Customer berates 19-year-old retail worker for processing lottery ticket too slowly, she retaliates by hiding his favorite discounts: 'He was nasty to everyone working there'

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Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Feb 15, 2025 12:00 PM EST

If you ask a lot of people who work in minimum wage customer-facing jobs what the worst thing about them is, it's pretty likely that a lot of them will say that it's the customers. While customer service can occasionally provide some heartwarming experiences that restore your faith in humanity, the horrible people who seem to exist to make the lives of people serving them a misery can unfortunately sometimes appear to be more common.

It is never pleasant to professionally deal with unpleasant individuals, and in a lot of jobs, it can be hard to do anything to put them in their place. However, some employees do find satisfying schemes and loopholes that allow them to give people like this a taste of their own medicine. It can take a little sneakiness, but it is nothing compared to the ways in which some customers believe it is acceptable to act.

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    Cheezburger Image 10467727360
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • When one young woman began working at a small local supermarket, she quickly faced the wrath of one of their regular customers. Failing to process a lottery ticket quickly enough for his liking, he blew up at her and she got upset. It wasn't long before she found a way to get her own back, and it involved some of the other products that the store sold at a discount.

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    Cheezburger Image 10467727616
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)
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    A customer screamed at me once, so I ate his favorite food

    When I was a university student, I worked in a little supermarket for over a year. I was 19 at the time, and since UK minimum wages are age-based, I was making very, very little. We had a really complicated machine for printing and cashing lottery tickets, and any corrections and refunds had to be signed off by the manager who was never around when we needed him. Cashing one ticket alone took something like 15 steps - it was wild. So, for the first few weeks, I was quite slow at it in order to a
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    Well, on my second day there, an old guy turned up and in addition to some food, he wanted a few lottery tickets. He didn't seem to appreciate my lack of speed, and leaned in to about 8 inches away from my face to scream "YES!" when I tried to check if the numbers I was about to print off were correct. In retrospect, it really wasn't that big of a deal, but I was young and very small, so his screaming and towering over me was enough to make me feel upset and afraid. He looked very pleased with h
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    I'd already had a bit of retail experience under my belt from a prior job, but that day, I cried in the employee bathrooms for the very first time. The job was not great, so I was brought to tears by customers a few more times during my time there, but I was broke and a fast learner, so I was always available for overtime. I ended up working 45-55 hours a week, and the guy tuned out to be a regular, which meant that he had absolutely known I was new, and I got to serve him often over the next ye
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    I also got the hang of things, and did pretty much everything else there - from training others, keeping the refrigerators' temperature log, ordering stock, logging and clearing waste (expired items and those with a broken seal), to reducing items which had reached their sell-by date - 25% off at 9am, 50% off at 12pm, and finally 75% off at 4pm.
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    Well, one benefit was that I learned a few things about the miser who had screamed at me, like how he was nasty to everyone working there (especially the younger ladies), how he was retired and seemingly not very well-off, and how he appeared to keep track of food sell-by dates, and would regularly turn up soon after certain meat-based items had been reduced for the final time. Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being old or on a budget, but it's always a bad idea to scream at people jus
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    The other benefit was that, because I was working there full time, I was the one serving him 99% of the time, which gave me ample opportunities to deliver my petty revenge. And it was going to be a slow burn - like cooking a frog, as they say. Being a broke university student, I figured that I could both stick it to him and save myself a bit money, since food price reductions stacked with my employee discount.
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    He never screamed at me again, but for 10 months, I hid all of his nearly- expired favourites behind the dairy items, and purchased them for myself once he'd left in a huff after finding them gone. I didn't even care for sausages all that much, but I regularly ate something called "toad in a hole" out of sheer spite, and the vile git probably managed to buy reduced sausages maybe five times in 10 months.
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    He got visibly more and more upset overtime because other shoppers had seemingly caught onto his strategy. I always nodded sympathetically: "Sorry, we've sold the last ones. Maybe try again later in the week?" I actually rather like toad in a hole now, and have it as a special revenge treat. It reminds me of that time I cooked a frog for nearly a year. Don't scream at the people who handle your food.
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    People greatly admired her subtle revenge.

    activelurker777 Thanks for the chuckle!
    via activelurker777
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    UndercoverPretzel OP You're very welcome! My retail days are long over now, but I still remember them fondly whenever I have toad in a hole.
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    OverallRow4108 yeah, what you did could be considered nice compared with what other people do to customers food! I like your thought process!! good for you!
    via OverallRow4108
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    UndercoverPretzel OP I wasn't looking for trouble, I just wanted to mildly (but regularly) inconvenience the old guy.
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    JaNoTengoNiNombre He was a fool. I'm a regular in a grocery store near my home, so they know me and because I treat them well, remember their names and greet them every time, they always recommend the best dishes, sometimes they save some food if I'm in a hurry or can't go early. It's cheaper being nice to the ones that could help you.
    via JaNoTengoNiHombre
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    UndercoverPretzel OP It definitely is! At my corner shop, the owner is regularly behind the till, serving customers. When their cost of goods goes up, so do the prices they charge, but he charges me the old price, and always tells me when they're planning to close early or stay open late. Lovely chap.
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    jpjimm Good for you. He clearly made time in his day to come and intimidate young people trying to make their way in life. He was envious of your opportunity of youth when he wasted his own.
    via jpjimm
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    TheBlonde1_2 Toad in the hole is amazing. I have mine with creamy home-made mash and onion gravy.
    via TheBlonde1_2
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    UndercoverPretzel OP The best! I've come to realise that revenge is a dish best served with a side of gravy.
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    Nuicakes I would've eaten a sausage right in his face. "I don't like these but they're really cheap on expiration day. I buy everything and give them away to my friends".
    via Nuicakes
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    Cheezburger Image 10467773952
    via UndercoverPretzel
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    III_Industry6452 That would really get him riled up, but OP would probably get in trouble with management for that. Her quiet revenge is better, though I very much would want to do it your way.
    via Ill_Industry6452
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    UndercoverPretzel OP Part of me wishes that I could've been more blatant about it, but the fact that he had no idea made it even better. He looked like a chump.
    via UndercoverPretzel

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customer service groceries discount malicious compliance retail lottery retail worker customers entitled people karma food reddit thread Reddit entitled people grocery store
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