'YOU are the one with the problem, girl': Business Karen tries to sabotage neighboring coffee shop barista by accusing her of theft

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Sep 15, 2023 2:00 PM EDT

You do not want to get into business with this Karen. In fact, you do not want your business to be anywhere near her business. Otherwise, she'll be under the impression that she is in charge of you and will therefore start making ridiculous demands as if she's your employer. Of course, this wasn't the case, but in a Karen's warped perspective of the world, facts do not seem to matter. 

This two-part thread was posted to Reddit's r/EntitledPeople subreddit by u/beverage5997, who spoke of numerous instances when this Karen made a fuss to the other neighboring businesses, mostly about noise. However, one time she recognized OP from a previous saga and tried to sabotage them by staging a fake instance of theft. The most telling part of the story was when Karen refused to see the security camera footage proving that she was wrong because she was just "so convinced." OP even included a series of anecdotes proving that this was not the first time Karen tried to pull this nonsense, including a funny Yelp review story. 

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments section. For more content like this, here is another post about a nosy coworker who felt entitled to an employee's lunches.

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  • 01
    Property - Brazil Kone lo Camila "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM GIRL?" www.Altale 2500 Subtemple B D LO ANREMO 0 SIMONELLI
    via Nafinia Putra
  • 02
    Font - (PART 1) Crazy business owner Karen thinks she can boss around the coffee shop next door L I've been sitting on this story for a while as it is currently ongoing, but I'm itching to share this tale. Many years ago I got hired as opening staff at a dessert/coffee bar. The bar was one half of a franchise stemming from a larger (but still pretty local) chain. The owner of the franchise (Randy) got screwed by an incompetent contractor on the remodel, so the store was deep in the red on openin
    via u/beverage5997
  • 03
    Font - What was supposed to be a break room, then was going to be a small ice cream bar, eventually became a boutique that was connected to the dessert bar. The woman who runs it (Sharon) was Randy's friend. My best guess is that Randy was struggling to make rent, so decided to sublet the space to her instead of going with a business partnership (what the ice cream bar was gonna be).
    via u/beverage5997
  • 04
    Font - That dessert bar was only open for a year and half as it never could recover from the financial damage done by the contractor. I was there for it's entire lifespan, and Sharon treated my coworkers and I like her employees. She would constantly come over and ask for free coffee and be overly friendly/have no boundaries. The turn-over rate in employment for her was ridiculous. One girl who worked there would come in for coffee and tell me that Sharon was really good at acting nice, but was
    via u/beverage5997
  • 05
    Font - Here's where the story really starts. After that dessert bar closed, she took over the space. Mind you, she was still only renting the tiny 9x5 space, but expanded her boutique to extend into the entire restaurant area. Even put signs for her business out front as if that was part of her store. The spot stayed vacant for ~1 year.
    via u/beverage5997
  • 06
    Font - Enter my bosses. They had made a name for themselves by selling their own farm-grown coffee at local farmers markets and decided it was time to have a proper storefront. They rent the space, and the drama begins.
    via u/beverage5997
  • 07
    Font - Im gonna try and briefly explain the layout of this cafe/boutique because its relevant pretty early on; so when you enter the cafe it swings to the left in an L shape. On the far wall after turning left, there is a huge square window that takes up most of the wall. To access the bathroom you have to turn right at that window and walk down a small hallway to the side of the POS. In this hallway is where the entrance to Sharon's boutique is. It's a very strange and confusing layout for a bu
    via u/beverage5997
  • 08
    Font - So, needless to say, the day my bosses went to the place to start moving in equipment, they were stunned to see the area they were renting was already being taken up by this woman's things. After introducing herself to them she launched into a spiel on how they were going to "collaborate" as business neighbors. She claimed that the large window was "her window" and was where she would be displaying her dresses, and that the hallway to the bathroom was her "art gallery" in which she displa
    via u/beverage5997
  • 09
    Font - Well, my bosses are not pushovers, so Husband Boss (HB) told her exactly where the tables were going to go. In front of the large window where she thought she would put her dresses. Obviously this did not sit well with her and she took immediate offense. HB made a lifelong enemy that day. The proceeding months would prove to be as this woman with zero boundaries who thinks the world is her oyster refused to stay in her lane, constantly trying to overstep. The worst offense was what she di
    via u/beverage5997
  • 10
    Font - My bosses are not cruel people, but they aren't stupid either. They knew this woman was going to be trouble and wanted to take protective measures, so they opted to have a door installed where her store meets ours. It wasn't an open doorway, but the only means of separation was a sliding door that locked on her side. In other words, she could bar us from entering her store but she had full access to ours. She did not agree with this idea because it would mean giving up her "art gallery".
    via u/beverage5997
  • 11
    Font - So, the day the contractor came to install the door, she made sure to be there to tell him not to install it where her sliding door was. She forced the contractor (that was being paid by my bosses) to install the door at the entrance to the hallway instead, AND to put the lock on HER SIDE! She wanted to be able to lock us out of part of our own cafe, and cut off our access to the bathroom! My bosses were so fed up with her that they left the door there just to keep the peace (but obviousl
    via u/beverage5997
  • 12
    Font - at a coffee shop. Yelp reviews indicate that she's done the exact same thing to the upstairs business... which is a MUSIC STUDIO. Okay lady. In addition to this she would come into the store and walk behind the counter to adjust the thermostat, or demand that our staff do it when they wouldn't let her. My boss retaliated by putting the thermostat in a plastic wall-mounting lockbox. She retaliated by getting an electric AC unit for her 9x5 closet store. She does not pay any utilities by th
