Management Are Making Themselves Easy Marks

I worked as a cashier at a large chain pet store for a few years before the global health crisis. This particular chain had a policy where all refunds were accepted regardless of reason, and there was this couple who regularly brought in a suspiciously large number of items to return without receipts.

It was an incredibly easy scam to spot as none of the items had been touched by any animal, and they were the kind of items that could be carried out in a brief moment when employees weren’t paying attention.

My first instinct was always to call a manager the moment the couple approached me, but one of the managers told me I needed to ring the return up first and then call for a manager for “approval” since the amount was going to be rather large.

The next time they came in, I did as I was told. I rang up the return, which was in excess of $300, told them I had to call the manager for approval, and sent out the page. A different manager was on shift that day, but he knew full well who these people were. I assumed he would reject it and make them leave, so I stepped away to take care of some of my other duties.

Once the people left, I headed back to the register and the manager stopped me.

Manager: “You did the right thing in calling me, but since you’d already rung up the transaction, I had to give them the return. You should’ve called me first.”

I just stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded by his logic. He didn’t seem to notice and went back to his office, while I just sort of wandered back to the register wondering what the heck had just happened. And this guy was the head manager of the store, so even if the scammers had tried to escalate, they’d have been out of luck.