'Then came the Karens': Video game store offers too-good-to-be-true offer on gaming console, store floods with confused customers

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 6, 2023 3:00 PM EST

"I immediately wanted to call in sick," this video game store employee wrote. What made them feel so ill? An advertisement!

For those who have spent time in the trenches of retail work around the holidays, you know exactly how this person feels. No matter how much you enjoy your retail job during the year, when the holiday season comes around, customers begin to act feral. 

A few years back, I enjoyed working at a clothing store for much of the year. It was mainly folding clothes, working the cash register, helping customers, and putting clothing back in the correct section. It was easy to pass a shift with only minimal customer interaction, and usually, the customers would be kind and patient. 

But, the holiday season made monsters of these people. Why do shoppers lose every ounce of patience and understanding during this season? It's like they don't understand that there will be longer wait times and fewer employees to help them, since Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the times everyone is shopping. Just because you suddenly realized you need to get presents for everyone on your list right now, that doesn't make it an emergency for the rest of us! 

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement

  • These days, Black Friday and its' newer sister holiday Cyber Monday stretch longer and longer, with many stores offering pre- and post- sales. I do hope this helps retail employees keep their sanity… but you know how these entitled customers act. 

    This person, u/SushiThief, shared a story from several years back, when they were working at a game store. There was a sale on the Wii system (which they refer to as “Woo” in their story) which customers just couldn't get enough of. It was advertised in a way that was too good to be true, and worse, designed to be misleading and confusing for the average shopper. Check out the OP's story below. Then, these people reminisced on their most cringe moments ever, like one person who was sure the best way to woo a girl was to show her his Groot impersonation. 

  • 01
    Wii 'The advertisement that almost made me quit' to Wii
    via Denise Jans on Unsplash
  • 02
    The advertisement that almost made me quit. Medium I used to work for the Toybox and they decided to have a special sale on the Woo video game system. I'll never forget walking into work and seeing the sale sign, just a few weeks before Black Friday, that said: GET THE WOO FOR $99.99 I immediately wanted to call in sick because I knew my day was about to be destroyed, but a manager had already seen me, so it was no use.
    via u/SushiThief
  • 03
    You see, with that sale, you could indeed get the Woo (which retailed at $249.99 at the time) for $99.99, but like all deals... you had to read the fine print. To get the Woo for $99.99, you had to purchase $150 of other items to make that deal happen. These other items were: • (1) 20 pack of Toybox AA batteries. • (1) Lame looking Olympics game with popular characters for 2 different franchises. ● • (1) Specific gaming ottoman for the Woo. • (4) items of your choice made by Gear Ape for the Woo
    via u/SushiThief
  • 04
    It would ring up as $99 for the Woo, and $150 for the other items, meaning you ended up spending the regular cost of the Woo of $249.99 Did many people actually read all those details? NO!
    via u/SushiThief
  • 05
    I barely made it to the electronics section where I worked before I heard my phone ringing, which as expected was someone asking, "Are you guys really selling the Woo for $99?!?!" These were the easier part of my day because I got to let the customer down gently and because they'd already questioned the legitimacy of the sale. You see, Toybox had sent emails out about the deal with the subject line "GET THE WOO FOR $99.99" with the details inside the email.
    via u/SushiThief
  • 06
    Then came the Karens, male and female alike. Person after person who'd thrown on their shoes and rushed to the store to get their hands on a $99 Woo, only to at me when I told them there was more to the sale and they needed to read the entire email. I'll never forget one particular grandkaren though. Her: (walks right up to me, and ignores my greeting) "I want the Woo for $99.99!"
    via u/SushiThief
  • 07
    Me: (internal groan) "There's more detail to the sale than that, you also have to purchase these other items to...." Her: (cutting me off) "I don't care about any of that and don't want it, I just want the Woo for $99.99!" Me: "I'm afraid I can't do that. The entire detail of the sale was in the email and all the advertising." Her: "I just told you I don't care about all that. The email said the Woo was $99.99 and you need to sell it to me like that."
    via u/SushiThief
  • 08
    Me: "I'm sorry, but that's not how the sale works." Her: "Then that's false advertising. YOU are false advertising." Me: "It's not false advertising. All the detail is there in black and white." Her: "Not it's not! It's false advertising, and I want to see a manager!" This of course, was not the last time I had to call a manager over that day to deal with someone who starting whining about false advertising. My manager did set her straight though, and of course she didn't get a $99 Woo.
    via u/SushiThief
  • 09
    That sale was only 3 days long, but it was absolutely miserable. I got called names by customers, got bitched at, and told myself I'd quit on the spot if they ever did another advertisement like that again. Yes, there was an occasional parent who thought it was a good deal, but mostly it was just people who didn't know how to read.
    via u/SushiThief
  • 10
    Also, for those of you about to come in and say "Well, I'd just buy the bundle and return all the other stuff, then keep my $99 Woo", you can't do that. Anything sold as a bundle/deal in my Toybox store also had to be returned as a bundle to keep people from doing just that.
    via u/SushiThief
  • 11
    shaodyn It wasn't so much people who can't read as people who refused to. Also, it amazes me how many adults think they can force the universe to bend to their will by loudly announcing their desires and ignoring all qualifications. Do you suppose they ever do that with other things and get mad that natural forces refuse to listen to them? "My house was on
    via u/SushiThief
  • 12
    fire and it refused to stop being on fire no matter how often I told it to! I finally had to call the fire department to make it listen! I have never been so outraged in my entire life!"
    via u/SushiThief
  • 13
    chosenamewhendrunk YOU are false advertising. I love it when people blame the minimum wage employee with absolutely no control over the situation whatsoever, it makes it easier to identify that person as an idiot.
    via u/chosenamewhendr*nk
  • 14
    BlueJoshi oh my god is that why i got all that weird stuff the same year my mom bought her wii
    via u/BlueJoshi
  • 15
    SSS_Tempest Had to deal with a similar deal myself both last year and earlier in the month. Nothing as big as the system (just a free turkey for Thanksgiving), but nobody reads the fine print and even if they do, the way to get said turkey was through the store website and the amount of tech illiterate people, in the year 2023, is almost laughable.
    via u/SSS_Tempest
  • 16
    SushiThief OP I feel ya there. But I suppose it also depends, because apps can be terrible when you're trying to do a deal through them.
    via u/SushiThief
  • 17
    cold_french_fry At that point a manager should have been assigned to do nothing but stand directly next to the checkout specifically to deal with all the Karens that would inevitably be demanding to speak to them all day.
    via u/cold_french_fry
  • 18
    I understand why advertisements are made the way they are, but it's always infuriating having to deal with customers who can't be bothered to read the rest of it. Even if the "fine print" is only one or two more sentences, they'll still blame you for tricking them.
    via u/cold_french_fry
  • 19
    not a robot ********* lemoinem You're bearing none of the responsibility, but it IS misleading advertising. Sure, not false advertising, thanks to a technicality. But it is purposefully designed to draw people in with an offer that's too good to be true. That's predatory and the idiots who keep setting up this kind of advertising should be the ones dealing with the Karens.
    via u/lemoinem

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

karens games talesfromretail holiday season grandkaren retail demanding video game holiday karens in the wild entitled grandparents video games tales-from-retail karen story wii karen holidays entitled people
Scroll Down For The Next Article