    via u/beverage5997
  • 13
    Font - Fast forward another year, I'm in the area and notice that a new cafe has opened up in that spot, and since I was looking for a job at the time was like, "Hey, wouldn't it be so funny if I worked in the same building twice?" So I shot my shot and they loved me! After my first day my boss asked me about her, and I told him the story of how she got her place, and I got the story of the nightmare she caused them in trying to open up the store. Check my profile for part 2!
    via u/beverage5997
  • 14
    Font - (PART 2) Crazy business owner Karen thinks she can boss around the neighboring coffee shop L Check my profile for part 1! So, it becomes immediately clear that she does not recognize me, and for that I am thankful. I'll stay in my lane, you stay in yours, no problems. Right? Of course not. One day, not even 5 months into my time working here, I am in the back washing dishes after close, when I hear a shrill "HELLOOOOOOO???" cutting through my tunes. 'Oh jesus' I think to myself, 'Here we
    via u/beverage5997
  • 15
    Font - So she interrupts me doing my job to ask me if she can leave a "gift for her friend" in the store for her to pick up in the morning. Um... what??? I was so confused, why can't she just leave it in her own store or her dumb little art gallery??? I can't remember exactly what I said but it was something to the affect of "I mean... you can leave it but I can't guarantee she'll get it?" She glared at me and said "What do you mean? Won't you be open in the morning?" I wanted to go home and did
    via u/beverage5997
  • 16
    Font - Well, the next day I was off work, but I was woken up by a phone-call from my coworker asking if anyone had "dropped off a package for the lady next door". In my sleepy stupor (and because he used the word 'package' which made me think like FedEx or Amazon) I replied no, hung up and went back to sleep. Woke up several hours later, checked my phone and saw a ton of texts in the work GC. Wife Boss (WB) told us to no longer do any favors for Sharon. Apparently, the gift bag she left was not
    via u/beverage5997
  • 17
    Font - You might be thinking, why in the world wouldn't she just give the gift to her friend herself? You would be thinking logically. But I'll tell you why. The 'gift' she had left was actually a KEY TO HER STORE. Once I learned that detail (in addition to the detail that she was offered a look at the security cameras but declined) it all came together. Sharon had not only recognized me, but plotted to FRAME me! That's at least the only thing that makes sense. You leave a key to your store with
    via u/beverage5997
  • 18
    Font - Okay. Luckily WB and HB had my back. I wish it ended there. Some of our regulars at the cafe are friends with her, and she had them ask us about this gift thinking we'd tell them something different I guess?? I honestly have no idea why she made them ask us about it. Maybe to make herself look more innocent. Who knows.
    via u/beverage5997
  • 19
    Font - The hill she's currently chosen to die on is the insistence that we put up a sign on our side of the door to let people know that it slams very loudly. After the previous incident she poked her head in to ask me this (after I had already told her no before) and started at me with, "Can you do me a favor and-" I cut her off and said "No. We don't talk to you anymore." She stared at me dumbly and loudly proclaimed "Okay! That's weird!" Is it Sharon?
    via u/beverage5997
  • 20
    Font - She has asked every person who works here to put up a sign and been told no by every single one of us. She has tried to put up her own signs and I take them down. She even harasses customers going to the bathroom about it, I can't tell you how many times I've had a customer tell me "the lady next door asked if you could put up a sign." Not once has she brought this up with HB or WB, just continuously harasses the baristas about it hoping one day she'll get the answer she wants. The worst
    via u/beverage5997
  • 21
    Font - Before I could even look at her she launched into a spiel, to which I simply shook my head and continued on to do my job. What she said came out like this (imagine I'm walking past her ignoring her as she is desperately yapping after me), "Can you PLEASE put a sign on your door so your customers don't have to apologize for- WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM GIRL?" The last part was as I was walking out of her hallway with my back turned to her. Sharon, I don't have a problem. YOU are the one with the
    via u/beverage5997
  • 22
    Font - In her defense the door does slam, but it isn't due to customer negligence. Due to the weird layout of the store there's airflow through the hallway that C the door into the frame, causing it to slam. It's totally random and I've seen people literally guiding the door to the frame and it still slams because the air it in. The way I see it, she was the one who wanted the door there in the first place. She can lie in the bed she made for herself. It wouldn't be slamming if you'd let the con
    via u/beverage5997
  • 23
    Font - Some other side notes that aren't relevant to the bigger story: On Yelp about 25% of her reviews are one star with the statement of "I would give zero stars if I could." One scathing review in particular told about how the reviewer, a handicapped veteran, parked in the spot behind her store labelled handicap (its not actually but the handicap symbol is still painted on the spot). Sharon came out of her store and glared at this person, and when they asked if there was a problem she alleged
    via u/beverage5997
  • 24
    Font - One of my coworkers' husband perused her store for a bit while waiting for his wife to get off work, and she stalked him around the store watching him like a hawk. (Again this store is the size of a closet, theres no reason to be watching someone that closely. You can stand anywhere in the store and see the whole thing.) He told Sharon he would be right back to buy something after he used the bathroom. She accused him of lying, saying "You're not gonna buy anything you just came in to use
    via u/beverage5997
  • 25
    Font - He told her that if all he wanted to use the bathroom he wouldn't have had to come in at all as his wife works next door. He then did his business and actually came back to buy something, to rub it in her face that she was wrong. I commend him for that tbh. I have lots of smaller stories about this lady and realistically will likely have more to tell in 6 months time. Stay tuned!
    via u/beverage5997

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karens coffee shop petty revenge coffee karens in the wild entitled reddit thread Reddit cafe business karen entitled people
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