Shoplifting is a prevalent issue, but why do people do it?
Some reasons can be as banal as boredom, but other are far more intruiging.
Redditor WineOhCanada wanted to understand why people steal, so they asked:
"People who shoplift on the regular: why do you do it?"
I loved shoplifting.
Until I was caught, that is. I was a price tag switcher.
I apologize.
So Excited
Happy Thomas Lennon GIF by ABC Network
Giphy
"It makes me feel alive. Jk I don't any more but as a kid, it was for sure a thrill thing."
silly-billy-goat
The Need
"I’m going to give an actual honest answer as someone who has not done this in many years… it becomes addicting."
anewchapteroflife
"Came here to say this. Back in my high school days, I would do it all the time. It's like a rush. Now my shoplifting days are when I forgot the can of soup on the bottom of the grocery cart and don't realize til I'm loading it in the car."
TheRumpleForesk1n
"I used to work in loss prevention. A lot of times we would let you go; especially teenagers. We knew you would be back and have pictures on the wall of you. We focused on shoplifting rings with a higher dollar amount and employees. Employees rob you blind."
taco_cop
The Hit
"I was greedy and had poor impulse control. While shoplifting was terrifying... having the shiny new thing after gave me a dopamine hit. I got caught three or four times and I thank Christ I was under 18 each and every time."
happyele
"It was less about greed for me I think, I've never been addicted to any drugs, whenever I got caught I would always test negative for anything, the custody sergeant who would take my fingerprints/DNA/drug swab would say 'Sean you're the only one that comes in regular that's not on any drugs, what's going on?' I explained that I was homeless, lost my job because the company I worked for folded, and life just kicked me in the butt."
"Flirty Chez I called her, and she would always give me extra food whenever I was brought in, I just thought that was how she was, then one day she said I need a girlfriend and I shot her down, no more flirty Chez. She was shooting her shot and I rejected her without even knowing it."
hardcoresean84
Exchanges
"Much to my mom’s embarrassment, I was a serial shoplifter as a baby. At least I had the presence of mind to take off my socks and shoes and leave them scattered around the store in exchange."
UsualFrogFriendship
"I was once on a camping trip with my parents. We left the campsite for a day and when we got back our soap had been stolen from the tent. Just our soap, nothing else was taken, but we did find the shoes of the perpetrator!"
"This kid left them right at the entrance of our tent, so it was not difficult to find out who did it. When we went to get the soap back and give him back his shoes, sadly the kid threw it over a fence, so we never got it back."
ptbroeke
Influences
Breaking Bad Crying GIF
Giphy
"My easily influenced mind was corrupted by TV. If it's good enough for Marie Schrader then it's good enough for me."
DavosLostFingers
TV rots your brains and decision making capabilities.
Do the opposite of your favorite characters.
End of Times
Nbc Shoplifting GIF by Superstore
Giphy
"When I was bedridden due to Covid, I had a friend who shoplifted a whole damn box worth of medicine from different drugstores."
"I was very impressed and confused, as I didn't ask for it. Great friend though!"
pepper-blu
Criminals
"As a former loss prevention officer, most of the people I stopped were stealing to resell the items. Many people were clearly drug addicts and many people I stopped had meth and other drugs on them. Not every shoplifter is stealing to buy drugs, but a ton of them are."
"A lot of other people just stole items they wanted, and some people just have a stealing problem and would take whatever random BS they came across and thought would be easy to steal. If I ever saw someone stealing food I'd usually look the other way, but that was pretty rare to see someone taking food, it was usually clothes, electronics, makeup, or tools."
BigBudZombie
The Rush
"Addiction. And that's addiction to shoplifting, not drugs. It's a rush. Confidence grows with each success. It becomes an obsession. It brings an amount of power when stealing from giant corporations. For me, this question is similar to asking an addict why they are addicted to drugs or alcohol."
"I haven't shoplifted in three years. I attended Shoplifters Anonymous and continue to go to therapy which are both very helpful. I'm very lucky I didn't lose everything."
tacoterrarium
Self-Control
"In high school, I dated this guy who would shoplift and I got influenced to start doing it. After we broke up I kept doing it all throughout college since I was a broke college student who had no self-control. I only shoplifted from big retail stores and told myself it was 'okay.' Post college I stopped because the possible consequences as an adult and to my career were not worth it."
isatacobelle
There was no good in it
"I used to do it as a means to support my drug habit. I wouldn't call what I was doing shoplifting though. I moved the volume and high-end merchandise. Honda generators from Home Depot or Lowe's. Shopping carts full of Tide pods, and Similac baby formula. I'd hit Nordstrom during the holidays for their perfumes and colognes. COACH, Burberry for purses."
