Thankfully not. I work in a discount clothing store. As far as I know, as someone who doesn't use tiktok at all, no one is talking about our store.
The problem we have is people thinking our already heavily discounted items should be even further discounted. Or they'll remember a sale from weeks, months, a year ago and ask why the sale ended or when the sale is coming back. I always have to tell them that the sales are pretty much random, not on a schedule and I usually maybe get a day's advance notice of a sale.
I also work in a discount clothing store, and for some reason at the beginning of the year everyone thinks our store is marking everything down to 49 cents
Same. You can get a whole suit (blazer, pants, vest) for work at my job for literally $9 but people still act like that or a $6 pair of shoes or an $8 jacket is expensive. This is a thrift store. It's the farthest we can go.
at my thrift store we had certain days where specific color tags were $1 items and we had people who would RAID the entire store taking EVERYTHING that was $1 and then had the nerve to ask about a discount on top of it like NO MA’AM you got 300 shirts for 300 dollars half of which will be in a landfill next month bc nobody needs all that SO NO u cannot get 50% off
The store I work in (not Bath & Bodyworks) is very lax about returns, but there are a few hard no's.
1) It is illegal to return alcohol in my state, even if it never left the store. Once money changes hands, it's yours.
1a) there are some instances where alcohol may be exchanged for an exact item. The law dictates that if it is unfit for human consumption it may be traded for another exact UPC item. My store will only flex if the exact UPC item is not available, and even then we cannot process it through the POS and this can only be done with a manager present.
2) Diabetic supplies such as testing strips and lancets. No return. No exchange. You better know which tester you have and what strips it takes before you pay because otherwise you're stuck with em. (i ran into this myself when my hubbs needed to get on top of his sugars. The pharmacy checks multiple times that you have the correct strips for your device because there is zero flex here. I had to ask my husband for a link to the device he had ordered.)
3) Inflatable mattresses are exact exchange only. It's plastered across the department and on every single box that has an inflatable mattress.
There's no policy against returning a fully used candle, for instance, but no one at my store would. When we had hot food, people would eat it all then come to the desk saying it tasted like shit and try to return it. No dice. You ate it. Sometimes, when it comes to bad meat or fruit, we'll accept that the customer threw it away and just refund it, tho.
1a makes a lot of sense if you are leaving the store with your booze and something happens that causes you to drop it and it breaks.
I worked in a grocery store and, while I didn’t work with alcohol, I worked in the bakery and there’s been several instances where a cake gets damaged during transport to the customer’s end location or a kid drops it or something.
So, my store will refuse to replace alcohol broken in the parking lot sometimes, even. It's one of those grey areas that it really depends on what manager you get that day.
When someone claims that, it's policy to check the store security cameras and lot cameras to verify. Some managers don't want to do that and just say no.
The spirit of the law is to make an exception for like, corked wine, box wine that has leaked and gotten bugs, or rancid whiskey. That kind of thing.
Yep. I believe it. I have been told to deny a redo on a cake by a manager before.
I definitely think exceptions should exist but ultimately it’s the manager’s decision about what happens.
If something happens out in the parking lot or within visible range of the store CCTV system and it can be proven? Yes. But if it happens on the road it should be subject to upper management’s discretion.
Alcohol is definitely different than a 12 pack of soda busting open and falling out of the trunk and exploding on the pavement (this happened to my mom and I at the store while loading up the car to leave. We were able to get it exchanged) so there should be some level of scrutiny. Obviously if it has left the lot it’s way above a clerk’s pay grade and I think it’s up to assistant store managers or higher to handle it.
I’m not saying that it’s something that you should just replace with no questions asked but I think that if it’s a valid reason for an exchange and can be proven in some fashion then there’s not a reason not to. Besides alcohol on the pavement is probably not consumable and fits into 1a of the comment I replied to initially.
interesting. I think if I drop it after I paid for it, it's on me.
I do remember my ice cream cone being replaced when I was a little girl, seemingly for free, but that's good customer service by an independent store, and much less of an inventoried item.
I’m only guessing based on what I have experienced from my department (bakery) but I’m speculating that, because of the legal issues attached with alcohol, you’re likely to need higher ups who know the law and how best to manage any liability.
Honestly it’s entirely possible that I’m wrong though but neither of us will know until one of us drops a bottle and tries to exchange it.
I worked at BBW 2020-2022 and I remember when the “hack” of returning empty product went viral. We were getting multiple calls a day asking about it, and people bringing in 10+ empty candles wanting a new one. Even though the return policy didnt clearly state the used limit until Sep 2022, my SM was really strict on not returning empty product. We wouldnt take it back even if they threw a fit. I had a lady bring back a JCB shower gel with NOTHING in it. Literally the bottle was empty. She wanted to exchange it for a new one, and I said well whats wrong with it? She said “its empty”. People are DUMBBBBB!!!
so aggravating! like in what world would that be okay 😐 i had a lady come in with 2 wallflower plugs that were over a year old wanting to exchange them for a similar kind. i scanned them through and told her the price and she was like "no it should be free. i'm exchanging them." i was very polite and said "unfortunately the defective guarantee only extends to a year." but she still started to go off on me, so i informed her i was ending the conversation there and grabbing my manager.
my manager sided with me and even showed the customer our sign that details the return policy, as well as where it is stated that wallflowers are only guaranteed to work for a year. she did the classic "well i'm never shopping here again!" line, my manager said "ok ma'am. have a nice day 😁" which made the customer more mad, and then the customer stormed out.
