15 WTF Retail Industry Stories that Will Freak You Out!

There are pretty much a lot of effed up things happening in the retail industry.

And trust me – you don’t even have to try to find them. But then, these retail industry stories as told by 15 Redditors definitely take the cake.

1. The customer who needs to review her privileges

So I used to work in H&M located on 5th ave in NYC, so as you can imagine we would get assholes from all over the world. 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 take a shit 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

2. This lady who was denied of a basic human right

I worked in an Old Navy for quite a few years. We weren’t particularly known for our thorough loss prevention, so some people had gotten quite comfortable openly stealing in front of employees. Eventually, loss prevention turned over to new management and kicked into overdrive. They had squads of people who would team up in stores to attempt to catch a few people so the word would spread and we’d see a few less shoplifters. They were running this operation at a store in a low income area, when suddenly a Caucasian lady in her mid 50s came in and started shoving random things in her purse with little regard to her surroundings, shoes and tops hanging halfway out of her purse. When she tried to leave, loss prevention stopped her at the door and informed her that they had notified the police and she needed to remain there until they arrived. She immediately said “I have to go to the bathroom”, and as they tried to tell her that wasn’t an option she started screaming “I’M POOPING!” and shit herself.

They escorted her to the bathroom, since it’s a single room without windows and she has no chance to escape. They figured this would be an opportunity for her to clean herself up, and this was mostly for the police, so they wouldn’t have to have to soak the car in bleach afterwards. After the police arrived they realized she had been in the room for a while and wouldn’t respond or unlock the door. Management opened the door with a key and found the woman covered in her own shit, which she has also rubbed all over the walls, ceiling and floor. – Mr_Clavicle

3. This savage business casual warlord

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. – lawlessSyntax

4. This probably colour blind customer who couldn’t see white

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

5. This old lady who just wants to make soup

I worked at a store as a pharmacy tech, and it was very slow. People would often come up to me and ask if I knew where non-pharmacy shit was, and I always just pointed them towards customer service. One day this VERY old black woman (had to be 85+) with a strong Southern accent comes up to the counter. “Hello ma’am, how can I help you today?” “Where’s the collagen?” (I think: ah, a skin care product perhaps? maybe the health section? so I walk out to the aisles and start looking with her) “Collagen, well… I don’t think we carry pure collagen… are you looking for a skin care product or supplement?” She just stares at me, looks up and down the aisle, at all the lotions, then back at me. “Collagen. Where’s the collagen?” She repeats. At this point I’m getting quite frustrated. I’m rummaging through these shelves of creams and lotions and coming up with nothing. So I walk over to the pharmacists, and consult with him.. he recommends sending her to customer service, but I decide to push through. Keep in mind, it’s been about 10 minutes. I walk back over to her, and start scouring the vitamin/supplement section, and finally locate some kind of powdered collagen. “Aha, here we go!” I announce, as I hand her the bottle. She looks at the bottle, then at me and says: “Where’s the collagen??? I’m makin soup” fucking College Inn broth. – swe-gin

6. The customer complaint

I was in Target, and a customer turns to me and asks where a particular product is. I reply, and tell her what aisle I think it’s in, and roughly where to find it. I then go back to what I was doing. This lady suddenly gets all huffy, and is like “that wasn’t very helpful, aren’t you supposed to take me to the product or something”!? I’m kind of taken back by her rude response, and just kind of blink at her for a second until I realize what’s happening. And then I look her straight in the eye and say: I don’t work here. The look on her face was priceless. I try not to wear red shirts to shop at Target anymore. – curiousowlkitten

7. The lady who either underestimated her shed or overestimated her husband

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. – reverendmaleri

Next Page: More WTF Retail Industry Stories that Will Freak You Out!

