'A woman came in to return a bag of soil because "the bag was dirty"': 25+ Retail workers who were utterly baffled by their customers' requests

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 9, 2023 11:00 AM EST

While working retail, these people have seen it all. Cashiers get to see people from all walks of life, of all ages, and of all levels of sanity. 

These retail workers shared some stories of the wildest interactions they've had with customers. That's one of the strange things about working retail---you always have to take the customer seriously, even if you're pretty sure they're messing with you. Some customers love to mess with retail staff, even though no one seems to find it funny except them. What do they gain from making the employee at a clothing store look for items that don't exist, or trying to boss around the people who work at the supermarket? 

It's one thing if customers do these things and they're funny. But a lot of the time, they're being disruptive, or worse, the employee has heard that joke many times before. People loved to do this when I worked in a fast food establishment. They seemed to get real satisfaction out of pranking fast food workers, even though none of us ever had a reaction to it. There were groups of teens who loved coming through the drive through to attempt to order food we didn't serve, and they'd rattle off a long list of items like tacos and candy that they knew we didn't have. They must've thought they were the epitome of clever… little did they know, they're the third person in a month to try that joke. Boring! 

Next up, this couple had terrible service while at a restaurant, so they left a low tip, only for their waiter to protest their choice. 

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  • 01
    London Travel information [U] watched this guy... walk in, wave, pick up a TV... and walk back out. Alarm didn't even go off.' MERCHANT BOGAT #reghouse
    via Anna Dziubinska on Unsplash
  • 02
    Redditors who worked in retail what has to be the most "Are you serious" moment ever?
    via u/The_pinto_mobile
  • 03
    imfinethough I worked at Walmart. A woman came in to return a bag of soil because "the bag was dirty". She was dead serious.
    via u/imfinethough
  • 04
    Mattxy8 I worked at a fast food place for a while and had this one regular who ALWAYS had something to complain about. The worst was that no matter what, our fries were NEVER fresh. Whenever we saw her we'd drop fresh fries just so she wouldn't complain about them. She'd order, and we'd give her fries directly from the fryer and she'd tell us they weren't fresh... What the ? My manager got them from her, walked to the back, and brought her the exact same container and apologized...The lady said
    via u/Mattxy8
  • 05
    TheWorzard OfIz Guy walks in to Tractor Supply, steals bolt cutters off of the shelf. Then walks to the side door and cuts the lock where two of his buddies have been placing items near the door. They pile everything in this tiny car and just drive off. They were caught later that day for trying to steal for another store in the same plaza.
    via u/TheWorzardOfIz
  • 06
    lawlessSyntax Watched a man carrying six bottles of red wine simply drop all six bottles on the ground (shattering them) and walk out of the store, khakis stained bright red like a savage business casual warlord. My assumption was that it was an accident and he was horribly embarrassed and just left. I'd like to believe that it was an intentional piece of performance art, because it was the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed.
    via u/lawlessSyntax
  • 07
    zhumblebug I hear "excuse me?" and look up from stocking the milk, which I'm standing in front of. "Could you tell me where your milk is?" I almost didn't answer her, milk is basically the whole aisle and I had it in my hands.
    via u/zhumblebug
  • 08
    notwest94 I was once berated over 10 minutes becausr of the fat content of ham A lady was ADAMANT that ham "never had fat when I was a kid" and wanted to know when they started adding all the fat into HAM. "I can't eat anything anymore" She mustve said that like fifteen times I was like, Lady, they really only taught me how to slice it.
    via u/notwest94
  • 09
    Beantownfan73 I worked at McDonald's when I was 16-17. My first day, in the grill area training during lunch rush this guy comes in through drive thru and orders 100 burgers, 50 plain, 50 with cheese. I was like, "w man?" I was told it was a lunch truck guy that would order them (at the time we had a 49 cent burger and 59 cent cheeseburger day) then dress them out and sell them for like 2 to 3 bucks a piece to his customers.
    via u/Beantownfan73
  • 10
    soggy7 I worked at Sears and watched this guy with big brass bls walk in, wave, pick up a TV (we had overstock I spider wraps out on the floor) and walk back out. Alarm didn't even go off.
    via u/soggy7
  • 11
    swe-gin I worked at a store as a pharmacy tech, and it was very slow. People would often come up to me and ask if I knew where non-pharmacy was, and I always just pointed them towards customer service. One day this VERY old woman (had to be 85+) with a strong Southern accent comes up to the counter. "Hello ma'am, how can I help you today?" "Wheres the collagen?" (I think: a skin care product? maybe the health section? so I walk out to the aisles and start looking with her)
    via u/swe-gin
  • 12