>even showed the customer our sign that details the return policy,
I tried explaining our return policy to a couple once and I also pointed to the sign that also stated it. The man didn't believe me or the sign and went to check the website to make sure me (we?) weren't lying to him. It was copy/paste the exact same thing as the sign.
I couldn't process their return because it was past our return policy and iirc, they took the item and he said he would call customer service when he got home. I never saw them again so I'm guessing he finally got it through his head after a FOURTH source confirming 🤷♀️
I don't understand how people have no shame!
I understand they saw a video of someone suggesting thry do it, but how do they not understand it's morally wrong? How are they able to actually ask for the return/exchange.
I would definitely pick stealing a new one over asking for one!
there seems to be a new “viral” product from my work that everyone is looking for every few weeks, but since i work at a dollar store we dont know of or when we will ever be getting them again 🤷♀️ just recently we had the seasame street makeup and touchland hand sanitizer dupes and we were constantly getting calls about them. all of then sold out about as soon as the boxes were set out and i was having to explain that i have no clue if anything will be back or when.
with the touchland sanitizers, there was a tiktok that claimed employees were hiding them in the back, and if they tell you there arent any more its bc they are hoarding them to themselves. umm!! take a look at the dollar tree subreddit. its more likely you cant find the boxes of your uber specific product with how many are in there. i was getting people accusing me of keeping the sanitizers to myself. im a cashier and rarely ever go in the back, i wouldnt even know where to look if i was to hide something…
i see those occasionally! i truly appreciate you and others who work in dollar stores - i would never be able to do it, but they are something i rely on a lot for groceries etc (i'm a broke college student). anything cheap attracts the worst customers - almost all the craziest customers i deal with come in during our good sales.
also, accusing employees of hiding things for themselves is absolutely wild. i had to tell a karen once that i do shipment every single day, so i know the back better than i know myself, and if what she wanted was there i would have grabbed it by now. such a pet peeve of mine
and honestly, when i started working here, i did think a majority of my customers were going to be people who relied on it for necessities!! but i think i get way more people who drop $70 on makeup and various tiktok lifehack products on the day to day. not saying that you shouldnt spend your money like that of course, but they are usually less understanding about things like waiting in line at the register (the memes about leaving 1 cashier to fend for themselves are sadly very true) or that i cant predict what items will be in stock and when. and theres also of course the people who loudly tell you they NEVERRRR step FOOT in a dollar tree, they just NEVER have shopped here ever before!! but they want to buy 10 of the tiktok products and they are very special since it is their first time at a dollar store. 🙄.
just bc it looks cool, i think. my grandma loved bath and body works and is always sending me home with 10 scents every time i visit, so hand sanitizer is nothing i had to worry about buying for myself 😂
Trends tend to affect the messes where I work. I work at a craft store so when there’s a specific craft trending, there ends up being huge messes in those aisles. There’s currently the trend of making bracelets that match your partner’s eyes, so lately people have been coming in and grabbing tons of beads off the hooks to compare to their partner’s eyes and then leaving piles of the non-matches just sitting on the shelves. Similar things happened when the pony bead bracelets were trending with Taylor swift.
in my craft store at least there’s an entire aisle (covering both sides) of single stringed beads and they each have one specific spot depending on size, type, etc. there’s definitely 500+ different assortments of beads and due to the large volume, putting them back correctly is incredibly time consuming as SKUs and item numbers are tiny and difficult to locate.
When I worked retail. I had a lady came up with 4 bottles of 45-50 dollars of Paul Mitchell shampoo and conditioner. Two were almost empty, and I figured she brought them in to rember what she liked. Nope she wanted to do a refund, and exchange for the new ones.
At that moment I'm like this is theft, and called a manger up. The manger said to proceed, and when I got done. I'm like thats theft. The manger didn't care. I thought if one of us that worked there tired that. We would be fired on the spot, but the stupid customers can do it.
managers like that are the reason customers feel entitled to do such things. my manager makes exceptions for certain regulars bc she doesn't feel like arguing and guess what? they always come back to argue so they can get their way!
This lady did it about every two months or so. Usally right before the 60 days. So she was robbing us of 100 dollars worth of products every time. If lose prevention was paying attention. That never would have happened more then twice, and management would have had a talking to.
I'm glad that place as a short stay of a few months. I was way to hosnt for them, and that place was a major set back in my mental health. It made my anxiety and depression worst, and it's still not recovered. That job is the reason why I don't trust employees any more, and went out on my own..
