'You should fire her!': Karen screams at cashier, attacks manager, gets arrested

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    Font - Posted by u/SimMinnie 16 hours ago Karen gets arrested because... I wasn't being a good cashier? XL This story is long, but I promised to write it - bear with me, please. So I used to work as a cashier in a supermarket. This story took place on my fourth day of work there, and my second day working at a cash on my own without a supervisor sitting next to me (teaching me the ropes). Yes, I had 2 days of "training". I'm sure most of you will figure out in which country I live from the follo
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    Font - Supermarkets in my country are a zoo on a regular day. However, Thursdays and Fridays are absolute mayhem at the store and are a special kind of hell. Fridays the store closes 2 hours before sundown, as do most stores in this country. (During winter this means around 14:00 and in summer closer to 16:30). People get crazy on Fridays trying to get all their shopping done and get home in time to cook dinner. If you can avoid coming to the store on Friday please do so at all costs, I always t
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    Font - Now this was early evening on a Thursday, at a time when the store is absolutely jam-packed. We had 10 check-out lines open and every line had at least 6-7 people in line. Basically, if you are stuck with a slow cashier - there is no where else to go, unless you have 10 items or less. Everything is going well until I get a customer with TWO shopping carts full of items, mostly non- perishable items. (And these are the large carts you find around big stores in the US, like Walmart). I foun
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    Font - He greeted me very politely and then said the most dreaded words I could have heard that night: "this will be a delivery". Just a quick break from the story to explain why this was so dreaded - especially on a day like today. When we get a delivery, the cashier would call a helper from the store to help bag the groceries. Usually people do their own bagging. The bags would then be placed in plastic containers and containers would then be placed on top of each other and taken to the back f
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    Font - This guy has two full carts and wants a delivery. I say "sure, no problem". Then I turn to everyone else in line and let them know that this is a delivery and it will take just a bit longer than usual and apologise for any delay this may cause. We always do this so customers will be aware of the delay and can move to another cash if they are in a hurry. This is when the whole line groans simultaneously. I don't blame them. There was no where else to go. I could see every one of them crani
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    Font - So I start scanning as fast as I can. I'm pretty good with numbers so even though it's my 4th day I remember many of the codes and things are moving rather quickly. I get to a point where the bagger can't keep up with all the items and the area to the left of me, where I place all the scanned items, is just a mountain of cans and bags of chips and whatnot. I can't even scan another item cuz they are falling back on to my scale. At this point I stop and ask if he wants help bagging. The cu
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    Font - This is where the Karen comes into play. She is maybe early 40s, long brown hair, and looks nothing like a Karen. Except for the way she was standing, with one hand on a hip that extended so far to the side I wasn't sure how she's still standing. She's in my line, about 5-6 people in front of her still. This is the conversation that follows: Karen: HELLO? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Me, Not answering cuz I didn't think she was talking to me, I keep scanning. Karen: EXCUSE ME? WHAT KIND OF A CASHI
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    Font - I realize now, after reading so many reddit stories, that this would have been a perfect for chance for some malicious compliance. I'm sure some of you hope that I did just what Karen wanted. Too bad I didn't know about it then. Or that it was only my 4th day on the job. That's not what happened, although I dream sometimes that I did just that. (Sit back and sip my coffee until the space cleared for more scanned items. You know, "be a cashier". Next time.) Me: I'm just helping to move thi
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    Font - Karen (not listening anyway, and having none of it): JUST DO YOUR DAMN JOB! YOU ARE A CASHIER! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, ARE YOU STUPID? YOU SHOULD BE FIRED! I stop listening at this point and don't answer as I'm still helping to bag and scan as fast as possible, knowing it's not gonna help anyway. However, I see one of my managers, let's call him Joe, walk up to Karen. Joe is great, by the way. Always helping the workers.
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    Font - Joe: What seems to be the problem? Karen (still yelling): YOUR CASHIER IS AWEFUL. SHE IS LAZY AND SHE IS NOT DOING HER JOB. YOU SHOULD FIRE HER. TELL HER TO DO HER JOB. SHE'S NOT DOING HER JOB (she repeated that a few times, like a broken record). Joe looks over at me for a second, understands exactly what is happening, turns to Karen and says: "can't you see she's trying to help? She's trying to make this go much faster." Now Karen starts screaming words, I'm assuming, but I couldn't rea
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    Font - Joe tries to calm her down by explaining (or trying to) how me bagging items is actually helping and this makes Karen even more irate, if you can believe it. Spit flying from her mouth, arms flailing, screaming like a banshee. Suddenly I notice an older woman (Nice Old Lady), must have been around 80 years old, trying to get Karen's attention by tapping her on the shoulder. It takes a few tries but she finally gets her attention and spins her around by her shoulder. NOL: Hey Karen.... Kar
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    Font - Karen: WHAT????!!!! NOL: Your daughter is crying! This is when the entire store seemed to have stopped talking all at once, like someone pressed mute and turned off the volume. The sea of people in front of me parts a bit, and we all look down and see a little girl, who couldn't have been older than 4, clutching her mother's thighs balling her eyes out, snot coming out of everywhere, hyperventilating. This girl was terrified, and I can't blame her. Seeing her mother going off like that mu
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    Font - This silence lasted an entire 2 seconds, because that's when Karen started yelling at Joe. Karen: LOOK WHAT YOU DID... YOU AND YOUR STUPID LAZY CASHIER MADE MY DAUGHTER CRY! And a bunch of other crazy sounds that were perhaps supposed to be words. Things happened in slow motion for the next few seconds. She start to swing towards Joe. (Joe is not a big guy, but he's bigger than Karen, that's for sure, and he's not easily intimidated - not his first Karen).
