Crazy Lane Ahead
If you have ever worked in retail then you know how common it is to encounter bizarre situations in a store. In the most unusual places, people will do the strangest things. Whether you have customer service experience or not, this encounter was definitely strange and left “Holly” confused beyond any of her other interesting experiences working in retail. All it takes is one person to either make your day or ruin it. And it also only takes one person to make you question what you’re doing in life.
Holly works as a cashier. She has absolutely seen her fair share of unique customer interactions, but this one takes the cake. She was left questioning the entire situation and even her job at the store. Some customers do not have their wits about them when they go into the world. You have probably run into a few of these people yourself. Maybe in the grocery store, or in clothing stores. They are the ones acting like it is the end of the world because the brand of deli meat they like is all bought out. Or because they can’t make their jello salad because there are only the big marshmallows on the shelves. Holly had her run in with a customer who seemed normal at first but took a turn down the crazy lane quickly.
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Red Flags
It was Holly’s first day back after ten days on vacation. A blissful ten days without work and ten days without troublesome customers to deal with. Of course, after a break, she would be confronted with a very troublesome customer indeed. We’ll call the woman “Nancy.” She looked like any other “lady in her 30s” browsing the shelves. We all know the look. However, she came up to Holly and things slowly began to unravel. Nancy was looking for a very specific item. She needed “clear treat bags to put small candies in.” This was simple enough. However, Holly’s store was out of these clear bags. She knew they were sold out, so she explained this to Nancy and showed her the only option they had at the time: “a pack of opaque silver foil wrappers for treats, similar to what Hershey’s kisses are wrapped in.”
Holly thought it would be done there. She would show the customer what they had in stock and she could go on about her day. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
Nancy looked at the pack of foil wrappers and asked “what the difference was between treat bags and foil wrappers.” This was the first red flag. I would have been concerned at this point, but Holly kept her customer service smile on and explained the difference once again. These were foil wrappers. They were not bags, but instead, you could wrap candies in them. This was all they had in stock. Nancy was completely lost.
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“See-Through”
She continued to ask “are these see-through?” and “are these bags you can put candy inside?” more than four times. Holly was bewildered. How was this woman not understanding? She had explained the difference in the products, at length, several times now. There was no mistaking the foil wrappers for clear bags. But Nancy was at a loss. And Holly was at her wit’s end.
At one point during the intensely repetitive questioning, Nancy was “holding the package of wrappers in her hand, and the palm of her hand was not visible.” How could she still be asking if they were see-through?
Once again Holly explained the product in detail. She made sure to highlight they were not bags and not see-through since those seemed to be the most important facts to Nancy. They were sheets of foil to wrap individual candies in! How hard could this be?!
Each time Holly answered her two questions, Nancy would whine and say, “but I need something see-through!” and “but I need bags!”
It took at least five minutes of whining and running in circles before Holly felt like Nancy might have an understanding. Five minutes may not seem like a long time, but in retail, five minutes with a customer can feel like an hour. This is especially true when the customer is being difficult or you have to repeat yourself half a million times.
After these five minutes of painstaking explanations, Holly went on her way to continue working the registers and Nancy seemed to have a grasp on what the difference between clear baggies and foil wrappers was. Of course, we all know it was too good to be true for the story to end there.
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One Of Those Customers
Holly went back to being a cashier. She was doing her normal duties and trying to get back into the rhythm of her shift. It wasn’t long before she had to leave the register to return some items to the shelves. She happened to go into the aisle where the foil wrapper incident occurred and low and behold, who was still standing there? Nancy had not left the aisle. Holly was surprised, but this wasn’t the worst of it. Sometimes it takes customers a bit to find what they need. And Nancy had been quite confused earlier, so maybe she just required time to make sure the wrappers would work for what she needed. After the ridiculous events before, Holly was hesitant to walk up to Nancy. Instead, she just put the item back and glanced at the woman. Holly was shocked to see Nancy “open the pack of wrappers and try wrapping something in one of them.”
When is it ever okay to open a product in the store before purchasing it? Especially when the item was clearly described in great detail numerous times. Holly was stunned, and stood there for a second in silence, unsure what to do. She realized there was a customer waiting at the front, so she looked at Nancy and decided she would figure it out when she came to the register.
