‘Some people just don't deserve ice cream’: Peanut-allergic customer impolitely demands employee jump through hoops to ensure vanilla ice cream is nut-free, but doesn't believe them when they fulfill her requests

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Jun 26, 2025 8:00 PM EDT

Allergies should be taken seriously, obviously. I'm allergic to bees; Truthfully, a big ol' carpenter bee was in my house this morning. I had a cup, a giant blanket, sunglasses, and a dream… Needless to say, crisis averted. I'm the first person to say that allergies can make or break someone, literally, and it's important to abide by the allergic person's requests sometimes. This is especially true when someone has an allergy to food, and the good ol' peanut allergy knows how to ruin someone's day.

Why are peanuts in almost every factory? What's up with that? Even still, it's up to the employees working the register to let their inquiring customers know if their allergen is in the food products. Some entitled folks, though, ask the questions but don't believe the answers. You'd think that if the employee triple-checked a container to make sure no allergens were in a tub of ice cream, the customer would feel at peace. At that point, it might be safe to say that they shouldn't eat out if they require a call to the Ben & Jerry's factory…

Scroll below to see the fallout between a young, seasonal ice cream shop employee and a customer who refuses to believe them. 

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

  • "No ice cream for Karen"

    So I'm working at this summer camp and it's ice cream day. You ever scoop 1500 scoops of ice cream without stopping? It's
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  • exhausting and I'm ready to be done with my day when the last person comes to get ice cream. Let's call her Karen.
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  • "Does this ice cream have peanuts? I'm very allergic and can't have peanuts near me." She says.
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  • Okay sure, peanut allergies can be serious so I understand her caution. Only thing is,
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  • "It's vanilla ice cream." I state, already feeling the headache. "Well there might be peanuts in it." She responds, not backing down.
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  • Idk how to take that because it's ridiculous, so I go back in the kitchen to ask the head chef, "Hey Chef, is there peanuts in the vanilla ice cream?"
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  • "No, it's vanilla ice cream and there's no peanuts out as toppings." Chef says.
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  • I return and tell Karen what Chef told me. That apparently is not good enough for her.
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  • "Well I need you to go check the box and see if there's peanuts in the ingredients." She demands.
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  • I sigh and wander back down the stairs too the walk in cooler to check. I even thought to bring it back with me in case she doesn't believe me.
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  • "There's no peanuts in the ingredients" I say, pointing them out to her.
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  • She reads them, then looks at me and says, "well they might have peanuts in the factory this was made. You need to check."
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  • I just stare at her, dumbfounded. "And how exactly am I supposed to do that?" I responded perhaps a little snarky, I was getting tired of her nonsense.
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  • She gets angry and goes off about how I'm treating her poorly and she should be given ice cream like everyone else and she's gonna complain to management about my poor service.
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  • I just smile and shrug, "it's a cr py summer job, I get paid barely anything, and no one else wants to do it. Complain all you want."
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  • She storms off. Thing is though, there was totally a bucket of strawberry sherbet made in house for kids who are lactose intolerant, and that was guaranteed to not have peanuts.
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  • But like h II was gonna give it to her. Sure I could have probably avoided the headache by bringing that up to begin with, but some people just don't deserve ice cream.
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  • TroublemakingB "...some people just don't deserve ice cream." Truer words were never spoken.
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  • Gloomy-Difference-51 If she's THAT allergic to peanuts, she should know not to even risk it then and move on.
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  • Okayyyitsav I get the worry about allergies bc I have a similar one...but I would never be so ride and if I was THAT worried I just wouldn't get ice cream. bc it's no one else's fault or problem that I have an allergy
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  • CoderJoe1 That's nuts!
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customer service aita peanuts allergies karen-customer customers reddit story petty revenge ice cream customer entitled customers reddit thread Reddit
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