I assume they are doing as told to by corporate.
Otherwise, why do all of us typical cashiers think it's ridiculous and say no but the manager has different thoughts
I work at Aldi, and every other week there’s a new ‘miracle product’ floating around on social media so customers will come in and ask for whatever product it is but they don’t know what it is, and I don’t keep up with the social media trends so I’m like sorry, can’t help you 🤷♀️
I used to work at Aldi. Remember the key-instead-of-a-quarter trend where keys would get stuck in the cart? Or those stupid plastic keychains that would break off in the lock? People are so stupid. 💀
My favourite is when someone brings me two trolleys because they put their coin in the second one instead of the front one and don’t understand all they need to do is put the chain back in it to get their coin back
omg i heard about target employees etc. getting actually screamed at by customers for not having particular designs. all over a cup they'll forget about once the trend dies down
I know someone who dropped their Stanley and the handle completely broke. Stanley refused to replace so she went and bought another identical Stanley to replace it.
She would later drop and break the handle off the replacement as well.
A looooonnnnggg time ago, Walmart had some items that needed to be pulled. I don’t remember why. However, because they needed to be pulled, the price in the system was ridiculously low— like 1¢. Some customers found out about it because they didn’t get pulled fast enough and blasted it all over social media. However, *these really could not be sold*. If one actually got sold, people could get in major trouble/get fired for it. So people found out about it online, went to the stores, and then insisted we sell it to them. Pitched all kinds of fits. Entitled fucks.
This is why the "pull and don't sell" price should just max out the register. If your register can accept a single item price of 6 digits then the don't sell price should be 999,999.99. There will be no social media hack telling you to buy it and the cashier isn't going to miss the fact it scanned for .01.
This got me last year. I’m a manager for a department store, and a cashier called me up to them and asked to help. The customer saw our ad for some grills for like $150, and then she had a coupon that said it would bring the grills down to $20 a piece. She wanted to buy all eight we had in stock. I was like “Okay, so let’s see your coupon and see what’s going on.” She pulls up FaceBook and I entertain her and try and scan it and go “Well, the coupon seems to be invalid as it’s not one that our company will take. You can always use the coupon we offer when you open up a credit card though!”
Not personally but that new trend of recording people while they make the food at subway/chipotle is gonna end badly. It’s already been awful.
Edit: they film the worker. Not the food. And typically harass / insult the worker.
The “idea” is if you’re filming they’ll “give you more” 😤🙄🙄🙄
When I worked in a cafe a regular tried to film the person making their food because they "wanted proof that we consistently made their order wrong"... My coworker stopped working on that order and moved to another order and when screamed at by the "customer" they just calmly stated that they aren't an animal in a zoo and since they hadn't given permission to be filmed they would not be continuing their order til the phone was put away
Always thankful we also had a no-no sense manager who backed us up...
It might have been local but we had people demanding "their gas money because they had to drive to the store".
I wasn't a manager then but anytime a manager approved it, I'd log out and say "go ahead but this isn't going under my codes".
That got nipped pretty quick.
Macy's and LL Bean both had no time limits on returns but both had to revise their polices due to abuse of said policies. Big Green Egg in grills had to do the same.
People just won't stop being shitty. You know you're going to get a certain number of people trying to get over/take advantage but when it becomes a significant percentage or the majority you have to crack down.
yes, i work at HD and people all the time are asking about our ‘penny sky’ items. (if you haven’t heard, when we discontinue things they get put in the system as $0.01 and we cannot sell it to you. no ifs ands or buts.) if it rings up like that we have to take it off the transaction. we have to apologize and offer the replacement product we will sell at a discounted rate. i always have to tell people that i don’t have a section for them because we DONT SELL THEM. they never believe me so i just send them to the clearance area to get them away from me.
Yup. Until recently I worked at a certain store (I’ll call it “6 Under”) that does a lot of advertising on social media and very much markets towards young teens and the TikTok crowd. We get people coming in on a regular basis asking for products and getting mad that our location doesn’t carry them, because “TikTok said you have it!!” They’ll shove their phone in my face and show me a TikTok of some influencer at a random store location halfway across the country showing off some item, and then acted absolutely incensed that our store doesn’t also have that same item in stock at that exact moment.
There was a also a while when kids where doing this “30 second challenge” or “one minute challenge” thing where they’d film their friend literally running through the store and grabbing every single thing they wanted and could fit in a basket before the timer ran out, knocking dozens of items of shelves and nearly mowing down toddlers and elderly customers in the process. Every single time it happened other customers would complain, and we’d relay those complaints to corporate, but they just continued to share and promote the videos of the challenges on social media.
Harder? Not really but they do affect where I work. Like the whole fidget spinner trend was a bit ridiculous. We ended up with a whole lot of unsold units on those. People always coming in looking for new prime flavors weeks before my store gets them. Oh the dramatic spike in twisted tea sales from that viral video. Oh and of course all this stuff with zyn I assume is related to some sort of trend.