"I made a good chunk of change from it, yet I was still homeless. Most of my money went to drugs, and hotel rooms at shi**y hotels. I'm no longer like this. I reached out and went to rehab this past July. I now have 132 days clean and sober, and work an honest job. My life's boring as hell now and I love it. Even though people on the street complimented and applauded my skills."
"I was never proud of myself for any of the stealing I was doing. There was no good in it. Now I feel good about myself and can be proud of what I do. It's a nice feeling to go into a store and not have to be aware of my surroundings and not tighten up when the greeters ask for a receipt. Because now, I can happily show them one. Lol."
Crotch-Monster
Think First
Steve Austin Wrestling GIF by WWE
Giphy
"I work for a 3-letter retail store in NV and we have a ton of theft. I see a lot of random products for sale on the FB marketplace. If it adds up to over $1,200 it’s grand larceny and you get arrested."
"Walmart also allows up to a certain amount to be returned with no receipt and you get cash back."
samisalwaysmad
What have we learned kids?
Theft never really pays.
Do you have any experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
I once had a customer complain I didn't read the menu to her.
Not make suggestions, but literally read the menu to her.
"you guys have a great day"
Giphy"Working in retail I once said 'you guys have a great day' I was reported by an elderly women who objected to not being addressed as 'ma'am'."
"She also objected to 'have a great day' because she had come into the aquarium store because her fish was dead and she was upset that someone would tell her to 'have a great day' when her fish had died."
A measly grand?
"I got sued in small claims court by a mentally ill man who said I stole $1000 worth of roast beef and 2 sun tanning lights from him."
"It got continued twice and by the time we had our day in court, he forgot what he sued me for and just went off on a tirade about me being an a**hole."
On Camera
"I once had a complaint filed against me for calling someone a slur in the elevator. My boss called me in, and we watched the camera footage from the elevator."
"Me and the other person were talking and having a good conversation and laughing with each other. My boss just said 'yeah I watched it earlier and I have no idea what they are talking about'."
"So someone tried to get me fired for no reason."
(manager and up)
"I once was told there was a high-level (manager and up) meeting being held about me… on account of my emails being written too well. :/ "
"I can write quick, well-worded emails, and someone in upper management thought that I must have been spending too much time writing my emails, possibly as a means of appearing to be superior to others."
Closed
Giphy"I worked at McDonalds. A man put a complaint in because I wouldn't let him in after we'd already shut."
Yeah, closed means closed.
You had time to get there during open hours. See you tomorrow.
We have lives too.
No thank you...
Giphy"Got a complaint filed against me by a customer for unnecessary rudeness because I turned down a guy's offer to take me out on a date."
"He asked me (repeatedly) while I was working. Dude was at least in his mid 40s; I was 16."
a scarlet letter...
"When I was a teenager working at an ice cream store, a secret shopper wrote that I was 'friendly but did not smile'."
"This write up was posted on the bulletin board like it was a scarlet letter of shame and the manager talked to me about smiling more."
"30 years later, I am still friendly but unsmiling."
A Little Off
"I had a coworker from a different department call me this morning and threatened me for something his boss had done regarding something I have no control over."
"I eventually got him to sheepishly admit that there was nothing I had control over in the situation and he was mad his boss had made the decision without consulting him first."
"Government work attracts some odd balls."
People Reveal The Things That Are Unnecessarily Expensive | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Sometimes shelling out the extra cash for better quality is totally worth it. It can cost money to keep replacing cheaper items repeatedly. But some items ar...I hate retail!
"I was working in a lighting store (ceiling lights, chandeliers, etc). Secret shoppers would get sent over to us every so often and they were usually pretty obvious."
"This guy claimed he needed ceiling fans for his home so I go through the whole thing finding fans that work in his rooms, suit the design of his home, airflow needs, etc. But obviously without a specific need to buy something requiring electrical wiring this guy left without purchasing."