8. This employee of the year

Hired a new employee for a small home d’cor store I managed in the mall. She was good with customers, on time & dependable, her drawer always balanced, etc..the ideal employee, right? A few months later, I leave the mall around 6 p.m. and she’s set to close by herself for the first time. Mall security calls me less than half an hour later because my gates are down during business hours; this is a $500 fine, which I’m now going to have to explain to our home office. I head straight back to the store, she’s not picking up the phone, and I’m genuinely concerned about her welfare. Maybe she’s pulled the gate because she’s gotten sick or something. Nope. I raise the gate, walk straight to the back room, where she’s busy blowing the manager from Journeys a few doors down. He’s horrified, but she’s calm & quiet as I tell her to get her shit and go, her last paycheck will be mailed to her and not to come back to the store. And the next day, she calls me, asking WHY she got fired, because she didn’t think she’d done anything wrong.. Seriously? – receptionistra

9. This fruitarian

I worked in a supermarket for about a year and a half, I’ve had some crackers. The best one, by far, was a man walking up to me and demanding I show him fruit. I asked him what specific kind of fruit, as they are stored in different parts of the store, and he just replied with “fruit”. So I take him to the part of the store where most of the fruit is kept and asked him if that was going to be okay, he then asked me for fruit in bags. I explained that he can put the fruit into the fruit bags to take to the till. He then decides that none of this fruit is the fruit he is looking for. After what felt like weeks of trying to coax what fruit he was looking for out of him, walking him up and down the fruit and veg aisles, three different managers had to get involved after he started yelling at me because I “didn’t know where the fruit was”. He cussed us all out and walked away. 20 minutes later he comes marching up to me, shoves a bag of raisins in my face, screams “FRUIT” and walks away. TLDR – guy spent about half an hour screaming FRUIT at various staff members; he was looking for raisins. – euys

10. This customer who just wanted to be checked out

When I was a cashier at a general store, I had a woman get mad at me for not checking her out immediately, while I was helping a man who had collapsed to the floor, having a heart attack. I was on the phone with 911, and was kneeling next to him as he struggled to breathe – the woman stood at the counter, watched me for a minute, then started banging her fist on the counter. Then I turned my head to look at her, she let out this exasperated sigh and just goes “Um, I’m in a hurry!” I mean, she could see what was going on, we were in plain view of the register that she was standing at, not more than five feet away, and that it was a serious situation, but she didn’t give one single damn. I just gave her an “are you kidding me?!” look, and turned my attention back to the man and the 911 operator on the phone. Every few seconds, she’d bang her fists on the counter and go “Can you just check me out, please?!” So, I turned around at one point and told her what was happening. I told her “This man is having what I think is a heart attack, and I’m on the phone with 911.” And she goes “Well, can’t you just check me out real quick?” and then informed me that she has to meet someone for lunch in a few minutes.. I just shook my head, and continued taking orders from the 911 operator. She did this the entire 10 minutes it took for the ambulance to get there – just kept banging her fist on the counter to try and get my attention. It used to infuriate me whenever customers would bang on the counter to get my attention, it was one of my pet peeves, but I was double-pissed that she was doing it during that situation. When the paramedics finally got there, and got the man on a (gurney? Cot? Don’t know what to call those..), I went back up to the register, and she bitched me out because she had to wait “10 fucking minutes!” to be checked out. I’m not sure what kind of self-absorbed little world she lives in, but I was furious at her behaviour. That was one of the most selfish things I’ve ever seen. – DruSparro

11. This shaving connoisseur

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 emphasise 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. The Australia on the world map of Target, if you will. 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

12. This lady who needs to eat (poor lady)

I work in a butcher shop. Today a lady came in looking for lean turkey mince as she was on a new diet. She said her daughter made up her diet plan and is weighing her every day. I asked her how is she finding it so far and she said “It’s really tough. This is going to be the first thing I’ve eaten in two days.” Fuck her daughter. – HalfSaneHalfWit

13. This confused woman

Handed a woman a pen to write her check with. She turned it over five times. Pressed on the cap like it was a click pen. Unscrewed the body so the ink well almost fell off. She finally handed it back asking how it worked. I silently pulled off the cap and handed it back. She said ” well huh that’s different.” – Soyala

14. This moralist

We had a brand a soda that had a really good Blood Orange flavour. We suggested it to a lady who had a different flavour..she was like “oh that sounds way too witchcrafty for me.” – ilovetortillas22

15. And this mathematical truth

It’s amazing how many people get mad that you are trying to “rip them off” for taking the 10% sale off their whole bill instead of 10% off each item on their bill.

– Vincent__Vega

Clare Whitfield Chief Editor

Clare Whitfield is the Editor of Stay at Home Mum and a recognised voice in practical home management for Australian families. Based in the northern suburbs of Sydney, she balances editorial leadership with life as a stay at home mum to two school age children. Her background in home economics and more than a decade of experience in recipe development, family budgeting, and household systems inform her work.

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