'Your new total will be...': To save $2, penny-pinching Karen disrespects a retail employee, catching karma and losing money because of an expired coupon

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
May 12, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

Shoppers can all agree that getting a good deal on a purchase is the best feeling in the world, but some Karens take the coupon hoarding to the next level. Although it's fun to get a discount every now and then, extreme couponing is the bane of every retail workers existence, especially when the person wielding the magazine clippings that'll save them $.50 cents acts like a tyrannical maniac to every worker. One retail employee got sweet, sweet revenge on a coupon-clipping Karen the weekend of their company's biggest sale. 

u/Lopsided_Intentions57, aka the OP of our story, had worked an extremely busy and stressful weekend, ringing up complicated orders, fielding thousands of customers, and managing the quickly disappearing merch on in the store. Since it was their busiest weekend of the year, chaos was expected, but he was certainly not prepared for the altercation that came on Monday following the end of the madness: a rogue Karen with a clutch of Friday's best coupons in hand. 

While they were cleaning up the aftermath of the sale, Karen waltzed in with a huge bag of items, claiming she wanted to return everything and then re-buy it so that she could save $2.50. Immediately, she was rude to everyone in the store, making demands, insulting their intelligence, and aggressively approaching her silly return/re-buy.

The Karen had driven 1,500 miles across state lines when she realized she could save a couple bucks in state taxes if she purchased the items on the other side of the border. Cue the malicious compliance. Little did the Karen know, her coupons were technically expired since the weekend's sale had concluded, but after verbally assaulting OP and hurrying him along, he wasn't inclined to warn her. Scroll for the full, detailed account of how this retail employee served up sweet justice to a rude, penny-pinching Karen

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    Cheezburger Image 9762818560
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    Rectangle - r/r/MaliciousCompliance Posted by u/Lopsided_Intention57 18 hours ago You want "this" price? You got it M OC
    via Lopsided_Intentions57
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    Font - Years ago, I worked as an assistant manager for a retail store in art supplies. My store was in a fairly affluent area, and we got lots of bored housewives who'd drop $500 because they wanted a hobby. So one year, the company offered a 1-day-only coupon for Black Friday. The store was swamped. Saturday was swamped. Sunday was swamped. I am running a register and trying to get people through as rapidly as I can, when SHE arrives. We'll call her Debbie (D)
    via Lopsided_Intentions57
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    Font - D: *throwing three bags full of merchandise on my counter "I want to return all of this stuff and rebuy it." Me: "okay. Can I ask why?" (People sometimes did this because they'd used the wrong payment method or somethin, but I needed to verify) D: "I bought all of this stuff on Friday at [store 1500 miles away] and their tax rate is higher. So I want to return all of it and buy it here, to pay lower taxes. Now hurry up. I've been driving all day, and I'm tired."
    via Lopsided_Intentions57
  • 05
    Font - This is going to be a pain, on a very busy day, over what comes out to about $2.50. I confirm with the other manager, who agrees this is ridiculous, but we just need to do it. So I start her return. But the totals don't match up. So I have to call and talk to the on-call support rep. He tells me I can only refund my state's tax, and not the other amount. The solution is to manually adjust prices until the tax and totals match. As I'm doing this, Debbie is complaining about how she's tired
    via Lopsided_Intentions57
  • 06
    Font - "Ok, the return has been processed." "It's about time. You'd be done already if you weren't so stupid. Now I want to buy it all again." Cue malicious compliance part 1. The thing about art supplies, is they can be small, and in multitudes. And that's what she'd purchased. Individual pencils, brushes, pastels, sheets of paper, etc.
    via Lopsided_Intentions57
  • 07
    Font - "Sure thing ma'am. But I want to be absolutely certain I ring everything up right. Since I'm dumb." So, with a sweet smile, I take everything out of the bags, and ring them up one by one. Of course, some stuff doesn't scan, so it has to be looked up. As I go along, she is getting more and more agitated. The insults get more frequent, and now everyone in the other lines are glaring at her. At last, everything is rung up, and I give her the total.
    via Lopsided_Intentions57
  • 08
    Font - Cue malicious compliance part 2. Remember that coupon from the beginning of the story? The code has been pulled from the system. So her new total, with the reduced tax rate, is significantly higher than the old one.
    via Lopsided_Intentions57
  • 09
    Font - Debbie loses it, and starts screeching, it's not even words at this point, only noise "Sorry ma'am. But it looks like you used our exclusive coupon on Friday. Unfortunately, that coupon is no longer valid. You're new total will be [total]" She kept screaming, but eventually paid, snatched her items, and left. It was a good day to be retail
    via Lopsided_Intentions57
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    Font - jetah +2 18 hr. ago Spent more in fuel... Vote Reply Share StormFallen9 15 hr. ago Honestly. If the drive is long enough to complain she'd have been net negative even if she got the discount price
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    Font - TheExalted Noob 7 hr. ago Her hobby was not doing art with art supplies, her hobby was screaming at retail workers.
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    Font - xaronax - 7 hr. ago You mean her husband spent more in fuel. Vote Reply Share vandebay *her sugar daddies ↑ Vote +3.7 hr. ago Reply Share oberon +2.2 hr. ago Those poor, poor men.
    via xaronax
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    Font - +1.17 hr. ago she must've felt so smart coming up with this plan. or just on a huge power trip. aamurusko79 always reminds me of some people I met when I was a cleaner. since they were the ones whose mess I was cleaning, it apparently enabled them to also consider themselves smarter, more attractive and all around better people than me. and it did show.
    via aamursko79
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    Font - KarockGrok +1.15 hr. ago Protip: ALWAYS ingratiate yourself to the folks that work in the background supporting the 'main' work effort! Custodial, maintenance, help desk, security... Those folks can SAVE YOUR BACON in dozens of ways if there is something that can be done.. or they can murder your chances of success in the same situation just by smiling and following the rules. Plus, don't be a jerk. How hard is it?
    via KarockGrok
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    Smile - harrywwc +3. 18 hr. ago but... but... she was a 'Debbie' :) Reply Share Vote KeepCalmJeepOn 16 hr. ago What a Downer.
    via harrywwc
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    Font - HermitBee 7 hr. ago They buy it on the last day of a sale and then return it the next day. Since they can't refund at the sale price (no receipt) they have to refund at the current price Why? In most places I think if you tried to return nearly-expired meat without a receipt they'd laugh you out of the shop.
    via HermitBee
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    Rectangle - Dumbbitch2 17 hr. ago doing the lord's work over here! thank you for your service
    via Dumbbitch2
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    Organism - Klyco +1.17 hr. ago Right, you're the dumb one, not the person who likely would have lost any potential tax savings from the cost of gas. Now she's paying gas plus more money because of the coupon thing. Perfect revenge.
    via K1yco

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customer service karens employee retail coworkers customers coupons sale customer cashier penny-pincher sales karens in the wild retail-employee on sale extreme couponing coupon return karen penny-pinching
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