"He wrote that I was excellent in every way but didn't try to upsell him anything."
"At the next staff meeting the manager read this out, tried shame me in front of everyone and stressed that we need to try and sell people crap they don't even need."
"How the heck do I upsell a damn ceiling fan? 'Hey would you like a $2000 crystal chandelier with your fans? How about a set of garden lights?' I hate retail."
Stay Literate...
Read Friends Tv GIFGiphy"I once had a coworker file an HR complaint against me for reading books at lunch."
"I told HR that he's probably just offended I'm not reading adult magazines on the clock like he does."
Just Ask...
"This happened fairly recently. My new co-worker has been treating me like I'm incompetent since he started. One of his favorite subtle insults is to tell me, "If you didn't understand, you should have asked me" when he assumes I've made some sort of mistake. One day he messed up and failed to accomplish a task the way it had been defined. In a moment of thoughtlessness, and because the phrase on its own is insulting but in a pretty minor way."
"I told him that if he hadn't understood, he should have asked me. He immediately went to the general manager to file a formal complaint against me on that basis of that one sentence. They took it surprisingly seriously, though I was pretty easily able to convince them it was a minor misunderstanding." ~ Oudeis16
I'm going to Target!
"I work at Walmart. A customer complained that I was on my phone the whole time. If you work at Walmart or any retail place. then you know we have those stupid Android handhelds. I use it to make sure grown adults aren't stealing and to do age checks and stuff. My manager looked at the video and was like yeah. That's not a phone it's just something she needs to do her job. Customer just couldn't comprehend that." ~ Mads21xx
she tried to strangle my grandma...
I'm a nurse and my husband's crazy ex called my work with a litany of complaints against me. Things as small as "she's stealing the narcotics" to "she tried to strangle my grandma." She was desperate to get me fired so I couldn't afford to live with my then-boyfriend. My manager called me into her office and said, "What the hell is going on?!" ~ Itsjustmeagainmom
Torn
Karen Intensifies GIF by MOODMANGiphy"I worked at Pier 1. On Black Friday a woman tried to have me fired for putting her purchase in a paper bag with a tear at the top." ~ Wide_Ocelot
"refunds"
"Years ago, back when I worked at a video arcade, there was a kid that had been asking me for free tokens one day. I gave him a few, because we were allowed to give some out each day as "refunds" and it was a slow day so I had extra. He came back a little later for more and then got upset when I didn't give him any more."
"The next day he came in with his mother and she said that he told her that I took one of the fake plastic guns from one of the "shooter" style video games and threatened to kill her son with it. She told all this to my manager and I was instantly fired on the spot without the chance to say anything. It really sucked because I really liked that job."
"I got to spend all day around video games, watching people play, repairing the cabinets, which was awesome because I am an avid gamer and it was like a dream come true to work with video games. Ever since I've worked in offices and well... life has been a little more grey since." ~ Sardonnicus
Keep Standing
"I was training a new employee (I was early 20s, she was late 40s) and I told her that if we finished our work a few minutes before break, we could stand around as long as we were available to customer questions. She told on me and I got written up the next day. Now I only train exactly what we're supposed to do." ~ weeabooty420
Too Kind
"Being too nice. I worked inside a coffee shop that was inside a grocery store during this time. Man walks in and I greet him and ask him what he'd like to order. He literally bolts and complains to the IT guy that I was too nice and too happy. He came in to inform me what had just happened and he wouldn't stop laughing at me." ~ YellowSphinx
A Bad Boost
"I jokingly told co-workers I was feeling disgruntled that day. The administrative assistant (whose job I was actively training for) overheard me and reported me to the boss. I had to have a sit down meet with them both and got written up for not "boosting team morale". Another time the same AA went into the bathroom after me and noted that I did not refill the toilet paper while I was in there."
"Again, had to have a meeting over it. I was SO happy when she left. I was a large public bathroom with 4 stalls. I didn't leave the place without any toilet paper. One of the stalls was running low and apparently I should have checked it and put more rolls in." ~ SugarHooves
Not my Foam!
"A woman ordered a cappuccino and got upset that the one I made her had foam. I explained to her what a cappuccino is, she got angry and said "I know what a cappuccino is!!!" And lodged a complaint with my manager." ~ SquiddSyd
How did he find me?
