'You break it, you buy it': Staff member demands parents pay for damaged items at local pet shop after son ruins store

Author image for Sienna Varady
Sienna Varady
May 14, 2024 1:00 PM EDT

You are accountable for your child. Stated simply, you will be liable for the cost of replacing any products that your child breaks while you are shopping. Given this perspective, what would you do, therefore, if two well-to-do parents allowed their child to run wild and then declined to pay for the hundreds of dollars in damages?

The story below is an account of a frustrated pet store employee. The original poster (OP) worked at the pet store for an extended period of time. Everything went well at first because the majority of consumers complied with the store's rules and regulations and exercised caution when around the products and pets. However, things quickly got out of hand when a pretentious family entered the store and refused to calm down their hyperactive toddler. In just one hour, the toddler had accrued an outrageous cost that the reluctant parents would eventually have to pay.

Having said that, make sure to read the story below if you're interested in learning the specifics of what happened! In addition, when all is said and done, remember to read the story of the marathon worker who handles the runner who tries to access staff property!

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  • 01
    “Pay up”
    via canva
  • 02
    Kid breaks stuff and parents are surprised they have to pay for it
    via u/Queen_of_Meh1987
  • 03
    Your kid breaks $150 worth of product? Don't be surprised when I charge you for it. My night job is at a specialty pet food and treats store, and we also offer grooming and a self-wash grooming station where you can come in and wash your pet. Had a couple come in with their (human) son who was about 9 y/o to wash their dog. The couple went in with the dog and left their son to wander around the store. As I'm by myself, I didn't notice he was unsupervised until they had already gone in and starte
    via u/Queen_of_Meh1987
  • 04
    I spent 15 minutes finishing my baking, taking care of customers, and following this kid around to clean up after him. He was grabbing random toys and playing with them then setting them down wherever, bouncing all the tennis , grabbing leashes off the shelf and pretending they were lassos. He was also bothering my customers, asking them random questions as they tried to shop. After I asked him 3 times to stop messing with things and other people, he went over to our baked treats table. I knocke
    via u/Queen_of_Meh1987
  • 05
    the parents to please bring their son into the wash with them or to let him sit in the car while they finish, and they told me that they were almost done, and that their son was never a problem. I explained that he was disturbing other customers and playing with random items that I was having to clean up, and the woman looked me right in the eyes and said, 'Yeah..that's your job.' I told her my job was to run the store, not to babysit customers' children, and she rolled her eyes at me and said t
    via u/Queen_of_Meh1987
  • 06
    I come back to the sales floor and the kid had crumbled 3 cakes and a whole bunch of treats, as well as snapped a bunch of bly sticks and other dried treats. He smiles and bounces off, and I start to gather and ring up the items. The parents come out of the self wash and I add that to the transaction, and tell them their total is $149.76. Both their mouths drop and the guy says, '$150 to wash my f g dog?!' I say, 'No sir, the self wash was $16;
    via u/Queen_of_Meh1987
  • 07
    the rest is to cover what your son destroyed.' The mom says her son didn't destroy anything, and I gesture to the pile of broken cakes and treats. 'Actually ma'am, he did; he broke all of this after I asked you to please supervise him.' She started arguing and saying that I must have broke them all because I didn't like having her son in the store. Yes, because I love baking a bunch of stuff just to destroy it; uh huh, yep, you got me!
    via u/Queen_of_Meh1987
  • 08
    I had a feeling this was going to be the reaction, so I already had the video from our cameras ready to go on my phone to show her. 'This isn't your son walking over to our table and smashing those cakes and treats? This isn't your son going to the bly bar and snapping them in half?' She didn't say anything for a second, and then told me she didn't think they should have to pay for them. I told her that her child broke them after I asked
    via u/Queen_of_Meh1987
  • 09
    them to watch him or let him sit in the car, so it was their responsibility to cover our losses. She asked to speak to the manager and was very disappointed when I pointed to my name tag that has 'Manager' under my name. 'You are speaking to a manager, ma'am. Anything else I can help you with today? If not, your total is $149.76.' She glared at me, but put her card in and paid and they left, looking like they were screaming at the kid the whole way to the car. Anyone else have fun work stories l
    via u/Queen_of_Meh1987
  • 10