Actually I was told today that Zyn’s factory caught fire, but they’ve also gotten themselves in hot water for some questionable business practices lol. So that one’s on them lol
I work in a jewelry store so i get tons of teenage girls showing me tik tok videos of whatever is trending. It’s so fucking annoying because they act so rude and entitled when i explain that we don’t.
People coming in and asking for elaborate custom drinks are annoying but not that bad. But we’re not a Starbucks so we don’t have all the stuff they ask for
Was once asked to make a “grinch drink”, again not that bad but sometimes it really just sounds like “give me sugar, sugar, and more sugar”
Every service job I've had, Tiktok has made it a hundred times worse. I wish even just a fraction of these people had jobs and knew what it was like.
But no, these people are too shameless to care.
Former b&bw management from 2021-2023. Every day was pure hell! 🩵
I still have nightmares about the damn coupons. Before the rewards app, people would come in with STACKS and redeem nothing but free items. Others would complain about not getting them at all. Some consistently fell for the fake ones on Facebook. The day I quit was the best day of my life
Not really buuuuut we have gotten people coming in for sales or items that they saw on tiktok. Sometimes the products that they're looking for don't exist in our store, like our store is multinational and tiktok is all over the world. Sorry we don't also have a mop for one dollar.
I am shocked and dismayed that your regular policy is to all return of anything used at all. (You can't tell if a few sprays are gone from a spray, but a used candle???)
Also shocked the manager doesn't just agree to take anything back when a customer insists.
I really don't know WHY corporate retail wants their store managers to accept stuff back which is clearly used or clearly outside of generous policy. (Christmas decoration in May, etc)
Back when I worked retail, there was a TikTok going around that encouraged shoppers to look in the overstock bins beneath the shelves for inventory we were “hiding from them”.
So yes.
There's a big couponing community for Dollar General. Some of the really good couponers share online how to get the best deals so there are people that try to copy them but don't actually learn how to coupon and they often bring the wrong item(s) to checkout and the total doesn't come out to what they saw online. Some are cool when we explain it to them but some are just awful and insist we do a price adjustment for their poor planning.
We’ve had people take advantage of something to the point they took it away. Target used to take returns on Cat & Jack kids clothing if it got worn out because the brand stands by their double stitching and whatnot.
Somehow that got turned into, “Target will exchange your kid’s Cat & Jack clothing nonstop every time your kid grows out of them.” Which doesn’t even make any damn sense.
They accepted people’s entire closet worth’s of worn out, outgrown kid’s clothes for a year or two but now they’ve completely stopped.
The kids clothes are now subject to the same 30 day return window as everything else.
I work at a dollar store and people on tik tok were talking about this spray hand sanitizer not too long ago. This person on tik tok said we were hiding it in the back. Like we got one case in and when people heard about this it was gone. No more came in.
The closest my job gets is when certain candies or toys go viral, and we have an insane number of people call or come in for it.
If we don't carry we get a snotty 'well you should' or 'do you know who does'
If we are sold out it's 'well when will you get more?' And the answer is 'idk, we won't know until it actually shows up' and they get very huffy. Slime Lickers and the initial axolotl squishmallow craze sucked.
Social is Mehh. I’m at the age where I don’t care because trends change so often. Taylor port was it’s good run. Now it’s crown blackberry. The problem is crown seriously underestimated its popularity so we’ve been back logged for a while.
The try on hauls. If they are trying on clothes in a fitting room, a lot of them trash that fitting room. People who are just starting out also trash the fitting rooms for their try on hauls.
Thankfully not. I work in a discount clothing store. As far as I know, as someone who doesn't use tiktok at all, no one is talking about our store. The problem we have is people thinking our already heavily discounted items should be even further discounted. Or they'll remember a sale from weeks, months, a year ago and ask why the sale ended or when the sale is coming back. I always have to tell them that the sales are pretty much random, not on a schedule and I usually maybe get a day's advance notice of a sale.
I also work in a discount clothing store, and for some reason at the beginning of the year everyone thinks our store is marking everything down to 49 cents
Same. You can get a whole suit (blazer, pants, vest) for work at my job for literally $9 but people still act like that or a $6 pair of shoes or an $8 jacket is expensive. This is a thrift store. It's the farthest we can go.
