I was working in a quite large retail chain, and a customer approached me at the checkout. I scanned his products and asked if he needed a bag.

Customer: “Yes, a large one, please.”

Through this conversation, the shift leader was working the checkout next to me.

I gave the customer a bag and bagged his items as we are supposed to before he started the craziest rant I’ve ever heard.

What was it about? Plastic bags.

He said a lot, including that our bags couldn’t be used more than once (they could) and were hopeless as garbage bags (we use grocery and retail bags for garbage in Norway) because of their handles. It lasted maybe two minutes while the shift leader was helping another customer.

After the customer finally left, the other customer just sighed and looked at me in clear dismay over the Bag Professor.

Shift Leader: “Well done. That is the exact type of situation where you just say, ‘mhmm,’ until he goes away.”

I’m twenty or twenty-one, and I’m checking out an older man.

Customer: “Can I set you up on a date with my grandson?”

Me: “What?!”

Customer: “You’re not wearing any rings!”

I really didn’t appreciate that.

A customer is looking for an item. We are allowed to use our phones on the floor to assist customers, so when I determine that our store does not have the item, I pull out my phone to look online.

Me: “It looks like we do not have that in any stores for fifty miles, but we can ship it to your house. Do you have a computer at home to order?”

Woman: “No. I don’t use technology.”

Me: “Oh, okay. Do you have a friend or family member who can—”

Woman: “Why can’t you just use your phone to do it?”

Me: “I can’t put your payment information on my account, ma’am.”

Woman: “Why?”

Me: “Because I would be putting your credit card on my account and—”

Woman: *Rolls her eyes* “I’m paying cash!”

Me: “You can’t pay cash online.”

Woman: “No, I’m giving the cash to you and you can buy it. Don’t you get an employee discount or something? Use the extra to buy yourself a coffee or something.”

Me: “I’m not comfortable doing that, ma’am. I’m sorry, again, but—”

Woman: “This is age discrimination. I hope you know I will be reporting you to corporate and posting a one-star review on your website.”

Me: “Okay, ma’am. I am sorry I couldn’t help you more.”

She did report me and write an awful review, but it was deemed unreliable because it was the first review she’d ever written and eventually got buried.

This story takes place in the year I finish my undergrad. I am working part-time in retail. To celebrate the milestone, my parents plan a two-week family vacation. I end up taking three weeks off from work because I want to use an extra week for myself to rest and take it easy.

It is my first day back, and I have been assigned to work at one of the cash registers. Everything goes smoothly until about an hour before the end of my shift. An angry customer comes to my register for a refund.

Customer: “I need to return this electronic toothbrush. It does not work.”

Me: “Okay, no problem, sir. I will need to call my manager to process the return.”

I page a manager.

The item is close to $100. The system will ask for a manager’s ID and password whenever the amount for a refund is $50 or over. This cannot be bypassed, so there is no way I can have completed the transaction without getting a manager involved.

Customer: “Why do you need to call a manager? It’s not like I’m trying to pull some sort of scam or anything. You can test it out, and you will see that it doesn’t work at all. I bought this two days ago, and you were the person who served me.”

Me: “Umm, sir. I think you must be mistaken. I mean, I can see from the receipt that you made the purchase a few days ago, but I am afraid I was not the person who rang you up.”

Customer: “No, no. I’m very positive that you were the cashier who served me.”

Me: “…”

The manager shows up a few minutes later, and I explain the situation. He tells me that he will help the customer at the register beside me as a line is beginning to form. As he starts with the refund, I can hear the customer talking loudly.

Customer: “Thanks for stepping in. That young lady was not helpful. When I bought this a few days ago, she was very nice and helpful, and it looks like she went 180 because she doesn’t want to help me now.”

Manager: “I’m sorry, sir, but are you certain that she was the one who helped you a few days ago?”

Customer: “That’s right.”

Manager: “I’m afraid you’re mistaken because she was away for three weeks and today is her first day back at work.”

Customer: “Oh… I… Well, she is Chinese; they all look the same. I just assumed she was the one.”

My manager was speechless, and the customer stayed quiet for the rest of the transaction. When it was done, he left as quickly as he could. I didn’t like what he said, but I chose not to react to it. Now, thinking back, I regret not standing up to that.

Two months later, I got a full-time position elsewhere. During the remainder of my time in retail, that customer tried to avoid me every time he came in. My manager and I laughed and made jokes about it. It was an amusing way to end my retail era!

I’m a manager. A customer comes up to make a return. With her is her son, who is in a wheelchair.

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but this is outside of our thirty-day return policy. I can’t refund it.”

Customer: *Yelling* “I haven’t had time to come because my son broke his leg!”

There is no cast or anything on his leg, and it is a borrowed wheelchair from the mall we’re in.

Customer: “A thirty-day return policy is ridiculous! I’ve never heard of one that short!”

Me: “All the retail stores I’ve worked in have had the same policy, ma’am.”

Customer: “Where?! Where have you worked before?!”

After ranting and arguing for twenty minutes, saying I am a useless manager, she finally leaves, but she drops her receipt on the way out.

Ten minutes later, she’s back.

Customer: “You took my receipt!”

Me: *Handing it back to her* “You just dropped it, ma’am.”

This led to another twenty minutes of her screaming at me while her son was just sitting in the wheelchair embarrassed. She kept saying that if I was a “real” manager, I wouldn’t let her screaming get to me, etc. I finally got her out of the store.

When my coworker left a few minutes later, he sent me a message saying the woman was in another store yelling at the staff there. She kept throwing in that she had worked in retail and knew her rights.

NO ONE who has worked retail would ever treat someone like that. I felt so sorry for her son.