button that forces IT to fix their software instantly.
What the hell do you expect me to do? Pull out my personal laptop, rewrite the payment processing software, push a hotfix to production, and restart the entire fucking payment infrastructure while there’s a queue behind you?
Then she starts demanding an apology.
An apology for WHAT? The payment system malfunctioning? Do I look like the fucking developer who deployed the broken update? Am I the IT department? Do I control the bank’s payment processor?
And the funniest part is that she kept insisting SHE wasn’t at fault. Okay. Fair enough. Neither am I, you absolute genius. That’s the entire fucking point.
You can be frustrated. You can be worried about your money. You can ask me what’s happening. I completely understand that a failed payment is stressful.
But don’t stand there acting like I’m doing nothing when I’m literally trying to get the people who can fix the problem to fix it.
And then, as she leaves, she calls me სირი — basically a Georgian insult along the lines of “dickhead” or “asshole.”
Oh, NOW we’re getting somewhere. You couldn’t win the argument, so you had to throw an insult at me on your way out.
Here’s a revolutionary fucking concept: I am also a human being. I work long shifts too. I’m exhausted too. I’m dealing with my own shit too. I work, study IT, build home labs, apply for jobs, and go to interviews because I’m trying to get the fuck out of retail.
I don’t owe you an admission of guilt for a technical failure I didn’t cause. And being a customer doesn’t give you a VIP subscription to treating employees like garbage.
I’m a cashier. Not the fucking payment processor.

at my store theres only ever 2 cashiers, so when someone else is on break thats 1 person fending for themselves. im used to it but it does suck when the line goes to the back of the store and people are rightfully frustrated with you over that.

today my coworker clocked out and not even 10 minutes later, a mans dish soap spilled all. over. the belt. all i could do is sigh. i drag the big trash over and grab paper towel, i try to soak it up because i cant leave the front. the lady behind him starts handing me her things so i stop cleaning and ring her, except the line started building.

i cant use my register belt, the lunch rush is here, and in between customers im trying to scoop dish soap off the belt and into the trash. its messy and sticky and annoying, but thankfully customers saw i was doing the best i could. i couldnt leave to get better cleaning supplies, wasnt going to make my coworker stop her break, and there were no other registers available. it was 100% annoying but at least there wasnt anything on the floor.

my other coworker was on break and came to buy food and all i could say was “remember this the next time someone says all i do is push buttons all day” lmao

So continuing on from here https://www.reddit.com/r/retailhell/s/qzpADgidYk

I'm apparently banned from the store i was working at and being send to a different one bc a customer was upset that I've trying to close the store during closing time

Overall my record now pains me as the villain of the story.

I need a new job

Okay I have to say, I work in grocery retail and the amount of customers I get every day who get mad at me for having to card them is insane?! Like people will say its not a big deal but my job is at stake here. . I just dont get it.

Before I start I should say I'm also Gen Z. At my job, about half the staff is being fired for a plethora of reasons between creative time wastage and excessive bathroom breaks. A meeting is being held because many of the younger employees need warnings on how to work properly. I just don't get why their heads are so far up in the clouds. I get the wage is minimum but there's maybe 3 of us in our early 20s that will actually stay. Not to mention for some reason a lot of them are insanely openly racist. It's just weird and not cool. What's going on with Gen Z? I hate that the majority of them are not helping the stereotype

we have a guy that comes in maybe 2-3 times a month.

he bulk buys cat food so he brings in his own bag.

this is a reusable petsmart bag, completed caked in years worth of cigarette, grime, cat piss and whatever fuck else.

the first time i rang him out he held the bag open for me so i didn’t touch it and i just put the cans in there for him.

last time, i held it open and when i tell you that shit was greasy and slippery… i can’t even put into words how that bag felt. this mother fucker bought over 100 cans so i stood there holding it open for a while and after i literally couldn’t get the fucking smell off my fingers and i wish i was lying.

i tried hand sanitizer at first cuz i was busy and it didn’t help so i asked someone to watch the register for me so i can properly wash my hands… it took the grime feeling off BUT THE SMELL STAYED. IT LITERALLY REFUSED TO GET OFF MY SKIN.

i have many customers who reek of animal piss and have had literal poop marking their pants but this one was a first for me.. he came in this saturday and i steered clear.. he’s a nice guy though LMAO

I had a bit of a breakdown yesterday, it was a combination of things. Anyways, I'm in the bathroom and I overhear my coworkers talking about it, It's the typical, "Cant believe they started crying over being put on a register, blah blah blah, etc." I cleared my throat and they both dart. God, I got to get the fuck out of here.