at my thrift store we had certain days where specific color tags were $1 items and we had people who would RAID the entire store taking EVERYTHING that was $1 and then had the nerve to ask about a discount on top of it like NO MA’AM you got 300 shirts for 300 dollars half of which will be in a landfill next month bc nobody needs all that SO NO u cannot get 50% off
The store I work in (not Bath & Bodyworks) is very lax about returns, but there are a few hard no's. 1) It is illegal to return alcohol in my state, even if it never left the store. Once money changes hands, it's yours. 1a) there are some instances where alcohol may be exchanged for an exact item. The law dictates that if it is unfit for human consumption it may be traded for another exact UPC item. My store will only flex if the exact UPC item is not available, and even then we cannot process it through the POS and this can only be done with a manager present. 2) Diabetic supplies such as testing strips and lancets. No return. No exchange. You better know which tester you have and what strips it takes before you pay because otherwise you're stuck with em. (i ran into this myself when my hubbs needed to get on top of his sugars. The pharmacy checks multiple times that you have the correct strips for your device because there is zero flex here. I had to ask my husband for a link to the device he had ordered.) 3) Inflatable mattresses are exact exchange only. It's plastered across the department and on every single box that has an inflatable mattress. There's no policy against returning a fully used candle, for instance, but no one at my store would. When we had hot food, people would eat it all then come to the desk saying it tasted like shit and try to return it. No dice. You ate it. Sometimes, when it comes to bad meat or fruit, we'll accept that the customer threw it away and just refund it, tho.
1a makes a lot of sense if you are leaving the store with your booze and something happens that causes you to drop it and it breaks. I worked in a grocery store and, while I didn’t work with alcohol, I worked in the bakery and there’s been several instances where a cake gets damaged during transport to the customer’s end location or a kid drops it or something.
So, my store will refuse to replace alcohol broken in the parking lot sometimes, even. It's one of those grey areas that it really depends on what manager you get that day. When someone claims that, it's policy to check the store security cameras and lot cameras to verify. Some managers don't want to do that and just say no. The spirit of the law is to make an exception for like, corked wine, box wine that has leaked and gotten bugs, or rancid whiskey. That kind of thing.
Yep. I believe it. I have been told to deny a redo on a cake by a manager before. I definitely think exceptions should exist but ultimately it’s the manager’s decision about what happens.
Are you saying food and alcohol SHOULD be returned because the customer trips?
If something happens out in the parking lot or within visible range of the store CCTV system and it can be proven? Yes. But if it happens on the road it should be subject to upper management’s discretion. Alcohol is definitely different than a 12 pack of soda busting open and falling out of the trunk and exploding on the pavement (this happened to my mom and I at the store while loading up the car to leave. We were able to get it exchanged) so there should be some level of scrutiny. Obviously if it has left the lot it’s way above a clerk’s pay grade and I think it’s up to assistant store managers or higher to handle it. I’m not saying that it’s something that you should just replace with no questions asked but I think that if it’s a valid reason for an exchange and can be proven in some fashion then there’s not a reason not to. Besides alcohol on the pavement is probably not consumable and fits into 1a of the comment I replied to initially.
interesting. I think if I drop it after I paid for it, it's on me. I do remember my ice cream cone being replaced when I was a little girl, seemingly for free, but that's good customer service by an independent store, and much less of an inventoried item.
I’m only guessing based on what I have experienced from my department (bakery) but I’m speculating that, because of the legal issues attached with alcohol, you’re likely to need higher ups who know the law and how best to manage any liability. Honestly it’s entirely possible that I’m wrong though but neither of us will know until one of us drops a bottle and tries to exchange it.
I just would think anything I break after I pay for it is on me to replace.
I mean I usually say hard no on alcohol coming back. My only condition is if you left the store but didn’t leave the property.
Yeah I can see it being a policy not to return even in places where alcohol is legal to return. To me, it really just makes sense.
I worked at BBW 2020-2022 and I remember when the “hack” of returning empty product went viral. We were getting multiple calls a day asking about it, and people bringing in 10+ empty candles wanting a new one. Even though the return policy didnt clearly state the used limit until Sep 2022, my SM was really strict on not returning empty product. We wouldnt take it back even if they threw a fit. I had a lady bring back a JCB shower gel with NOTHING in it. Literally the bottle was empty. She wanted to exchange it for a new one, and I said well whats wrong with it? She said “its empty”. People are DUMBBBBB!!!
so aggravating! like in what world would that be okay 😐 i had a lady come in with 2 wallflower plugs that were over a year old wanting to exchange them for a similar kind. i scanned them through and told her the price and she was like "no it should be free. i'm exchanging them." i was very polite and said "unfortunately the defective guarantee only extends to a year." but she still started to go off on me, so i informed her i was ending the conversation there and grabbing my manager. my manager sided with me and even showed the customer our sign that details the return policy, as well as where it is stated that wallflowers are only guaranteed to work for a year. she did the classic "well i'm never shopping here again!" line, my manager said "ok ma'am. have a nice day 😁" which made the customer more mad, and then the customer stormed out.
>even showed the customer our sign that details the return policy, I tried explaining our return policy to a couple once and I also pointed to the sign that also stated it. The man didn't believe me or the sign and went to check the website to make sure me (we?) weren't lying to him. It was copy/paste the exact same thing as the sign.
what did they do when they were proven wrong? 😭 out of curiosity
I couldn't process their return because it was past our return policy and iirc, they took the item and he said he would call customer service when he got home. I never saw them again so I'm guessing he finally got it through his head after a FOURTH source confirming 🤷♀️
I read BBW as “Buffalo Wild Wings” and was really confused. Perhaps I need to go back to sleep lol
I don't understand how people have no shame! I understand they saw a video of someone suggesting thry do it, but how do they not understand it's morally wrong? How are they able to actually ask for the return/exchange. I would definitely pick stealing a new one over asking for one!