    Correct-Bi h · 1 day ago • When I was a teenager I worked at a Round Table Pizza in a bad neighborhood. One night this family comes in, two toddlers in tow and proceeds to drink two pitchers of brat a booth, leaving their children to wander around under the tables. I was working the pizza oven which is a big conveyer belt heated to about 500° F. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the kids wandering towards the
    via u/Correct-Bi**h
  • 11
    oven, hands out, ready to touch a scalding hot pizza coming out of the oven. My babysitting instincts kicked in and I scooped the kid up before he got hurt, and he started screaming. It took a minute but the mom got up and started screaming at me that I hurt her kid. I was trying to explain I was protecting him but she wouldn't let me, she ripped the kid out of my arms with so much force that I fell backwards and screamed at
    via u/Correct-Bi**h
  • 12
    me to never touch her son again. Manager came over and asked what was going on, the mom tried to say I hit her son, wouldn't even let me talk. My manager was just like "I guarantee my employee didn't do that. I saw your kid wander into the employee area from the cameras in back. You're lucky my employee
    via u/Correct-Bi**h
  • 13
    thought quickly. I'll let you finish your meal, but you're lucky if I don't forward the footage of you assaulting my minor employee after she protected your unsupervised child to CPS." The lady's mouth was just on the floor, she left and I never saw that family again.
    via u/Correct-Bi**h
  • 14
    Filbertthemerchant 1 day ago • My brother, once in a supermarket, asked a child that was taking all the magazines of the shelves by the check out and shaking the contents onto the floor one by one, to stop doing it. The mother turns around and said "You shouldn't tell my child not to do that". "No, you are quite correct, you should" was his reply. Classic.
    via u/Queen_of_Meh1987
  • 15
    F3Grunge 1 day ago This one actually felt good to read. Good job Mgr Queen of Meh '87.
    via u/F3Grunge
  • 16
    Queen_of_Meh1987 OP 1 day ago Thanks!
    via u/Queen_of_Meh1987
  • 17
    Soxwin91 1 day ago • Not quite as satisfying but I had a kid in the store who was tossing a beach ball around. At one point it came near me so I picked it up, asked him not to do that in the store, and handed it back to me. He kept doing it and the ball conked me on the head.
    via u/Soxwin91
  • 18
    So I picked it back up and told him not to bounce the ball in the store. Well, his mother didn't appreciate me telling her son to behave so she starts yelling at me. Manager was right there and had witnessed the entire thing. She came over as soon as the woman demanded a manager.
    via u/Soxwin91
  • 19
    She gives me this evil smirk and is about to paint me as s In when the manager cuts her off and tells her she saw the whole thing—and then tells her to get out of the store immediately. Didn't even let her buy her c p. Just told her to "get out. now."
    via u/Soxwin91
  • 20
    Jazzlike-Mess-6164 1 day ago • Here's a story for you. Years ago, at a hair salon I used to work at, a mom came in to get her hair done and brought her young son. We weren't allowed to turn her away, and she swore her son was well-behaved. Well, he wasn't. We were all busy with clients, so we
    via u/Jazzlike-Mess-6164
  • 21
    couldn't keep an eye on him. He wound up breaking a couple of bottles of product on the retail shelves and kicked the wall so hard that our clock fell off and broke. We charged her for the product, and she went across the street to Target and bought us a new clock. She never came back after that.
    via u/Jazzlike-Mess-6164
  • 22
    Ashkendor 1 day ago . You're nicer than I would've been. I used to work in a department store in the juniors/teen girls' department, so back-to-school time was oh so much fun. Lots of moms were always out shopping for big sister with their younger kids in tow. Most of them managed alright, but they sometimes asked us to watch the younger kids at the register. Yeah, that's a no. 1) not my job plus that's an enormous liability
    via u/Ashkendor
  • 23
    to foist off on a retail employee and 2) do you not see how busy we are? One lady got peeved when we said no and told her son to 'just stay there and listen to them' so I told my coworker to call mall security. She got even more peeved and went off on how unhelpful we were, then dragged the kid off by his hand while he whined about how bored he was.
    via u/Ashkendor
  • 24
    Fabulous_Celery_1817 · 1 day ago I work in the kids department and nothing me off more than when parents drop their kids in the toy section to play while they shop. They destroy the box, chase each other with nerf g_s (that they took out of the boxes). We're a clothing store! Not wonkas factory or a McDonald's playhouse.
    via u/Fabulous_Celery_1817
  • 25
    Fearless Principle47 1 day ago Too many people think that because we get payed at a job, we deserve to be treated with disrespect. They assume we'll put up with watching their children or cleaning up after them
    via u/Fearless_Principle47

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