"Out of the blue, a complete stranger who had just been released from state prison sued me in family court asking for visitation with our 10 y/o non-existent child. Apparently he had gone to a party at "my" house and "we" had a one night stand in my basement bedroom (my basement is not finished). When "I" got pregnant I promised to have an abortion but did not, and now he was ready to step up and be a dad! How did he find me?"
"He couldn't remember an exact address so he went through my neighborhood on Google Maps and was "sure" it happened in my house. For weeks he refused to believe he had the wrong person until I went to the police station and had an officer email a family photo to him while he had him on the phone and vouch that it was me in the photo." ~ jenel2583
I'm so glad I work at home with only dogs and a cat.
And when I go outside I avoid eye contact for all of these reasons.
Find some inner peace folks.
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But guess what? Retail can be painful in many other ways, as explained here by the shoppers of Reddit. RelapsedCatoonist asked:
Which store is the most painful to shop at?
Speaking of painful, let’s talk about the stores that are hella confusing to navigate.
Sears was a beast.
“It used to be Sears when they were still around.
It was impossible to find anyone, they never had what I wanted, and I went to the same Sears for most of my life. When I was younger, it was a beast, but near the end, you can tell it was dying.”
“Sears has become a case study of poor management. With their early history as a catalog store they could have repurposed themselves using that image arcing to the internet age and competed with Amazon. Instead the CEO pitted different parts of the organization against each other in the belief that the competition would make the company stronger but all they did was eat each other and aid in its destruction.”
Why are Hot Topic stores so small, anyway?
scared hot topic GIF by South Park Giphy“Hot Topic. I never understood how every Hot Topic store I've been to has the same squished layout. I still occasionally go because it's one of the few in person places I can shop for fandom merch (at least where I live). But c'mon, why it always gotta be so thin and narrow?"
The smell in these shops are unbearable.
“Abercombie and Fitch and Hollister are not ideal places to shop when you have asthma.”
“Also, why do they advertise clothes by plastering the walls with photos of topless models being photographed from the chest up? The guy isn't even wearing anything that you're selling; why is he there?”
These guys are totally right about Hollister and Hot Topic. But what about the smaller stores?
People do this???
“Most of the convenience stores in my neighborhood. There's almost always a person buying lotto tickets. They can't buy them all at once though. First they need to get their previous tickets checked/cashed in. Then they need to buy their weekly tickets. Then they need to buy a couple scratch'n'win tickets, which they quickly scratch off just the verification area. Depending on those "winnings" they'll buy more. When that's done, they'll look at how much change they have left and buy a couple more tickets.
Meanwhile, there's a line of people forming behind the gambler as they treat the cashier like a slot machine.”
It’s a clothing store, not a club.
Animated GIFGiphy“Any store that I can hear before I see. Dark lights and thumping music is really not necessary in a clothing store and I'll walk straight past every time no matter how good the clothes are.”
This is so messed up.
“Any stores with their exit located behind the cash registers forcing you to cut through a line of people waiting to pay.
F*ck your tricks.”
“My local Walmart has blocked off every unused register so you have to go through a line to exit the store. And they want you to stand in line with nothing (or a bag of meds you picked up from pharmacy) wait your turn, and tell them you don't need to checkout before you can leave.
I refuse to do this and usually just squish past people if I have to go in.”
The most painful of all retailers.
“Cellphone carriers.
You can't get anything done at AT&T or similar without them trying to sell you 15 things and services that are totally irreverent to what you need.
That is why I switched to Boost because they will actually just sell you a phone without trying to sell you half the store.
What should be a 10 minute experience of buying and activation of a phone ends up being about half an hour.
On that note, rereading this, this is totally a first world problem.”
On second thought, maybe we should just shop online instead.
Looking at you, LUSH.
How Are You Help GIF by Your Happy WorkplaceGiphy“Any store where employees are constantly hounding you about helping find something. Please leave me alone to browse in peace, if I needed help I would come ask.”
“I used to work at a Target and were told we'd get yelled at if you didn't ask. It was also a theft deterrent. I go to Target all the time and no one asks me which I am okay with actually.
I really hate how the American meaning of good service is bugging your customer/patient/whatever constantly as opposed to just flagging someone down when you need something.”
Nothing wrong with boring underwear.
