This article is based on the AskReddit question "Redditors who worked in retail what has to be the most "Are you serious" moment ever?"
[Source can be found at the end of the article.]
1/15. I worked at Walmart. A woman came in to return a bag of soil because "the bag was dirty". She was dead serious.
-imfinethough
2/15. I used to work in H&M located on 5th ave in NYC. One day I hear over our radio a frantic call for the porter to come to the ladies fitting room. Turns out a woman decided to defecate in the fitting room, and use some shirts to wipe herself.
The real are you serious moment was that she continued shopping through the store casually.
-mkaj91
3/15. Watched a man carrying six bottles of red wine simply drop all six bottles on the ground (shattering them) and walk out of the store, khakis stained bright red like a savage business casual warlord.
My assumption was that it was an accident and he was horribly embarrassed and just left. I'd like to believe that it was an intentional piece of performance art, because it was the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed.
-lawlessSyntax
4/15. I worked at a bakery counter in a grocery store. Lady asks me about a cake that has fresh raspberries on top, I tell her, "It's a white cake, raspberry filling, and fresh raspberries." She thinks about it and then asks, "Does it taste like cherries?"
After looking at her and trying not to say anything rude for a good solid minute, I managed to say no, and I walked away into the back.
-Suddenlypie88
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5/15. I hear "excuse me?" and look up from stocking the milk, which I'm standing in front of. "Could you tell me where your milk is?"
I almost didn't answer her, milk is basically the whole aisle and I had it in my hands.
-zhumblebug
6/15. One time before HDTV and flat TV's but still since cable ready TV's
A lady came into Wal-Mart with a huge floor model console TV, the kind that had no remote, and wanted to return it and get her money back.
She started yelling at me when I told her I wasn't accepting the return as she had no receipt and the TV was obviously over 15yrs old, and she demanded to speak with a manager.
So I paged a manager who told her basically the same thing, she then started demanding to speak with "Sam".
We were like "Sam Who?"
"Sam Walton - Your Boss!" she screams.
My manager had about enough of this lady's BS and told her, "Well ma'am we have a wide selection of shovel in Lawn & Garden so you can go dig him up!
-brunobits
7/15. Not retail but I worked at McDonald's when I was 16-17. My first day, in the grill area training during lunch rush this guy comes in through drive thru and orders 100 burgers, 50 plain, 50 with cheese. I was like, "wtf man?" I was told it was a lunch truck guy that would order them (at the time we had a 49 cent burger and 59 cent cheeseburger day) then dress them out and sell them for like 2 to 3 bucks a piece to his customers.
-Beantownfan73
8/15. A guy came in who I have never encountered in my life, served him and all was well. 3 hours after my shift, a notification pops up on my phone. This guy had found my Instagram and my Snapchat and added me. What's creepy is the only thing he knew about me was my first name. That was it. Also, I only recently moved to the area and know nobody here. Creeped me out for sure.
-bilboslaggins_
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9/15. I work at Macy's in the women's shoes department. Our customer base mainly buys clearance items, and rarely spends more than $40. Everyday I watch as customer after customer asks if they can use coupons, get an extra % off of the price or any discount possible. Now, one customer took the cake over every other one. She came to me and asked for the mate to 18 clearance shoes. As I work off commission and this was a pretty large sale, I basically ran around the stockroom to gather these shoes. I brought them all out neatly stacked in their boxes, and rang them up at the register for her and her total came to $236.
This is where things went south. She asked if she could use her 20% off coupon, now normally hell yeah you can use that coupon, but in this day we were having a sale. All clearance shoes were marked down 80% and were roughly $10-20 per pair. So coupons were prohibited. She then SCREAMED at me until I called my manager. Like calling me every name in the book, telling me I'm an idiot, that I shouldn't be allowed to work there because I must be dumb, everything. My manager finally came and when she explained that coupons weren't allowed for this particular sale, the woman bought all 18 pairs, for $236, but made someone else ring it up so I wouldn't make commission on the sale. Little did she know the other sales person rang it up using my ID number.
-AlphaTadpole
10/15. I used to work at a grocery store as a bagger. This guy said he wanted his milk in a bag, and he has a lot of stuff... so when I finally got around to the milk (cause prioritizing and all that jazz), I wanted to confirm that's what he said. It just slipped my mind. So I asked again...
He proceeded to yell, so loud that the next two lanes got quiet and they were all staring at what was going on, "Are you stupid? You have hearing problems? Where is your manager? They should fire you for being so stupid. I already said I wanted it in the bag."
I just want to make people happy. Of course, the manager was working that day, so he didn't say a word, even though he watched it go down. I at least had the sympathy of the checkers from the other two lanes.
-echoviolet
11/15. I work in produce. Someone came into the produce section and starting complaining to me that we didn't have milk on display. In the produce section.
We ended up calling someone from grocery and he came back and said she complained the entire walk over to the dairy section, and when she got there she ended up not buying any milk because "it isn't fresh enough.