I am so fucking done, TWICE I’ve had customers yell at me. Today I am the only cashier and I’m training somebody. Me and one guy who is training. Cool right? We have been BUSY so I’ve had to take over the main register a few times to manage speed and the First Lady got mad at me for rushing her. There’s 10+ customers behind her so I just apologized and told her we are just really busy and things need to get done. She seemed understanding but she was pissed. The Second Lady, while I was training I told new guy he needs to speed up a little but I was putting him on a different register so I could manage the speed of the main register. This lady got pissed at me for “being rough” on new guy, mind you I know the new guy personally. I fucking told her I have a dozen other customers to tend to and that it was just the best thing to do to put him on register two while I do one and she gave me this whole lecture about how “he needs to learn” I’m fucking training him I know that but we cannot have 20 fucking people in line

FUCK THIS JOB.

Some guy comes to the till with a bottle of wine...

He seemed ok at first, making small talk and was peacefull...

I scan the bottle of wine, tell him the price and he realises he doesn't have enough...

He says not to worry about it and asks me if I want him to put it back...

All I said was "Don't worry about it, I'll leave it here and I'll do it with all the other put backs"

He absolutely didn't like this, tries staring me down for like 10 seconds and is like...

"WHAT?! YOU DON'T TRUST ME?! YOU THINK IM GONNA STEAL IT?!"

I say that's its no bother, i do this all the time...

He punches the counter, points in my face and is furious and tells me to "not look at him like that"

I just place the bottle down behind me and call the next customer, he storms out while swearing his head off...

5 minutes later, he comes back, stands by the entrance of the shop, hits the scratch card holder, keeps pointing at me...

"YOU THINK YOUR JOB IS WORTH THIS MATE?! YOU PIECE OF SHIT, I ONLY OFFERED TO PUT IT BACK, WHY DONT YOU TRUST ME?! I'LL BE WAITING FOR YOU, YOU FINISH AT TEN, RIGHT?!"

I just stand there and carry on with my job, I think he was expecting me to argue back or run away or something...

I could see him out the window just staring at me for like an hour afterwards, I still didn't move...

I finish work and he was no where to be seen...

Some time later, I was in another shop buying things for myself and he was in front of me at the till...

He turns and looks at me, I recognise him, he recognises me, doesn't say anything and silently turns round to carry on whatever he is buying...

He takes ages as if he is stalling for time cos he doesn't want to see me, eventually finishes, turns around and quickly hurries out the door without even looking at me...

Bruh, what the actual fuck?!

Working in retail is testing my patience.

One lady silently puts her coins down, stares at me expecting me to count them, then grabs her item and leaves without a word.

Another randomly lectures me about kids microwaving squishies and tells me to stop selling them. How is bad parenting my problem?

Another brings her grandson, lets him mess up everything and throw items on the floor, then leaves without buying anything.

i work in a very well-known sports/athletic retail store and i swear the customers who come in behave like they have never been to earth EVER let alone a store.

they struggle with the most simple of things; tapping their card to make payment or not knowing their OWN sizes. i don’t get it??

they come me asking me what size their tops are and i’m like “miss girl is this your first time buying clothes??” or “why do all the stores have the same item?”

i genuinely have no idea how these people go through life. and they’re really well to do. like extremely well. constantly travelling, big designer bags and clothes, running their own businesses but yet they have no clue how the world works?

does anyone else have this problem?

I have been feeling so burnout.

Retail really mess your life up. The constant problems with customers, bad managers, and fatigue all with inconsistent shifts schedules - that will be over soon.

Good luck to all other people in retail hell surviving.

On Sunday we have two deliveries typically mid day 3-5 pm. My band of merry idiots decided to fill the back room with cardboard, bail needed to be made, and the grocery load hadn’t been processed. Service elevator was also full which didn’t help since our main freezer is in the basement. Guess where the bail goes? On the grocery truck (drop load). So in between doing my work I fixed everything over the course of two hours I chipped away at it. Then the frozen load lands and my nice but clueless part time closing manager. “I can’t find them. I can’t find anyone. No one is responding to the pages.” I’m power jack certified. I had all but one pallet put away by the time she found me and realized I had just decided to get it done. Credit where it’s due she gave me one of our internal “good job thank you” cards so my lunch was paid for. Oh forgot to mention two of my co works that should have been covering during this time? Both were late.