“Victoria’s Secret can suck it. Went there as a teenager with a group of friends to get "properly fitted" for bras. The sales lady was all positive and enthusiastic and assured us that they had the perfect bra for each of us. Get to me, and I measured at 34AA. She frowns and says, "oh we don't carry that small a size, you will have to special order it." So I had to sit there on a stupid pink velvet bench and watch my "normal" friends pick out frilly bras.
That experience ruined my self-esteem for years. Luckily, now I love my little t*tties and my boring underwear!!”
Nothing wrong with being barefaced, either.
“Holy sh*t, Sephora 100%. If you're not wearing at least 7 shades of eyeshadow they think you're either stealing or don't belong there.”
“Ulta is like that too though. They try to steer you towards the super expensive brands or they talk down to you. when joked I was just looking for a concealer in almost white because I'm pale to a girl there, she got snippy with me and was like ‘actually you mean fair skinned’ lmao.”
So to sum it up--turn down the music, stop cleaning your carpets with nasty perfume, and leave me the hell alone. Shopping would be a much better experience that way.
They gotta make money, sometimes they just go about it in an unethical way. Retailers--be the change!
Clearly, I'm not the only one this has happened to. Bad jobs are a universal struggle, and getting fired for dumb reasons happens all the time. Lois_is_whatever asked:
People who got fired for the stupidest reason, what happened?
Retail jobs can be very fickle. That’s why these former employees left on unsteady terms.
This is so shady.
“Worked at Best Buy in the mid 90s when I was 16. I worked selling computers, and was pretty good at it. We also sold things like memory, and hard drives that were behind lock and key. Part of our job was to take the tagged inventory from the trucks, and put it on the shelves. This included said memory.
So I close one night, put away all the new inventory, lock it up, and hand the keys to the manager. They do their checks of our department and we leave for the night. Next day I'm scheduled, I go in and the loss prevention manager said he has me on video stealing memory. I laughed and said, show me the video. Well I'm somewhat tall, red hair, and white. The video he shows me has an older, very short, white guy with a shaved head. He told me that it was me, and that I was fired, and only showed me the video once, and immediately turned off the monitor.
Being 16, I didn't know any better, said some things on my way out, like f*ck you, f*ck this place, and the like, and I left. Turns out the loss prevention guy, and his son were stealing for years to the tune over $250,000 and the guy on the video he showed me was his son. Anytime problems popped up of missing inventory, they just fired a random person to keep the attention away from themselves. When police arrested them, their house was loaded with televisions, computers, everything from the store.
TL;DR fired for stealing when the video was of the loss prevention manager's son stealing."
When employers can’t take responsibility for their own mistakes.
schitts creek comedy GIF by CBCGiphy"This would have been one of my first jobs that I didn't even get a chance to start.
I applied to be a deckhand on a local ferry. Went through unpaid training as part of the interview process. First aid, CPR, crisis management, safety policy whatnots. All group interviews. Anyway, I got the job after about a week. I also got my offer in writing with the expected start date. That was going to be a Tuesday two weeks later (and I remember this detail because it went to sh!t.) I accept and sign and take my copy.
I was thrilled. I was going to be on the water and making money for the summer. My friends were hanging out down by the water when I left the interview so I went and told them all about it and the start date, etc. Again, cementing that start date in my mind so I was ready.
The following week, a week before I was supposed to start, I got a call from the office asking where I was. "We expected you to be here an hour ago", and so on.
I asked them to check the offer that I had signed because I was never told that my start date had changed. I mean, I was available and explained that I'd be happy to come down right away but I hadn't known of any changes. They checked, agreed that they had made the mistake, and then told me that, nevertheless, a miscommunication this early on was a bad sign and they would not be hiring me.
So I was 'let go' because someone put down the wrong date."
That’s definitely not what they said.
“During my senior year in high school, I was working at McDonald's, it was right after Christmas and we were really busy. I'd been there 4 hours, had 2 to go, was supposed to get a 30 minute break, since we'd slowed down I asked if I could have a break. The shift manager said no one was getting breaks. I said "thanks a lot', she told the assistant manager (pretty sure they were sleeping together) that I told her to f*ck off. He fired me on the spot. Wouldn't even let me give my side of the story.