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    Font - She would have decked him right in the face if the NOL hadn't grabbed her in a bear hug to stop her. Yes she did! I had to pick up my jaw off the floor. At that point other customers got involved trying to peel off the NOL from Karen and stop Karen from trying to kill Joe, and from Joe trying to kill Karen cuz he was fuming by then. At this point I saw mall security storm the castle (our store was inside a mall) and the sea of people just surrounded Karen and I couldn't really see much of
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    Font - This entire time this is happening, I'm still bagging and scanning items, and I'm about half way through this customer's purchase. I finish up with him with no more problems. He was very nice and thanked me profusely for helping with the bags, even though technically it wasn't part of my job. He said I was the fastest and nicest cashier he ever had the pleasure of meeting. I was just happy to help.
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    Font - No one else in my line complained. I actually got compliments from people about keeping my composure (apparently many cashiers in my country think it's okay to yell at customers and just be plain nasty. I worked in customer service for many years prior and I have never yelled at a customer, even if they deserved it). Once the rush died down a bit I went for a break. I met another employee in the back room and I started to tell him of what just happened when he cut me off: "she was yelling
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    Font - I don't know what happened with the child. I'm assuming they called another family member to pick her up. I also don't know what happened with Karen after that since I ended up working there for another year and I never saw her again. Hopefully, she learned to do her grocery shopping on Tuesday/Wednesday. (Or was possibly in prison or house arrest)
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    Font - This was the first Karen I had the displeasure of meeting while working at that store, but definitely not the last. To those of you who read the entire story, thank you for sticking with me through to the end. I hope it was worth it and you got some sense of pleasure or justice from the end result. I will work on my writing skill so the next stories I may write, that may be long as well, will be easy and entertaining to read. TL:DR: I'm a cashier, and Karen gets mad at me for helping to b
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    Font - Ihavenoclueagain 9 hr. ago I feel so bad for that child. 43 . Reply Share
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    Font - blackav3nger 10 hr. ago Very good story, I wish we knew what happened to Karen, but you weren't there when she was hauled away. Reply Share 29 SimMinnie OP 4 hr. ago I did try to find out afterwards but no one at the store knew anything else other that she was taken by police. I guess it was a security/police matter at that point. 11 ↓ ↑ 11 Reply Share
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    Font - Murky-Celebration231 10 hr. ago Omg! Good for you for not loosing it, I'm afraid I'm the type that would've just grabbed a bag of popcorn and sat back And watched the show! Actually it's sort of comforting in a very sad way that it's not just the US that has its share of self entitled Karen's! 42 Reply Share SimMinnie OP. 4 hr. ago Thanks so much. If this happened today I'd have had to write this story in malicious compliance because I'd say "ok, Karen" and just sit back until she realize
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    Font - aviva1234 7 hr. ago Thats why i never go shopping on a thursday or friday and if i have to go to the not cheap ones. I wotked out the extra money i pay is cheaper than the therapy ill need. I dont understand wth that guy was doing buying all that on a thursday. We live in terror of having to go to the supermarket at the special times of year..especially april and swptember. The amount of people is crazy and youd think they were biying for end of days. Id rather eat sandwiches than go thro
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    Font - SimMinnie OP. 4 hr. ago that guy ended up with a delivery of 15 crates... I had not seen that big of an order before or since. Yeah, Thursdays and Friday's are a headache at the store. Although, people with a disability can skip the line, or go to the express lane and skip the line there as well. This store was also inside a mall in a "nicer" area and so we had LOTS of Karens come by, and just people from the mall who were bored, or going to the movie theater upstairs and need cheap snack
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    Font - 1Sluggo 9 hr. ago This was a great story. I'm always happy when Karens get arrested. 10 Terrible-Border6885 4 hr. ago I'm a sucker for a happy ending. Reply Share 7 Reply Share SimMinnie OP. 4 hr. ago Me also. :) 3 3 Reply Share SimMinnie OP 4 hr. ago Thank you. Same here. I listen to stories of Karens getting arrested to lull me to sleep at night. Sweet dreams indeed. Reply Share ...
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    Font - CryBabyCentral. 9 hr. ago I LOVE the football analogy!! Omg. I worked in Customer service related jobs (my entire career) and holy smoke. I would have done everything you described. You did an excellent job. You did everything correct & I'm so proud of you. Reply Share 7 SimMinnie OP. 4 hr. ago Thanks so much! Customer service responses are just etched into your brain after so many years, lol 2 Reply Share
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    Font - DivineMs_M 7 hr. ago . This was written just fine. I was able to picture it all in my mind's eye! It is a shame when people are having a bad day and take it out on others. I feel sorry for her little girl...NOL is a hero! 5 Reply Share 3 ... SimMinnie OP. 4 hr. ago Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it. I also felt so terrible for the child but NOL should have gotten a medal that day. Reply Share

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