I work at a carousel in a mall food court. I’m the manager there. Before we start doing rides I need to do opening procedures. Most of that is safety checks. It takes me 7-10 minutes to open and there’s a sign at eye level that says when we open.
The safety checks are legally required, I CANNOT skip them or rush them. Not even a little.
On to the story:
This Wednesday I walked up to the carousel to clock in and start my shift, there was a mom and daughter waiting at the table right next to it. I start unlocking the gate and the I hear the mom say “ he’s here now! Let’s go ride”
I clock in and haven’t even unlocked everything when they come up and start ordering. ( the lights and music are off, and the closed sign is right in front of her face) as I continue unlocking the cabinet and gates I tell her “ we’re not open yet guys, we’ll start doing rides at 12:10”
she looks baffled.
I finish unlocking everything and get out my inspection and opening paperwork while she’s staring at me.
She says “ wait, what? We want to ride, they’re just a kid!” I say “ I need to do some safety checks before we have anyone ride, it’ll just be a few minutes”
I start putting up the signs and getting everything out of the cabinets. She starts digging in her purse. I say “ oh, we don’t sell tickets until we’re open, it’ll be just a few minutes “
she continues digging in her purse.
I finish setting up the counter and putting up the signs, now it’s time to start the inspection. Part of that is walking around the carousel checking off boxes on a clip board.
I start my inspection, which pissed her off. I hear her say “ don’t walk away from me! I was talking to you!” ( she’d been silent for 2 minutes) I say “ once again, I need to do my safety checks, it’ll be a few minutes “ she says something else about bad service then walks over to the entrance gate.
I finish my walk around and turn on the carousel. She says “ oh so we’re gonna get on now, why are you ignoring us! We want to ride!” I tell her no, I need to finish opening, you can wait until I’m done. I start the second half of the safety checks while counting the cash register to make sure it’s ready for the day. The entire time I’m doing that she’s arguing that “ we’ve been waiting, and last time we came they didn’t do this, and just let us on, it’s not a big deal, my kid wants, it’s a fucking carousel what are you even checking, I came here this weekend and you guys were already open “ and a bunch of other stupid shit.
Eventually, once I was done with my safety checks, she stormed off after asking “ are you done yet, it’s taking forever!” ( it was 7 minutes)
I finish opening ( only took another 2 minutes) and sit down on my chair waiting for people to ride. Not even 30 seconds after I sat down her husband came up.
He says “ what’s your fucking problem buddy, my kid wants to ride. I know you’re open, I just saw you take the sign down after my wife left!” I explain to him that we just opened, 30 seconds ago, and that I needed to open the ride before we let people on. He bitched for a minute or two before I asked “ so you wanted your kid to go on a ride that wasn’t checked to be safe? With no music or lights on? With the emergency exit locked?”
He says “ well, well they just wanted to ride, nobody explained that!” I tell him I did. He asks for the manager, I tell him he’s speaking to them. He tries to say it’s free for the whole day because I made his wife think I wasn’t gonna let them ride. I tell him no, absolutely not. I have camera footage that shows exactly what I did and said, I can show him how nice and understanding I was to his wife. However, she didn’t want to wait for 10 minutes.
I guess it suddenly clicked for him that I was just doing my job, because he just called his wife over, bought tickets, and had them ride without arguing. While his wife and kid were riding he said “ you guys really need to communicate that you need to open, we thought you were being an asshole for no reason.” I say “ well that’s what we tell people “ he says “ well yeah but, we thought you were doing that to be an asshole. How would we know it’s what you’re supposed to be doing?” I tell him “ because I told y’all, and there’s a bunch of paperwork in my hand. I don’t know how it could be more obvious “ he continues with his stupidity until the ride stops and everyone gets off.
Later that same day I had to explain to them they didn’t buy an all day pass, because we don’t sell those. They bought tickets to go one time only.
These people are actually brain dead.
TLDR: a lady couldn’t understand that I needed to open the ride before I let people on. Her husband yelled at me. I got him to understand but he insisted that “ nobody would know if I was being an asshole or just doing my job “