-wRIPPERw_
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12/15. Worked at a Target and have literally a thousand stories, but the one that sticks out to me was one I wasn't actually present for. Gentleman walked in one day with a blender, sat down in our Starbucks, and proceeded to make himself a smoothie. I can't emphasize enough that this is retail, this is hardly the weirdest thing that's ever happened to us. The floor leader on duty ask if he needs anything, is looking for anything, he smiles and says no, thank you, very polite. When he's finished, he takes the blender, goes into the bathroom, and proceeds to pour the smoothie onto his head and begin to shave. In a Target bathroom, which admittedly, are already a little akin to the Twilight Zone. Anyway, a male employee was sent in to ask what exactly he was doing, and apparently, the man replied with "What? It's not like I'm doing anything illegal? What're you going to do, call the cops?"
Yes, apparently. I guess several other male employees were called up to guard the door before anyone else could get in before police arrived. Don't know exactly what happened to the guy, but I'm glad he's getting use out of his blender.
-rogerdavist
13/15. Woman bought a shed. I asked her her loading bay number and she said she hadn't driven. Asked her if she needed the number of a man with a van or something. She said her husband could carry it.
I stared at her and said very slowly "Madam, it is a building."
She insisted that I was being ridiculous and demanded we bring it up so her middle age, slightly chubby husband could carry it out the store as they only lived "about ten minutes walk away".
We brought it up, with extreme difficulty, and she asked me "what's that thing?" I said "That's your shed madam." "There's no way Jeff is carrying THAT!"
Oddly she decided to pay the money to have it delivered.
-reverendmalerik
14/15. I worked at Suncoast (video retailer) during the early 2000s and some dude kept calling me for weeks asking me if the movie "Churro Man" had come out on DVD. He had a pretty thick Hispanic accent to his English. I considered myself a film buff and I had never heard of a movie called Churro Man. Every time he called I would look up "Churro Man" in the computer database and of course nothing would come out. I would ask him if he got the title wrong, perhaps it was "The Wicker Man" and he was like "Nah dude, it's Churro Man, I saw a commercial that it was coming out on DVD." It got to the point where I just thought the guy was messing with me.
One day the guy came into the store in person. He came up to the register and was like "You guys finally got it huh?" While holding up a DVD, it was True Romance.
-ZMBGiEF
15/15. Worked in a local fruit market as a teenager.
Packed this lady's grocery bag and went to put it in her shopping trolley when she started screaming at me about what a horrible young girl I was and don't I have any compassion etc etc.
Turns out she had her pet rabbit sitting in the bottom of the trolley (wrapped in a fur coat no less). I was "trying to crush it to death" by being nice and loading up her groceries for her.
I ended up crying while the next lady in line consoled me.
-CourrtyCub
(Source)
But we should also be prepared and ready to ask the right questions to have a leg up on the competition.
"What is THE best question to ask on a job interview?"
A company's history or information about a past employee were suggested subjects appropriate for questioning.
Prior Knowledge
"When you were interviewing here, what would you have liked to know before you joined?"
"This worked for me. I asked my interviewer a question about how she had personally dealt with a company policy she had just explained. She bragged about her stellar adherence to the policy. I nodded my approval. I got the job."
A Previous Employee
"One that has always gone over well for me:"
"What were some qualities that the previous employee in this role brought to the job that you would like to see carried forward?"
"Another good thing to do is research the company you are interviewing with and you can ask things about what they may be involved in or you could drop that while reading about the company, you wondered this."
Hypothetical questions were suggested as helpful examples of inquiry.
Indicators Of How Companies Treat Employees
"A question that landed me a job once was: 'If I asked your direct reports about your management style, what do you think they'd tell me?' Stumped a hiring manager and he emailed me personally to tell me about it, no one ever asked him that question but got the job.
"In my current interviews I'm asking 'what did your company do for its employees during [the virus] to improve their day to day, work life balance, etc.' and I ask 'Is there anything your company adopted during [the virus] that they plan to keep post [the virus]?"
"These questions give a lot of insight into whether a company treated their employees well."
Past Performance & Adjustments
"If we were currently sitting in my 1 year review, what would I have done in this year for you to say I excelled in my role?"
"If I could snap my finger right now and change anything about your job or the company, what would it be and why?"
The following questions about a prospective company may not be answered from initial digging on their website.
Measure Of Success & Career Trajectories
"How is success measured in this role?"
"What are some possible career trajectories within the company that could stem from this position?"
Being A Solution
"Ask them what is the biggest problem you can solve for them in your first six months with the company. Similar to 'don't think of a purple hippo,' this forces them to imagine you succeeding in the position."
Simply The Best
"Who is your best employee and why is he/she the best?"
"You will then face 2 situations mostly:"
"panicking CEO who can't answer you 'Bob who works 17 hours a day for a slice of bread' so the fear in their faces must be a big nono for you"
"entusiast CEO who actually follow their business and can tell you who is an added value for the company and why."
– ThePiz91
My experiences with job interviews are different than others seeking work in office environments.
