It is 2000, and the Sega Dreamcast has a pretty hefty discount advertised in the Sunday circular. A customer storms up to the Upgrades counter (not where the video games are) and starts yelling.

Customer: “Why did you put the Dreamcast in your ad if you didn’t have any in stock?!”

Me: “We had some in stock earlier today, but we sold out, unfortunately.” 

Customer: “Then why did you put in in your ad? This is ridiculous!” 

Me: “…that’s a national ad.”

They don’t like that answer. The complexities of supply and demand, not to mention the logistics and lead time needed for designing, printing, and distributing millions of newspaper advertisements, are not working out in their favor. We have wronged them in the most grievous of ways.

The customer turns to my coworker, hoping for a better answer.

Customer: “Why did you put the Dreamcast in your ad if you didn’t have any in stock?!” 

Coworker: “…that’s a national ad?”

He let out an exasperated gurgle and hurled the ad at my face. Luckily, being paper, it left me with only emotional damage.

My husband and I tried to purchase a camper from a large company, but we didn’t like the extremely pushy and aggressive sales tactics used by the salesman, so we left without buying anything.

For months after, we received texts and calls from various numbers, all extensions from [Company]. We kept telling them we were not interested and started blocking the numbers, but they kept changing and kept coming.

Finally, I was driving by the company one day and decided to pull in to ask someone in person to stop. The same salesman from our first visit approached me at the door.

Salesman: “Hi! What are you looking for today?”

Me: “Hi. I’d like to talk to whoever is in charge of reaching out to people. Like calling and texting about sales and whatnot?”

Salesman: “Oh, no problem! I can take your number and put you on our list. Did you have a specific—”

Me: “No. Actually, I have told you guys at least a dozen times that I did not want to be on your call lists, and they keep coming.”

I show him the text conversations that all start with “[Company] is having a sale!” and the times I’ve replied with “STOP”.

Salesman: “Oh. I don’t think that was us, though.”

Me: “Okay, well, the next time someone calls me with a pitch from [Company], I’m going to blast an air horn into the phone. Are we clear?”

Salesman: “Yeah, I get it. It wasn’t us, but I get it.”

I left and went on my way. Thankfully, I haven’t had a call or text from them since!

I work as an IT consultant and sales representative. I sell and install an office printer and copy machine for a regular customer.

A week later, he calls me at 7:00 am, furious.

Customer: “The s*** copy machine you sold me doesn’t work! Get down here right now!”

So, I did. Entering his office, still early in the morning, I noticed there was kind of a gloomy atmosphere in the room.

It turned out that the main fuses for the entire office space were blown.

I work as a cashier at a farm store. There are not many of this chain, and it’s fairly similar to two other chains; however, it is separate enough not to get it confused with the other two… especially since the signs on our building saying our name are massive.

We’ve only been open for about a year and a half, but these stories have happened throughout.

[Customer #1] walks up to the register, holding a shirt.

Me: “Did you find everything okay? And are you a rewards member?”

Customer #1: “No. I wanted a different shirt, but you guys don’t have it. Your store is just about useless.”

I ignore his snide remark and ring his shirt up.

Me: “All right, it’ll be [total].”

Customer #1: “That’s supposed to be 30% off.”

Me: “That’s the member-only deal. I can sign you up if you want.”

They throw the shirt across the counter and storm out.

Customer #1: “You all are useless.”

For this next customer, it was a few days after our sale began, so we ran out of a few of the products in our ad. [Customer #2] walked up holding an ad.

Customer #2: “I was told to wait by customer service for this item to be brought to me.” 

They pointed at a tool that is always kept in the back, in the warehouse.

Me: “Oh, sure! I’ll radio and see if they found it yet.”

I radioed, only to find out we were sold out.

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, it seems like we’re currently sold out.”

They put the ad down and started to walk away.

Customer #2: “This is false advertisement. Why put something in the ad that you don’t have?”

Me: “Well, our other locations may still have it, and we probably had it when the ad came out, but we’ve sold out of a few things already. It is the Christmas shopping season, after all.”

Customer #2: “It’s false advertising. No wonder no one ever shops here.”

Our store was absolutely packed when he said that, but sure, no one shops here.

The next customer was a few months back when I was still staying over to help process our signs and set up for sales. We had just taken the last sales signs down the night before and didn’t have any sales running at this time.

[Customer #3] came in asking for a specific item.

Me: “Oh, we have that! I can show you where.”

Customer #3: “The one in your ad? I want the one that’s on sale right now.”

Me: “I’m sorry, we currently don’t have any sales running. Is it possible you have one of our competitor’s ads?”

Customer #3: *Scoffs* “No, it’s you! It’s this store. I want the one in the ad!”

I sighed, knowing how this was going to end.

Me: “Unfortunately, as I said, we have no sales running this week. I help do the ads, so I know what’s on sale and what’s not. A lot of people confuse us with [Competitor], so that’s why I asked if you had their ad and thought it was us.”

Customer #3: *Stomps* “No! It’s you! This store! I have the ad in my truck!”

Me: “Could you go out and grab it? If it truly is this store, then it’s a future ad and I would have to ask a manager if we’re allowed to do a price change.”

Customer #3: “Yes, I’ll go get it!”

[Customer #3] stormed out and never came back in. I looked up our main competitor’s current ad, and the item was in it.

In college, I worked at a large chain store that happened to be going out of business, so there were massive closing sales. During the evening, while I was sorting some clothes in the women’s department, a very pregnant woman and her mother walked past me.

All I heard was, “Oh, my gosh, I think my water just broke!”

Naturally, I whipped my head around to face the women, since that’s not a line you hear every day and, sure enough, the woman’s pants were wet and a pool of clear, yellowish liquid had formed at her feet.

My first response was, “Oh, wow,” because my mouth reacted before my brain with amazement at the whole situation.

Me: “Do you need an ambulance to the hospital, or do you want to take your own vehicle? Or would you like to call someone?”

And to my shock, the pregnant woman’s mother said:

Mother: “We’re going to shop around for a bit longer. These sales are too good to pass up!”

The daughter whose water had just broken and was leaking onto the floor… agreed!

So, they kept shopping and looking around, tracking amniotic fluid everywhere they went, and finally made their way to the cash to check out.

Meanwhile, my coworkers and I were scrambling to find the Wet Floor sign, but it was MIA, so I had to stand near the area where the woman’s water initially broke and direct customers to walk around the fluid.

They checked out and left to go to the hospital. At that point, the woman was definitely going into labour and was waddling (more than a pregnant woman usually would) to get out of the store.

As soon as they left, we broke out the cleaning supplies and started sanitizing.

I’d like to point out that when my coworker checked them out, she said that they weren’t even buying anything baby-related — all women’s clothing. I’m not judging because she could very well have had all her clothes and everything ready for her baby.

But is a store closing sale really so important that you’ll keep shopping even after your water has broken?