    "Collagen, well... I don't think we carry pure collagen... are you looking for a skin care product or supplement?" She just stares at me, looks up and down the aisle, at all the lotions, then back at me. "Collagen. Where's the collagen?" She repeats. At this point I'm getting frustrated. I'm rummaging through these shelves of creams and lotions and coming up with nothing. So I walk over to the pharmacists, and consult with him... he recommends sending her to customer service, but I decide to pus
    via u/swe-gin
  • 13
    I walk back over to her, and start scouring the vitamin/supplement section, and finally locate some kind of powdered collagen. "here!" I announce, as I hand her the bottle. She looks at the bottle, then at me and says: "Where's the collagen??? I'm makin soup" broth. College Inn
    via u/swe-gin
  • 14
    Incaendia Also a pharmacy tech and had a similar situation. Had an elderly gentleman with a thick southern accent keep asking me where the "arm and axe" was. Looked everywhere. Figured it was some kind of topical pain relief cream or gel.. even asked if he meant "arm & hammer" the baking soda. Nope. Almanacs. He wanted almanacs.
    via u/Incaendia
  • 15
    reverendmalerik Woman bought a shed. I asked her her loading bay number and she said she hadn't driven. Asked her if she needed the number of a man with a van or something. She said her husband could carry it. I stared at her and said very slowly "Madam, it is a building." She insisted that I was being ridiculous and demanded we bring it up so her middle age, slightly chubby husband could carry it out the store as they only lived "about ten minutes walk away".
    via u/reverendmalerik
  • 16
    We brought it up, with extreme difficulty, and she asked me "what's that thing?" I said "That's your shed madam." "There's no way Jeff is carrying THAT!" Oddly she decided to pay the money to have it delivered.
    via u/reverendmalerik
  • 17
    euys I worked in a supermarket for about a year and a half, I've had some crackers. The best one, by far, was a man walking up to me and demanding I show him fruit. I asked him what specific kind of fruit, as they are stored in different parts of the store, and he just replied with "fruit". So I take him to the part of the store where most of the fruit is kept and asked him if that was going to be okay, he then asked me for fruit in bags. I explained that he can put the fruit into the fruit bags
    via u/euys
  • 18
    After what felt like weeks of trying to coax what fruit he was looking for out of him, walking him up and down the fruit and veg aisles, three different managers had to get involved after he started yelling at me because I "didn't know where the fruit was". He cussed us all out and walked away. 20 minutes later he comes marching up to me, shoves a bag of raisins in my face, screams "FRUIT" and walks away. TLDR - guy spent about half an hour screaming FRUIT at various staff members; he was lookin
    via u/euys
  • 19
    [deleted] I work in a pizza place, and I can't tell you how many times people have ordered "meat" on a 1- topping pizza. When I ask which kind, they have said things like, "Oh, whatever you have," all the way to "Are you stupid? MEAT!" For reference, we have pepperoni, sausage, Italian sausage, beef, ham, bacon, chicken, and anchovies. Occasionally, for some specials, we end up with chorizo, or shaved steak.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 20
    maddomesticscientist. I didn't work there but was behind this woman in line at my tiny towns dollar store type place. She was buying a couple cans of that milk suppliment for kittens. Thought it was actual cat milk and was buying it to drink herself in some sort of fancy food party for one she was throwing for herself. "yeah, I done went to Kroger's and got me some fancy cheese and I had to leave the S line because I was on the verge of bursting into laughter at the look on the cashier's face.
    via u/maddomesticscientist
  • 21
    Nimble Wing I work overnight stock at Walmart. One night, I'm over stocking the Spam section, and this big guy walks up. Big big. I'm talking 300-400 pounds big. I continue minding my own business, putting things on the shelves, and he speaks. "Excuse me, sir. I am so, so sorry that you have to see this." And then he just... pauses. Confused and concerned on equal levels, I stand up and turn around to look at him, wondering what, exactly, he plans on doing. After staring at me for about a good t
    via u/Nimble Wing
  • 22
    More containers of Spam than I ever thought anybody should ever need in their lifetime, let alone one shopping trip. (That one is an exaggeration, sue me.) With his cart fully loaded with Spam, he turns around and walks away, leaving a huge empty spot on the shelves that I'd been filling up. I manage to get out a quick, "Have a nice day" before he escaped around the corner. It was... certainly an experience.
    via u/Nimble Wing
  • 23
    97 AlphaTadpole Awesome! Finally something I can answer. I work at Macy's in the women's shoes department. Our customer base mainly buys clearance items, and rarely spends more than $40. Everyday I watch as customer after customer asks if they can use coupons, get an extra % off of the price or any discount possible. Now, one customer took the cake over every other one. She came to me and asked for the mate to 18 clearance shoes. As I work off commission and this was a pretty large sale, I basic
    via u/AlphaTadpole
  • 24