A week later I was working at Jack in the Box. Was a shift manager in 6 months, did that through a couple years of college, dropped out (never wanted to go anyway) and moved up to assistant manager and then a couple years later, general manager. I remembered how I was treated at McDonald's and made sure I treated my employees well. Had the 3rd lowest turnover rate in a 95 restaurant region, had the second highest average hourly pay...and #2 in profit improvement. Take care of your people and they'll do the same for you."
It’s almost as if some jobs want 100% loyalty, despite the fact that their employees have a life of their own.
“Job before family”? Really?
“I was driving cars for a shady dealer. (Under the table while I was laid off from my real job) Got a call that my uncle had attempted suicide and was in a psychiatric ward in a local hospital and wouldn't talk to anybody else but me.
Told boss I had to roll. He said something like; "Your job comes before family. If you leave, don't come back."
I left. The next morning he called and asked me why I wasn't at work. I hung up on him.”
School comes first.
Season 2 Wtf GIF by Parks and RecreationGiphy“I took a job with a movie theater in high school, only accepted the job because they promised me a set schedule. Me and another coworker worked it out where one of us was always on shift. About a month after I started, they handed me a new schedule starting at 2pm. I was in class until 3. Told them no. Got fired for my lack of commitment to the theater.”
People Describe The Worst Adult Tantrum They've Ever Witnessed | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
God forbid they drink water.
“My wife got fired once for giving a high level donor (she worked for an art gallery) a bottle of water at a big dinner and art auction. Her boss had insisted that there be no water at the event, but when the donor asked for water, my wife went and found some d*mn water. Boss found out and fired her the next day for insubordination.”
It’s important to remember that if you get fired for a dumb reason, you probably wouldn’t want to work there anyway.
Thanks a lot, mom.
“My first job ever was as a dish washer. I was so proud. I was 18. Of course, my parents didn’t believe me so my mom called them and asked them if it was true.
They fired me that night because they felt I was unreliable. I have yet to let my folks live that one down...”
Weird rule but ok.
Reese Witherspoon Mom GIF by HULUGiphy“Got fired from a public library for taking TWO carts to collect books from the outside Dropbox instead of ONE. The past few times I emptied the dropbox on a Monday it required two trips, So I brought two carts instead.
It turns out the matter of how many carts were used in emptying the dropbox was a matter of a library board vote and I was in violation of a town ordinance.
Mind you, I wasn't fired. I was placed on paid administrative leave pending a library board inquiry at which I was welcome to call witnesses. I couldn't keep a straight face, so I resigned.”
What happens on break, stays on break.
“I was fired for playing solitaire on my 15 min break when I was working as a receptionist. The doctor who owned the clinic was dumb enough to put that as the reason in my termination letter. I collected unemployment after he tried to appeal it. They explained in great detail how stupid of a reason this was for termination.”
Let the man retire.
“Guy preparing to retire, who had been training me to take over his job for the past 7 months, felt I was ready to take over completely.
Boss was afraid to lose 30+ years of experience and fired me to keep the old guy for a little longer.
From what I understand there was a pretty big fight. Old guy was a wonderful reference for me with the new job I obtained, with a 20k+ pay raise, and begrudgingly agreed to stay on for another year.”
Like I said, jobs that pull this kind of stuff are not jobs you want to work for. Good jobs are out there- you just gotta find them.
And to the bosses listed in this article- maybe stop being so shady? Just a suggestion.
A Redditor asked:
"What is the absolute dumbest reason you've seen someone who isn't a child freak out?"
Here's a list of the worst public meltdowns that full-grown adults have had, courtesy of Reddit.
The worst offenders manage to embarrass their own families.
"Worked for a cellular company and a woman was in with her parents and they were making her get off their plan. She was non-stop complaining how unfair it was. Parents were matter of factly being like this is happening. Tried to tell them she'd just pay for her portion, parents calmly replied she'd said that before and hadn't. Complained that they could afford it. Parents calmly ignored her. Whined about how much more it cost for her to have her own plan than stay on theirs."
"While she's over loudly whining to her father across the store I start talking to the mom. She tells me it's not that they can't afford it or anything like that but that they are retired and on an okay but fixed income. The daughter was earning six figures at her job according to mom. She was also 30."
Ogier_79
"My mom threw a burger back into the drive-thru window at McDonald's because it had pickles on it. She told them no pickles. She was screaming at them and they threatened to call the cops. I sank so low in my seat."