How would she have confronted her anyway? If I was in her place, I probably would have had to take a moment to gather my thoughts on what I would say!
Holly went about her cashier duties once again, all the while thinking, “That lady better be paying for those wrappers when she cashes out.”
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Honesty Is The Best Policy
Nancy got into the line for the register. She was finally done shopping and Holly was ready to figure this woman out. She needed to get down to the bottom of what Nancy was thinking, or at least just get paid for the opened product.
Nancy put down the two items she had on the counter. Neither of the items was the foil wrappers. The opened wrappers were nowhere to be found. Wait. Did Nancy open the wrappers, take some out, and then just leave them open and used on the shelf?
Holly was bewildered but knew she would need to say something. She took a deep breath and “decided [she] was going to try and overcome [her] confrontation anxiety in the face of this blatant disregard for store rules.”
Not even just the store rules, but common decency! Holly started the conversation gently.
“So, are you buying the wrappers, ma’am?” She asked.
“No, they’re not what I want,” Nancy replied matter-of-factly.
“Ok, but did you open one of the packages?” Holly asked, testing the waters.
She was giving the woman an out by letting Nancy know she had seen what she had done.
Nancy simply replied, “Yes.”
She didn’t even try to deny it! Although honesty is the best policy, this was crazy. Holly probably wouldn’t have pressed the issue, but Nancy admitted to the act.
“Ok, ma’am, I have to charge you for the pack since you opened them. Could you grab the pack you opened, please?” Holly said to Nancy, with a silent sigh.
Nancy was confused again and whined, “But they’re not what I want! You told me wrong! Those are wrappers, not bags!”
Did she just call Holly a liar? Does she need a refresher on what happened in the aisle of repetition? We all know these things are foil wrappers, not clear baggies, Nancy! Holly was struck with the weirdness of being called a liar by this confused customer who had wasted so much of her time.
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“I Need Bags!”
Holly kept her calm exterior, replying, “No, ma’am I explained to you those are not clear bags, they are silver wrappers. I think you misunderstood.”
We know she misunderstood, we just don’t know how she could have misunderstood after all of this.
Nancy was upset and said, “Well, I can’t use those wrappers, I need bags!”
“You still need to pay for them because now they’ve been opened and can’t be resold,” Holly replied, trying not to give in to this crazy woman’s antics.
“But those are wrappers, not bags! You told me the wrong thing! I can’t use them!” Nancy wailed.
They went back and forth for another five minutes, keep in mind these minutes feel like an eternity.
Finally, Holly knew she would never get through to this woman and decided it wasn’t worth any more trouble and time. Holly made sure to inform her of the store policies if she decided to shop there in the future. Nancy “seemed a bit apologetic at least and genuinely just confused, not malicious,” but somehow she had still damaged property and gotten away with it. Not to mention, she called an employee a liar!
Later on in her shift, Holly had a chance to go back to the aisle where it all happened and take a look. She found the wrappers. Nancy “ripped the package open so violently she tore the barcode and then just left it in the wrong spot on the shelf.”
Holly thought, “it’s unbelievable people like this exist.”
After those ten days off and now this, Holly was left considering a change of employment. She knew it was about time to get out of retail and move on from the crazies. She had hit her limit with Crazy Nancy.
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Thoughts From The Author
I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with Karens and other wild customers, and they always made me wonder if it was worth it to keep working at those places. Sometimes one more day dealing with those types of people felt like an eternity! However, something I’ve realized is it is hard to fully escape them. The best we can do is to try to avoid and, when necessary, just let it play out and see what happens. Whether you are working somewhere Karen’s frequent, or you shop in the same places, they are rather inescapable.
There is almost no point in trying to argue with someone as confused as this Nancy was. What do you do when you come across someone who just completely disregards the rules of society? Is it better to just let it happen, or do you confront them? Should Holly have forced the issue? I’m sure we will all have enough experience with people like this to have the answers! Holly did her best with the situation and with as little information as she had, I think she did a splendid job. However, my rule of thumb is usually to mind my business and keep my fingers crossed any Nancys and Karens stay far away. And usually, if they do get close, I have a great story for my friends later! What are your Karen and Nancy stories?
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