    and rang them up at the register for her and her total came to $236. This is where s went south. She asked if she could use her 20% off coupon, yeah now normally h you can use that coupon, but in this day we were having a sale. All clearance shoes were marked down 80% and were roughly $10-20 per pair. So coupons were prohibited. She then SCREAMED at me until I called my manager. Like calling me every name in the book, telling me I'm idiot, that I af shouldn't be allowed to work there because I m
    via u/AlphaTadpole
  • 25
    for this particular sale, the woman bought all 18 pairs, for $236, but made someone else ring it up so I wouldn't make commission on the sale. Little did she know the other sales person rang it up using my ID number. Dumb bi.
    via u/AlphaTadpole
  • 26
    arkwolf A lady asked me "where are the eggs" She was literally looking at me and they were directly behind me. Obviously 2 shelves wide and with a sign hanging from the side of the shelf that said "Eggs".
    via u/arkwolf
  • 27
    mmccarthy781 You'd be surprised how many women would rather slip a raw steak into their purses/pants than pay whatever sale price they are going for. And this is in the 'Upscale' supermarket as well
    via u/mmccarthy781
  • 28
    rogerdavist Worked at a Target and have literally a thousand stories, but the one that sticks out to me was one I wasn't actually present for. Gentleman walked in one day with a blender, sat down in our Starbucks, and proceeded to make himself a smoothie. I can't emphasize enough that this is retail, this is hardly the weirdest thing that's ever happened to us. The floor leader on duty ask if he needs anything, is looking for anything, he smiles and says no, thank you, very polite. When he's fin
    via u/rogerdavist
  • 29
    bathroom, which admittedly, are already a little akin to the Twilight Zone. The Australia on the world map of Target, if you will. Anyway, a male employee was sent in to ask what exactly he was doing, and apparently, the man replied with "What? It's not like I'm doing anything illegal? What're you going to do, call the cops?" Yes, apparently. I guess several other male employees were called up to guard the door before anyone else could get in before police arrived. Don't know exactly what happen
    via u/rogerdavist
  • 30
    [deleted] When a client drove 25+ min BACK to the store, for a .30$ price match adjustment. When a client threated to take us to court because we would not give him a free 20$ part for his purcahse, 7 YEARS AGO. Client telling me they saw the product sold at 20% less then what my lowest price was. Proceeds to show me "proof"...Sale price someone said they got, on a forum, in a diff country and currency. (if I did match their price, it would have been about 5000$ over what our price was from the
    via u/deleted
  • 31
    Client complaining the tree they bought died. Actually this happened 2 times in the same summer. 2 different clients. First one didnt seem to know you have to water plants/trees. So yeah, it died. Second planted it with the plastic base on it. That also isnt ideal. I can go on for hours.
    via u/deleted
  • 32
    C ZOMBGIEF I worked at Suncoast (video retailer) during the early 2000s and some dude kept calling me for weeks asking me if the movie "Churro Man" had come out on DVD. He had a pretty thick Hispanic accent to his English. I considered myself a film buff and I had never heard of a movie called Churro Man. Every time he called I would look up "Churro Man" in the computer database and of course nothing would come out. I would ask him if he got the title wrong, perhaps it was "The Wicker Man" and h
    via u/ZOMBGIEF
  • 33
    got to the point where I just thought the guy was trolling me. One day the guy came into the store in person. He came up to the register and was like "You guys finally got it huh?" While holding up a DVD, it was True Romance. Are you f brah? serious
    via u/ZOMBGIEF
  • 34
    March1392 Not really retail, but when I worked at Five Guys someone asked me if our French fries were made from real potatoes despite signs and 50 lb bags of potatoes being in front of her face.
    via u/March1392
  • 35
    Ofactorial Work at a restaurant. Recently had a customer I've never heard of before call up and ask for a reservation. "Sure, what day and time?" "Today 10 minutes" "...okay..." "Also, tell the kitchen I'm coming and to prioritize my table's food. I'm a regular there, people will know who I am". Needless to say I didn't tell the kitchen. Also, I know our important regulars, he wasn't one of them. H, I'd never even seen the guy before.
    via u/Ofactorial
  • 36
    nzsmarta Yesterday my manager spent half an hour trying to find an account customers order in our system (you can do a reverse look up in the system to reprint receipts) after she insisted she had come into our store earlier that day. There was nothing in our system, so he said he'd give her a call back when he found it, spent some time looking through the tills for her receipt, then on a whim called the other branch in our city. They confirmed that she had in fact shopped with them, and he had
    via u/nzsmarta**
  • 37
    Versaw As a cart boy: A guy throws his trash into a cart while he's standing right in front of a trash can. Worst part is when I went back to campus (college), I told my friend who was part of the janitorial staff. Instead of sympathy, he just shouted, "It's your job!" I felt like dumping flour in the room he had to clean and saying, "What's the problem? It's your job."
    via u/Versaw
  • 38
    wastingtoomuchthyme. "it didn't scan - must be free, right?" HA HA HA HA HA
    via u/wastingtoomuchthyme

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