Literally no common sense out there 🤦♀️
there seems to be a new “viral” product from my work that everyone is looking for every few weeks, but since i work at a dollar store we dont know of or when we will ever be getting them again 🤷♀️ just recently we had the seasame street makeup and touchland hand sanitizer dupes and we were constantly getting calls about them. all of then sold out about as soon as the boxes were set out and i was having to explain that i have no clue if anything will be back or when. with the touchland sanitizers, there was a tiktok that claimed employees were hiding them in the back, and if they tell you there arent any more its bc they are hoarding them to themselves. umm!! take a look at the dollar tree subreddit. its more likely you cant find the boxes of your uber specific product with how many are in there. i was getting people accusing me of keeping the sanitizers to myself. im a cashier and rarely ever go in the back, i wouldnt even know where to look if i was to hide something…
i see those occasionally! i truly appreciate you and others who work in dollar stores - i would never be able to do it, but they are something i rely on a lot for groceries etc (i'm a broke college student). anything cheap attracts the worst customers - almost all the craziest customers i deal with come in during our good sales. also, accusing employees of hiding things for themselves is absolutely wild. i had to tell a karen once that i do shipment every single day, so i know the back better than i know myself, and if what she wanted was there i would have grabbed it by now. such a pet peeve of mine
and honestly, when i started working here, i did think a majority of my customers were going to be people who relied on it for necessities!! but i think i get way more people who drop $70 on makeup and various tiktok lifehack products on the day to day. not saying that you shouldnt spend your money like that of course, but they are usually less understanding about things like waiting in line at the register (the memes about leaving 1 cashier to fend for themselves are sadly very true) or that i cant predict what items will be in stock and when. and theres also of course the people who loudly tell you they NEVERRRR step FOOT in a dollar tree, they just NEVER have shopped here ever before!! but they want to buy 10 of the tiktok products and they are very special since it is their first time at a dollar store. 🙄.
i'm sorry you have to deal with so much :( people are so endlessly annoying and rude
I’m so confused, what’s the big deal with those sanitizers? Like I got one once cuz it smelled good but it wasn’t anything special?
just bc it looks cool, i think. my grandma loved bath and body works and is always sending me home with 10 scents every time i visit, so hand sanitizer is nothing i had to worry about buying for myself 😂
Trends tend to affect the messes where I work. I work at a craft store so when there’s a specific craft trending, there ends up being huge messes in those aisles. There’s currently the trend of making bracelets that match your partner’s eyes, so lately people have been coming in and grabbing tons of beads off the hooks to compare to their partner’s eyes and then leaving piles of the non-matches just sitting on the shelves. Similar things happened when the pony bead bracelets were trending with Taylor swift.
i hate that for you! how hard is it to put things back where they belong?
in my craft store at least there’s an entire aisle (covering both sides) of single stringed beads and they each have one specific spot depending on size, type, etc. there’s definitely 500+ different assortments of beads and due to the large volume, putting them back correctly is incredibly time consuming as SKUs and item numbers are tiny and difficult to locate.
lol we 90% work for the same craft store and my beads are so messy right now.
yes I'm at a craft store and the couples spending an hour destroying our beads are pissing me off
When I worked retail. I had a lady came up with 4 bottles of 45-50 dollars of Paul Mitchell shampoo and conditioner. Two were almost empty, and I figured she brought them in to rember what she liked. Nope she wanted to do a refund, and exchange for the new ones. At that moment I'm like this is theft, and called a manger up. The manger said to proceed, and when I got done. I'm like thats theft. The manger didn't care. I thought if one of us that worked there tired that. We would be fired on the spot, but the stupid customers can do it.
managers like that are the reason customers feel entitled to do such things. my manager makes exceptions for certain regulars bc she doesn't feel like arguing and guess what? they always come back to argue so they can get their way!
This lady did it about every two months or so. Usally right before the 60 days. So she was robbing us of 100 dollars worth of products every time. If lose prevention was paying attention. That never would have happened more then twice, and management would have had a talking to. I'm glad that place as a short stay of a few months. I was way to hosnt for them, and that place was a major set back in my mental health. It made my anxiety and depression worst, and it's still not recovered. That job is the reason why I don't trust employees any more, and went out on my own..
I assume they are doing as told to by corporate. Otherwise, why do all of us typical cashiers think it's ridiculous and say no but the manager has different thoughts
I am so lost on why retail corporations want their store managers to allow returns like that!
Most company's would also view ot as theft. The thing is most mangers don't care. They arnt going yo fight with a customer.