Horselovermidwest
Giphy"Senior year in high school, was playing soccer, and the goalkeeper on the other team was being looked at by a few Pac-12 schools. When our team scored a goal in overtime to win it, the girl's mother (I assume) ran onto the field to console her daughter, then looked over at us celebrating and began calling us all sorts of names I won't type here. She even accused us of intentionally scoring just to make her daughter look bad, not to win or anything like that, we just wanted to make her look bad in front of the scouts."
EvaOfDestruction
Technology seems to be the biggest catalyst for grown-up temper tantrums.
"Worked at Gamestop, guy came in complaining his PS3 didn't work and he wanted a new one covered by the warranty Gamestop provided. Well the warranty he bought was in 2009 when it came out, and being 2017 we couldn't cover it, he threw a massive fit and left the store, came back 3 hours later with the PS3 just decimated, screaming "look what you did, I shot this with my gun because of you" threw the console across the store and left. I think he used a shotgun cause there wasn't much left to it, like it was shredded."
SubsforLunch
"This girl wanted to get her own cellphone plan. She needed proof of residency to do so. She came in with a bill in her name, unfortunately, she didn't come with it address to her. We needed the actual mailing address on the bill, not just her name."
"Cue her screaming, crying, calling me a cnt, btch, and doing everything but throwing herself on the floor. She stayed in the store for 5 hours, calling customer service 6-7 times while with us, and just refusing to accept that we needed it addressed to her."
"Multiple times she would start crying again on the phone with customer service and go "and then there's this b*tch here in the store and she's just insert tantrum groan."
Callmedelete
Sad Baby GIFGiphy"I used to be a teller in college. Before chips in cards, we could swipe your card for you and you would enter your pin. After the chip, they took away our ability to swipe. So naturally, we would have the customer insert their card. At this time, they also added rims to the numbers to avoid people looking at your pin. One guy complained to management about this and screamed in the lobby that it is unjust to have him insert his card."
"Another guy told me that banks clearly don't want to service "normal" sized people because he couldn't see the number when he typed. I said, "that's ridiculous. We don't want people stealing your pin. Fraud is expensive and hard on everyone." He just replies with 'riiiiigghhht.' You cracked the code, clearly bank managers want to lose money by excluding a large majority of the population."
ColombianOreo524
The poor retail employees put up with so much.
"Once had a thirty year old woman throw a screaming tantrum with tears and threaten to sue my company because we had been out of FarmVille gift cards for weeks and her crops or animals would die or something."
Chalupachamp
"A grown woman berate an innocent Walgreens employee because they were out of Hilshire Farms baskets and she NEEDED them. The holidays are not fun for retail workers."
CatPawSoup
Temper Tantrum GIF by memecandyGiphy"Worked at a common American food chain fresh out of high school and had a grown man scream vibrations through my molecular structure about there being a 25 minute wait on baked potatoes, which I had absolutely no control over as a cashier."
"After he finished his tantrum he left, then came back ~30 minutes later to order his meal without a baked potato. Had he been a reasonable human being, I would've told him we now had them available, but he was a d*ck, so I did the bare minimum. I hand him his food, give him a lil nod, and off he goes...but on the way back to his table he spots another guest enjoying, of course, a baked potato."
"This man RAGED back to our counter, hurled his burger at me, and had to be escorted out of the building via police intervention after several minutes of uncomfortable confrontation with our entire staff. I consider myself rather empathetic, but I will never understand that man's rage. F**K YOUR BAKED POTATO, CHRISTOPHER!"
Meek-sleep-machine
"This middle-aged woman wanted to buy a TV from the store I used to work at. For some reason, there was an extremely cheap price tag on the box. I don't remember the exact price but it was less than $20, while the TV actually cost a couple hundred. She insisted the price tag had always been there and therefore we had to sell it to her for that amount (even though all the other tvs of that type had the correct price on them.)"
"When the employee said no, she demanded to see the manager. When the manager said no, she threw a tantrum, screaming all her way to the exit while threatening to call the police because we wouldn't sell her this brand new large flat screen tv for like fifteen dollars."
86sleepypenguins
“you suck a**”
"A lady came to eat at a diner I worked at, and had an absolute melt down because her toast was overdone. We gave her new toast minutes after she complained the first time, and she spent the rest of her time there throwing a full tantrum over it. Instead of signing her check she wrote 'you suck a**' in big letters on the bottom. I always say, someday I hope I have so few problems that I can spend a full hour and a half raging over toast."
thestiine
He had no children in his car...
