Some people genuinely suck. In the world of retail, we see these miserable people every day. It pleasures them to make retail workers’ jobs hard, especially their managers. In these stories, managers recall the crushing moment they announced their position of power to an unsuspecting Karen.
All stories have been edited for clarity.
No More Gusto!
“I work in a retail outlet store. We received all the older merchandise from the main stores in the district so they could make room for newer collections. Our store sold the old stock at a reduced price.
There was usually nothing wrong with the clothing. It was outdated and older collections so if anything they were just undesirable. However, because of the reduced price, everything was a final sale.
We never took returns or exchanges. Before every transaction at the cash register, we reminded the customers that their purchase would be final. Once the transaction was completed, we stamp their receipt with ‘Final Sale.’ Of course, sometimes exceptions could be made. If the item was extremely defective or the customer was really nice, we would make an exception based off our best judgement.
One day, a lady came in. I greeted her but she cut me and demanded me to give her a refund because a shirt she bought didn’t fit.
‘I’m sorry madam but there is nothing that I can do. Everything is final sale,’ I said.
The woman replied, ‘Why did no one tell me? That is so unfair!’
I took a look at her receipt and I saw it had the ‘final sale’ stamp.
Taking a deep breath, I said, ‘Look, ma’am. Somebody must have told you because your receipt has the ‘final sale’ stamp. We don’t offer refunds.’
The woman’s face became distorted with anger. She started swearing and caused a scene in the store. Then she went on to say how incompetent I was.
‘That’s why you’re working in retail! Because you can’t find another job you stupid cow!’
The whole time I stared at her, unblinking. The woman finally finished her tirade and asked to speak to a manager because she referred to me as ‘useless.’
I cleared my throat and looked her dead in the eye with a grin on my face.
‘I am the manager.’
The woman deflated like a balloon. Swearing under her breath, the woman left the store.
She did all that for five bucks, and still didn’t have her way.”
Fetch Me A Manager!
“I worked at a big box electronics store. I was walking around and getting a count on some inventory when I heard someone snap their fingers and say, ‘Hey, you!’ From behind me, the snapping continued and was accompanied by obnoxious whistling.
I whipped around and was face-to-face with a guy. I was a little taken aback by the epic level of audacity he had.
I looked at him with raised eyebrows and said, ‘Are you talking to me?’
‘Yeah, this box is damaged,’ the guy held up a box with a minor dent. ‘There ain’t no way I’m paying fifty bucks for it. Why don’t you go fetch your manager and get him to give me a deal, aight box boy?’
First, the guy whistled at me, then he snapped his fingers, then he told me to ‘go fetch?’ Yeah, I wasn’t going to let that slide.
‘Alright sir,’ I said in a stern voice. ‘One, I’m not a dog so never whistle at me again. Two, I’m not a box boy, I’m the manager here. Three, the box is barely scratched so you can pay the price or get out.’
I turned around and continued going through the inventory. The guy stood there stunned before he scrambled away.
His friend was further down the aisle. He heard the whole thing and was making fun of him on the way out. It was a good day.”
Is There A Problem?
“I used to run a bar. Usually, I could be found in my office or supervising, but I got bored one night and covered the bar while the bartenders went out for a smoke break. A woman and her friends approached me and it became very clear they wanted to make my night worse for the hell of it.
The group took forever to decide on drinks, kept trying to get free shots, and tried to haggle on drinks prices, all while sporting nasty attitudes. I remained calm and tried to get the woman to decide on a drink. More people flooded into the bar fast and the woman still hadn’t ordered, so I told the woman I would come back to her once she made up her mind.
As soon as I walked away, the woman started shouting at me.
‘Um, excuse me!? I can take as much time to order as I want! Who do you think you are?!’
The woman was being egged on by her friends. She started rambling on about how she was there before everyone else and demanded to be served. Before she ended her rant, she said she didn’t want to speak to a ‘crappy’ bartender anymore and demanded to see my manager.
I happily obliged and went into the office which was through a door right next to the bar. I waited for thirty seconds before coming out with the biggest grin on my face. I made my way back to the woman and said:
‘I hear you’ve been having an issue with a member of my staff?’
The woman smacked her lips. ‘Is this a joke? I said to go and get your manager!’
‘You’re looking at him, love!’ I said with a laugh. ‘Seeing as you’ve wasted my time and all the good folk’s time, you can wait til everyone is served before you!’
The look on her face was priceless. The woman began swearing at me profusely and even tried to throw someone else’s drink over me. At that point, I had more than enough reason to throw her out of my bar, which I did. This delighted the other patrons.
I was tipped well, but I put the money in the tip jar so the bartenders could have it.
At least the bar staff got some money and a laugh out of it!”
Cat And Mouse
“I used to have a tile installation company. I ran the business with my partner. Most of the time it was just me and him doing the labor.
We had recently invested in some interesting advertising and ended up getting called to do a job in a pizza place at the local mall. The owner of the place wanted us to demo about a 2ft perimeter around the entire kitchen, put down a waterproofing membrane, and then tile back over it.
We had to work overnight so we wouldn’t disturb the owner’s crew during the day. The first night into the demo, my partner and I were horrified when we discovered the pizza place had a huge rat infestation.
I’m not an exterminator, and it wasn’t my job to deal with over twenty live rats and multiple dead ones either. I was grossed out beyond belief and immediately called the owner to let him know my partner and I would once he fixed the issues. The owner said he understood and said he would hire an exterminator.
The next day, the owner called to let me know the rats had been ‘taken care of’ and asked me to come back that night. My partner and I were skeptical and for good reason. The night we returned, we saw that the owner’s resolution involved him buying a few sticky pads and throwing them about the floor.
I immediately lost all respect for him. I didn’t know about health standards but I knew at that time that what he did couldn’t be sanitary.
Being a day in the ground, I didn’t want to waste any more time and proceeded to work around it. After a few hours of work, the owner showed up to check our progress at four in the morning. We had gone through a long night of cat and mouse already and I was not in the mood. So when the owner brought me outside and criticized our work and complained about how ‘unclean’ his floors looked, I lost my mind.
‘You left your kitchen filthy, and you have a rat issue, dude. I was gonna clean up a bit at the very least because this is disgusting.’ I added, ‘I don’t appreciate you leaving dead rats everywhere for me to pick up.’ I then accused the owner of serving food in the midst of rat feces and dead bodies.
The owner got upset and told me I was being ‘entirely unprofessional.’
‘I’ll be speaking to your boss to have you fired,’ the owner threatened. ‘In fact, give me his number. I’m calling him right freaking now!’
I was amazed someone would want to call a manager at four in the morning, but nonetheless, I proceeded to hand him a business card and told him it had the contact info for the owner. The owner whipped out his phone with a smug look and started dialing the number.
Within seconds, my phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered,
‘Hello! It’s me, the owner!’ I said in a mocking tone.
The look on the owner’s face was one I will never forget.”