I work at Aldi, and every other week there’s a new ‘miracle product’ floating around on social media so customers will come in and ask for whatever product it is but they don’t know what it is, and I don’t keep up with the social media trends so I’m like sorry, can’t help you 🤷♀️
I used to work at Aldi. Remember the key-instead-of-a-quarter trend where keys would get stuck in the cart? Or those stupid plastic keychains that would break off in the lock? People are so stupid. 💀
Thankfully that didn’t really make it to Australia 💀
I'm jealous. It was bad. 🥲
My favourite is when someone brings me two trolleys because they put their coin in the second one instead of the front one and don’t understand all they need to do is put the chain back in it to get their coin back
Omg. I've seen that too! It's crazy how stupidity is truly universal. 🤣
Yes. Goddamn Stanley cups.
omg i heard about target employees etc. getting actually screamed at by customers for not having particular designs. all over a cup they'll forget about once the trend dies down
Plus, these people ALREADY HAVE a travel mug. I don't get it
And they're not even good travel mugs! I've seen them! They're not double walled/insulated/etc. They're just a cup made out of metal.
I know someone who dropped their Stanley and the handle completely broke. Stanley refused to replace so she went and bought another identical Stanley to replace it. She would later drop and break the handle off the replacement as well.
🤦🏻♀️
my understanding is they became popular because a woman shared a video of ice still in the cup, after her car had been on fire.
A looooonnnnggg time ago, Walmart had some items that needed to be pulled. I don’t remember why. However, because they needed to be pulled, the price in the system was ridiculously low— like 1¢. Some customers found out about it because they didn’t get pulled fast enough and blasted it all over social media. However, *these really could not be sold*. If one actually got sold, people could get in major trouble/get fired for it. So people found out about it online, went to the stores, and then insisted we sell it to them. Pitched all kinds of fits. Entitled fucks.
what was it ? lol
Some clothes. I think it was women’s apparel, possibly bathing suits. It was a long time ago so I don’t remember exactly
This is why the "pull and don't sell" price should just max out the register. If your register can accept a single item price of 6 digits then the don't sell price should be 999,999.99. There will be no social media hack telling you to buy it and the cashier isn't going to miss the fact it scanned for .01.
People love spreading around fake coupons on Facebook and then I get yelled at when they don't work
This got me last year. I’m a manager for a department store, and a cashier called me up to them and asked to help. The customer saw our ad for some grills for like $150, and then she had a coupon that said it would bring the grills down to $20 a piece. She wanted to buy all eight we had in stock. I was like “Okay, so let’s see your coupon and see what’s going on.” She pulls up FaceBook and I entertain her and try and scan it and go “Well, the coupon seems to be invalid as it’s not one that our company will take. You can always use the coupon we offer when you open up a credit card though!”
Years and years ago people honestly thought the coupon somebody sent them on Facebook for a free Nintendo Wii was legit.
Not personally but that new trend of recording people while they make the food at subway/chipotle is gonna end badly. It’s already been awful. Edit: they film the worker. Not the food. And typically harass / insult the worker. The “idea” is if you’re filming they’ll “give you more” 😤🙄🙄🙄
When I worked in a cafe a regular tried to film the person making their food because they "wanted proof that we consistently made their order wrong"... My coworker stopped working on that order and moved to another order and when screamed at by the "customer" they just calmly stated that they aren't an animal in a zoo and since they hadn't given permission to be filmed they would not be continuing their order til the phone was put away Always thankful we also had a no-no sense manager who backed us up...
i would give less to someone who was filming me...
It might have been local but we had people demanding "their gas money because they had to drive to the store". I wasn't a manager then but anytime a manager approved it, I'd log out and say "go ahead but this isn't going under my codes". That got nipped pretty quick. Macy's and LL Bean both had no time limits on returns but both had to revise their polices due to abuse of said policies. Big Green Egg in grills had to do the same. People just won't stop being shitty. You know you're going to get a certain number of people trying to get over/take advantage but when it becomes a significant percentage or the majority you have to crack down.
yes, i work at HD and people all the time are asking about our ‘penny sky’ items. (if you haven’t heard, when we discontinue things they get put in the system as $0.01 and we cannot sell it to you. no ifs ands or buts.) if it rings up like that we have to take it off the transaction. we have to apologize and offer the replacement product we will sell at a discounted rate. i always have to tell people that i don’t have a section for them because we DONT SELL THEM. they never believe me so i just send them to the clearance area to get them away from me.
Yup. Until recently I worked at a certain store (I’ll call it “6 Under”) that does a lot of advertising on social media and very much markets towards young teens and the TikTok crowd. We get people coming in on a regular basis asking for products and getting mad that our location doesn’t carry them, because “TikTok said you have it!!” They’ll shove their phone in my face and show me a TikTok of some influencer at a random store location halfway across the country showing off some item, and then acted absolutely incensed that our store doesn’t also have that same item in stock at that exact moment. There was a also a while when kids where doing this “30 second challenge” or “one minute challenge” thing where they’d film their friend literally running through the store and grabbing every single thing they wanted and could fit in a basket before the timer ran out, knocking dozens of items of shelves and nearly mowing down toddlers and elderly customers in the process. Every single time it happened other customers would complain, and we’d relay those complaints to corporate, but they just continued to share and promote the videos of the challenges on social media.