"Our city does a free lunch program during the summer. They'll give a school style lunch to any kid under the age of 18 if you go to the designated location. During COVID they converted the program to be grab-n-go. Technically you were only supposed to get one meal per kid in the car but usually they were pretty lax about it."
"I happened to pull up just after a man asked for 20 lunches. He had no children in his car. The woman who was handing out the lunches told him that she could only hand out 1 meal per child and he had none. He then proceeded to berate her and threatened to shoot her, which in my city is very plausible."
BeeEyeAm
The VP
"My friend's boss, a VP, freaked out over the colors on the slides for his presentation. Now you have to know, he picked the colors and the graphics department told him the combo wasn't a good choice but he insisted so they made them up his way. Then when he saw them projected (this was in the olden days when presentation were projected onto screens) he freaked out."
"I know all about this since I had a front row seat to the festivities because he called my friend while we were out to dinner. My friend then had to interrupt our evening to get a rush order of different colored slides made up THAT night and flown out to his boss."
"Also, another good friend was head of the graphics dept. so I got to hear what the VP said to them, both when he originally ordered the slides and when he got them. 'You people are ARTISTS, you should have known better than this!" God, what an a**hole."
feliciates
Overbaked
"I when I worked at a grocery store bakery, I had a women have a mental break when I told her I couldn’t bake a used condom into a cake for her."
ShepherdDesign
Nbc Idk GIF by Good GirlsGiphyI scream... you scream...
"I worked in retail for a while, so this was a common occurrence. The best example was one day a man came into our store (a popular eyeglass store) and I helped him try on some glasses, walked him through lens types. Seemed perfectly nice. Then we get to the paying portion and he demanded I give him a discount."
"Everything in the store had a fixed price point and it was very corporate and we couldn’t give discounts. Not me, not the managers, no one. Dude then threw what I can only describe as a tantrum in the store. He was screaming at me so much that everyone in the store stopped what they were doing and watched."
"It was exactly like telling a child that they can’t have an ice cream or something. The kicker was he didn’t even have a reason why he thought he should get a discount, like a senior discount or student discount or something (we didn’t have any discounts anyway). He just demanded that he get one."
Neat_Consequence8289
The Law
"Wife had a client whose mom came to every family court hearing. At one hearing opposing counsel hooted, hollered, and waived his hands a lot for about ten minutes. My wife stood up, quoted the relevant statute and sat down. The judge ruled in her favor. Client's mom goes off because the other guy was the better attorney according to her. After my wife won the hearing by following the law. Mom isn't allowed to set foot in my wife's firm for that stupidity. If you want to hate humanity be a lawyer."
Monkey-Tamer
Every Woman
"My friend's mother has problems with every woman he has ever brought home. His current girlfriend is an absolute delight, especially considering his ex. But she finds reasons to be upset with her. The stupidest thing she has been upset with was because his girlfriend moved a towel apparently."
bpanio
Monopoly Blues
"When my wife and I were still dating we had a roommate who freaked out over basically everything. She started crying over a game of Monopoly, started crying over a game of Pandemic, yelled at me because I asked if she used my vegetable broth, and smashed a ceramic bowl across my face because I asked her to keep her cat in her room for a little bit (like my wife and I were doing with our cat) after our cats got in a fight."
tim_to_tourach
The Break Up
"In high school, my younger sisters knew someone who became so distraught when Justin Timberlake broke up with Britney Spears that she had to stay home from school."
fumor
britney spears television GIF by RealityTVGIFsGiphy“it’ll peck your eyes out"
"I was doing a volunteer outreach to help unemployed men find jobs, we set up a temp office in a poor area, matched job orders with skills. Most of these guys were pretty tough looking characters. About a dozen guys were in the waiting area and a hummingbird flew in a window, pandemonium ensued, one guy was screaming “it’ll peck your eyes out" within a few seconds the place was empty, until I escorted the hummingbird out with a cap."
Disposable70
Moral of the story?
Essential workers need to be paid more to deal with these peoples' BS.
We should learn something from them though.
It costs literally nothing to be a good person and treat other people like human beings.
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