‘I can hear the dripping sarcasm from the worker and I’m loving it’: 20-something-year-old Walmart employees give well-deserved sass to whiny Karen customer

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Sep 21, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

It there is one place int he world that tends to be an accidental beacon to Karens, it's Walmart. Who knows what part of that mega store screams "entitlement welcome," but somehow it does. You'd think since most of their employees are either young kids/ adults or retired senior citizens forced back into the workforce that the patrons there would be a little more empathetic, but nope. Karens thrive in this establishment. 

However, the younger generation is starting to not give any Fs and standing up for themselves while facing Karens at work. That whole "the customer is always right" sentiment has been not only thrown out the window, but lit on fire and burned out of existence. Thank god, tbh. 

One Walmart patron (one of the good ones) recently witnessed a Karen in the wild while they were waiting at the self-checkout line. They didn't even have to step in and assist after hearing how the young employees were dealing with it. This entitled Karen was upset because one of the kiosks at the self-checkout seemed to be busted. They were recently installed, so she demanded to know why these new kiosks were broken and that somehow must come fix it this instant! 

The employees told her that it wasn't broken, it was just programmed in Spanish and they can't figure out how to change it back to English. The Karen, of course, blamed these 20-something-year-olds (or maybe younger) for the IT issue and refused to let it go. Even though other kiosks became available, she wanted her tantrum to be justified. 

But these employees only responded with sass and sarcasm and the empathic patrons watched on with satisfaction. Nothing like a Karen trying to invoke some unnecessary scene only to be stopped by nobody caring. Read for yourself below! 

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  • 01
    Automotive design - Walmart Save money. Live better cans Love F shape na Low prices Every day On everything Price
    via Walmart via Flickr
  • 02
    Font - Posted by u/Dodge760 21 hours ago Woman demands kiosk be re-programmed by Walmart worker 3
    via u/Dodge760
  • 03
    Font - So this happened yesterday at my friendly neighborhood Walmart, which has always had self checkout on one side but just recently installed the second set at the other entrance.
    via u/Dodge760
  • 04
    Font - It's unusually busy for a Sunday and I'm there grabbing a few things for dinner, rice, beans, meat, etc. under ten items. I've always been under the impression that self checkout is for those of us with less items than a full basket. But whatever I digress.
    via u/Dodge760
  • 05
    Font - I go to get in line in the new section of self checkout kiosks, a couple of workers are gathered around the one kiosk that has the red light on above it. It's not available for use. Well cue this older woman with a full basket of groceries about three people deep in the line...
    via u/Dodge760
  • 06
    Font - EW: "Why is that one not available? Theres a full line! I thought these were new?" The workers, who can't be more than 20, already look annoyed with the situation but one of them walks to the edge of the display barrier around the self checkout to address her.
    via u/Dodge760
  • 07
    Font - WM: "Ma'am we're not sure what's going on but that kiosk is only displaying information in Spanish. We were trying to see if we could adjust the language settings but we can't figure it out. Anyone's free to use it though."
    via u/Dodge760
  • 08
    Font - The woman let's out an audible sigh, apparently not good enough. EW: "If it's not in English, how am I supposed to know what I'm paying for?" The worker looks confused as much as the rest of us.
    via u/Dodge760
  • 09
    Font - WM: "Well... I mean you are going to be scanning each item. So you would know, wouldn't you?" I can practically hear the dripping sarcasm from the worker, and I'm loving it.
    via u/Dodge760
  • 10
    Font - EW: "How hard can it be to change the language? Why would it come in Spanish?" WM worker seems to be dying a little inside. WM: "Ma'am, when they set it up they must have made a mistake in the initial install. I'm not sure what else to tell you."
    via u/Dodge760
  • 11
    Font - EW: "Well THEY need to come fix it, they're holding up the line!" WM: "THEY don't work in the building ma'am. It's a vendor install and it's a national contract, we have to schedule them to come out."
    via u/Dodge760
  • 12
    Font - EW: "Can't you do it? What are you here for if you're not going to help? Just change it to English!" At this point a third WM worker walks up, this one is a manager of some kind. He walks up to woman and looks over her cart.
    via u/Dodge760
  • 13
    Font - WM2: "Miss you have too many items for self checkout as it is, you're going to have to go to an open register." The woman begins huffing and puffing about how she would be done already if that kiosk wasn't broken, to which the manager corrects her it's not broken.
    via u/Dodge760
  • 14
    Font - During this exchange, several kiosks did open up but she refused to taken any of them while she had her extremely loud conversation and blocked the entrance to the kiosk area with her full basket.
    via u/Dodge760
  • 15
    Font - I took slight comfort in that there were only three open registers and those lines were even longer than self checkout.
    via u/Dodge760
  • 16
    Font - zomgitsduke · 21 hr. ago That's when you say "Gracias!" to the woman as she goes to a new line. 144 Reply Share Dodge760 OP - 21 hr. ago I wish I would've thought of this.
    via u/zomgitsduke
  • 17
    Font - One Cartographer_254 17 hr. ago ● In all reality - nearly 100% of people could muddle through even if it is in Spanish. You only need to actually know what 2 or 3 things are on the screen and I think there are pictures... it's not like it's going to show in pesos or pesetas lol
    via u/One_Cartographer_254
  • 18
    Font - Dodge 760 OP 17 hr. ago ● Yeah, if you've ever used self checkout at Walmart you just scan until your done and hit the green pay now button. It
    via u/Dodge760
  • 19
    Font - wasn't very difficult, once she was out of the way that kiosk got used by someone in line after me. I have no knowledge of if they knew Spanish or not but they didn't seem to have any trouble.
    via u/Dodge760
  • 20
    Font - Mommabear_of4 19 hr. ago The audacity and level of entitlement is real with this one lol. B go use another line and shut up. How hard is it to do that. I don't speak Spanish but I could have used the terminal because IM SCANNING MY STUFF. Lord Jesus help us all lol
    via u/Mommabear_of4
  • 21
    Font - AichSmize 9 hr. ago ● I used to work in the engineering department of a major retailer. We wrote the scripts to install register (and in store server) software, including all the settings.
    via u/AichSmize
  • 22
    Font - It may be different at Walmart, but for our systems, language selection was done at system installation. Changing the language required a reload of the whole package. That took about three hours.
    via u/AichSmize
  • 23
    Font - That seems like a long time, but the language wasn't a setting we imagined would change. Set it once at install and it's good for store's lifetime.
    via u/AichSmize

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