Having had a years-long career as a dancer, my "interview" was the dance audition, where hopefuls dance in small groups of people at a time after learning a routine and then awaiting their fate after the panel evaluates their performances.
The question I may or may not have asked in such a scenario earlier in my career was: "Did I make the cut?"
I did not make the cut. And I learned never to ask that again.
I remember the worst date I ever had. My biggest regret is that I stayed for the entire thing. I should've left as soon as I realized this was not going well, which was basically at hello. But he was paying so I drank, a lot. I'll keep names and dates to myself to protect the innocent.
0/10
Big Brother Reaction GIF by Big Brother After DarkGiphy"Went to brewery, date said I had hairy arms and that meant I was horny, said "you look really awful in this light" and then tried to dig out of that hole by saying in his native language that was a term of endearment long term couples said to each other. 0/10 did not date again."
Lucky 13?
"My wife wanted to plan our 13th wedding anniversary. I was excited because usually, I plan it. She bought us some new disc golf discs and after a quick supper, we went to play. We hadn't played in forever. We were laughing and I had a great time. She served me with divorce papers and told me that the date was a test to see if she still had feelings for me. I also learned that she was having an affair that started well before our anniversary."
- rmorlock
Two Hours from Home
"Not necessarily a date but a person I was dating invited me to his parent's house for the afternoon. He wanted to introduce me to them and show me the house he grew up in. I thought it was super sweet and had no problems going. He was also in the middle of moving and needed to pick up a few things, so it really didn't seem that unusual."
"Yeah, we got there and it was awful. His entire family was there. They traveled from hours away too. This was not just meeting the parents, it was meeting the ENTIRE family. Even worse? At some point, this idiot told his parents that he had proposed. We had been dating TWO months. I spent the entire afternoon dumbfounded and just playing along."
"We were two hours from home and I had no cell service, no way to leave at all. We ended up spending the afternoon brainstorming wedding ideas and planning an Alaskan honeymoon that his parents planned to gift us. His brother even called to say congratulations! We drove back to his apartment in silence. When we got there, I got in my car and left, didn't even bother grabbing my stuff. Weirdest experience ever. I have no idea how he broke it to his parents that we weren't getting married."
You're Cut Off!
"Got set up on a blind date once between mutual friends. She shows up to the restaurant already a little tipsy, orders multiple appetizers and only takes like one or two bites from each one. Then she proceeds to order 3 or 4 more drinks and is visibly drunk at this point. She gets up and says she's going to the bathroom and staggers off. About 15-20 minutes go by so I try to call her several times but no answer."
"Finally I decide to pay the check and just leave. About 2 hours later I'm sitting at home and I get a call from an unknown number. It's the police department. She was picked up on a DUI on her way home after she ditched me and gave the cops my number to see if I could go bail her out!"
- mox44ah
Sorry?
Bbc Three Idk GIF by BBCGiphy"Well, I gave this answer on a different topic, but it ties in with this. We were out on a date, we had been seeing each other for a while, close to a year maybe. She gets a phone call. Suddenly she looks destroyed. Her fiancé had just died in a motorcycle accident."
What in the world? I mean how can we ever expect to pair off with the dating pool being inundated with liars and nut jobs? I'm going to delete my apps.
Girl, Bye.
Sassy Beyonce GIFGiphy"Had a girl openly flirt with the bartender in front of me. She says she wasn't. But handing him her own phone and asking for his contact info in front of her date seems like it to me."
Crazy!
"Came out from a movie, late at night, and date's Camaro was stolen. Apparently, he called his WIFE (that I did not know he had) and let her know where he was and what happened. She showed up and realized he was on a date! She started chasing ME around the parking lot telling me she was going to kill me. Saved by the cops who showed up just in time to take the auto theft report."
Hey Mom
"Met a girl at a country bar one night in my 20s. We were both pretty drunk but hit it off pretty good. Ended up getting her number and we agreed we'd go on a real date. Fast forward to the date, she gets in my vehicle and... she looks almost identical to my mom. I was mortified. I was polite and we went for lunch where I found out she also had a boyfriend she "wasn't sure if she was into". Never talked to her again."
- SgtGo
Liars...
"When I was in college many years ago, before the advancement of cell phones and social media, I was chatting with a girl I met on a BBS who lived on Long Island, NY. I was 18 at the time, but lied and said I was 22 because she said she was 25. We spent a few weeks emailing each other, as well as calling each other."
"We even exchanged pics. When we finally met up, things blew up. Turns out we both lied about our ages: She was really 33, and lied because she thought she looked younger. She admitted she sent a college photo to me. We still had dinner together, but it was awkward as hell. We never spoke again."
Doubles
Kill Me Now Season 1 GIF by FriendsGiphy"It was a double date. She was more interested talking to the other girl throughout the whole thing. Found out later from the other guy that his girl cheated on him with my date."
Ummm... I think I'm just going to stay single. That is a handful of crazy. Why can't people just be honest? I swear the search for love warps people's brains. Be careful out there people.
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