We’re in the same boat. I’m lucky if they even have a picture or screenshot of what they’re talking about
Harder? Not really but they do affect where I work. Like the whole fidget spinner trend was a bit ridiculous. We ended up with a whole lot of unsold units on those. People always coming in looking for new prime flavors weeks before my store gets them. Oh the dramatic spike in twisted tea sales from that viral video. Oh and of course all this stuff with zyn I assume is related to some sort of trend.
Actually I was told today that Zyn’s factory caught fire, but they’ve also gotten themselves in hot water for some questionable business practices lol. So that one’s on them lol
I work in a jewelry store so i get tons of teenage girls showing me tik tok videos of whatever is trending. It’s so fucking annoying because they act so rude and entitled when i explain that we don’t.
People coming in and asking for elaborate custom drinks are annoying but not that bad. But we’re not a Starbucks so we don’t have all the stuff they ask for Was once asked to make a “grinch drink”, again not that bad but sometimes it really just sounds like “give me sugar, sugar, and more sugar”
Every service job I've had, Tiktok has made it a hundred times worse. I wish even just a fraction of these people had jobs and knew what it was like. But no, these people are too shameless to care.
Former b&bw management from 2021-2023. Every day was pure hell! 🩵 I still have nightmares about the damn coupons. Before the rewards app, people would come in with STACKS and redeem nothing but free items. Others would complain about not getting them at all. Some consistently fell for the fake ones on Facebook. The day I quit was the best day of my life
Not really buuuuut we have gotten people coming in for sales or items that they saw on tiktok. Sometimes the products that they're looking for don't exist in our store, like our store is multinational and tiktok is all over the world. Sorry we don't also have a mop for one dollar.
That trend was AWFUL. They thankfully changed the return policy but damn dealing with customers still trying to pull that shit sucked
no literally. people are so entitled, stupid, & exhausting
Not really since I live in bum fuck nowhere but apparently there were kids trying to do those tiktok interviews once a few months ago
Yes. None of knew why the heck do many people were asking for Stanley Cups. We thought it had something to go with hockey.
I am shocked and dismayed that your regular policy is to all return of anything used at all. (You can't tell if a few sprays are gone from a spray, but a used candle???) Also shocked the manager doesn't just agree to take anything back when a customer insists. I really don't know WHY corporate retail wants their store managers to accept stuff back which is clearly used or clearly outside of generous policy. (Christmas decoration in May, etc)
Last time a lady asked me for a discount I said “we’ll get you next time” And it worked.
Back when I worked retail, there was a TikTok going around that encouraged shoppers to look in the overstock bins beneath the shelves for inventory we were “hiding from them”. So yes.
There's a big couponing community for Dollar General. Some of the really good couponers share online how to get the best deals so there are people that try to copy them but don't actually learn how to coupon and they often bring the wrong item(s) to checkout and the total doesn't come out to what they saw online. Some are cool when we explain it to them but some are just awful and insist we do a price adjustment for their poor planning.
Retail wonders why they keep closing stores. Other than high theft, it’s cause they’re pussies when it comes to saying no.
We’ve had people take advantage of something to the point they took it away. Target used to take returns on Cat & Jack kids clothing if it got worn out because the brand stands by their double stitching and whatnot. Somehow that got turned into, “Target will exchange your kid’s Cat & Jack clothing nonstop every time your kid grows out of them.” Which doesn’t even make any damn sense. They accepted people’s entire closet worth’s of worn out, outgrown kid’s clothes for a year or two but now they’ve completely stopped. The kids clothes are now subject to the same 30 day return window as everything else.
I work at a dollar store and people on tik tok were talking about this spray hand sanitizer not too long ago. This person on tik tok said we were hiding it in the back. Like we got one case in and when people heard about this it was gone. No more came in.
The closest my job gets is when certain candies or toys go viral, and we have an insane number of people call or come in for it. If we don't carry we get a snotty 'well you should' or 'do you know who does' If we are sold out it's 'well when will you get more?' And the answer is 'idk, we won't know until it actually shows up' and they get very huffy. Slime Lickers and the initial axolotl squishmallow craze sucked.
Social is Mehh. I’m at the age where I don’t care because trends change so often. Taylor port was it’s good run. Now it’s crown blackberry. The problem is crown seriously underestimated its popularity so we’ve been back logged for a while.
i work at a store where stuff goes trending from on tiktok all the time, yes 😊
The try on hauls. If they are trying on clothes in a fitting room, a lot of them trash that fitting room. People who are just starting out also trash the fitting rooms for their try on hauls.
No we use https://quimbydigital.com/newsletter/ to send us trends weekly and it’s free. Takes the brain power out of it