Customer insulted by grocery worker's nickname: 'They spent the rest of the week trying to get her fired for it'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jul 18, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

It seems innocuous, but calling someone "hun" can really bug some people. I admit, I'm one of those people who doesn't care for it. If you're a waitress at a diner who calls everyone "hun," I suppose you can get away with it. But if you're snapping your gum, rolling your eyes, and calling people "hun" with a simpering, demeaning undertone, that's just very irritating. The same goes for "doll," "buddy," or "babe": there's nothing wrong with terms of endearment for people you actually know and love, but for strangers, it comes off as flippant. It appears like you're saying a kind word, but we all really know it's a cutely-disguised sneering insult. 

There's also a time and place for this. Waitresses and retail workers seem to call people "hun" a lot, and people by and large don't seem to mind, but if their lawyer or doctor called them that, they might feel a certain type of way about it. Regardless, if you're called "hun" and you don't like it, you could probably just do nothing about that. Just literally go about your life, and choose any other thing in the world to focus on. It's so inconsequential, but certain folks have a short fuse and a lot of time on their hands. 

Next, read these stories from retail workers whose customers were driving them really crazy: "No exceptions… until a customer complains loudly." 

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  • 01

    "My mom called a customer 'hun' and they spent the rest of the week trying to get her fired for it"

    So my family is originally from upstate NY and moved to Florida about 9 years ago..i feel this part is worth mentioning because up north, I never really heard people use "sir" or "ma'am"..it was often "hun" or "bud" (at least in my small little town)..and when I first moved down here, I myself was chewed out by a customer when I said "what can I get for you, hun?"...and she thought it was incredibly ride of me and told me I should address her as "ma'am".
    via u/confusedra2476
  • 02
    Then, when i briefly moved back up north i had a different woman get mad at me for calling her "ma'am" because she felt it was the same as me calling her "old" (you just can't win) Normal, decent human beings don't get their all in a bunch over something so small (I suggest customers like this start wearing their own name tags so we can know what they want to be called) so this isn't a common occurance
    via u/confusedra2476
  • 03
    Anywhoozle, on to what happened to my mom. She works in OGP at Walmart, and for the most part, she likes her job. She's been doing it for 2 years and is now a team lead and she loves her staff and they love her. Unfortunately, with the higher position, she's now the one who has to deal with the terrible customers.
    via u/confusedra2476
  • 04
    Well one day, a man came to pick up the groceries his wife ordered..he was very nice but didn't understand the process, so he had his wife on the phone. She had placed two separate orders (one for her, and one for a friend of hers) but my mom could only find one order under the wife's name.
    via u/confusedra2476
  • 05
    My mother explained that she couldn't find the order, and asked if was under a different name..but the customer kept yelling at my mom and insisting that it wasn't under a different name, and kept implying that she was too incompetent to do her job. My mom asked for the order number, and again, the woman refused to give it to her..both my mom (and the woman's husband) were trying to explain that there wasn't
    via u/confusedra2476
  • 06
    anything they could do if she wouldn't give them any information...she kept yelling and when she finally paused, my mom said "hun, I'm trying to help you, but I can't do that if you won't help me" And the woman lost it all over again, and said "I can't believe you just called me hun! That is so unprofessional!" And continued tearing into my mom for another minute before she demanded to speak to a higher up. So she
    via u/confusedra2476
  • 07
    transfered the call to her boss, who got to hear this woman freak out even more..which escalated it to the store manager.. She comes in the next day and is informed that the customer has brought it all the way to corporate and that they'll be doing an "investigation on the incident" and for the rest of the week, that woman called the store to see what was going on and to complain more. My mom came home from work at the end
    via u/confusedra2476
  • 08
    of the week and was fighting back tears and said "this woman ruined my whole week over this"..and I spent alot of years working in retail myself..but I've never hated a customer as much as I hated that woman.
    via u/confusedra2476
  • 09
    Cheezburger Image 10531062528
    via Guillaume Issaly For Unsplash+

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

  • 10
    And the real kicker to all of it, that 2nd order was placed under the "friends" name..all that woman had to do was tell my mom the name..instead she spent a week of her time being miserable. I hope she steps in a wet spot everytime she puts on fresh socks
    via u/confusedra2476
  • 11

    This just goes to show how even when you try to be polite, you might still get on people's nerves

    AudiencePure5... Wild. I'm from Australia and we generally hate using 'sir' or 'ma'am' etc. Anyway I was in the UK working once and training this chap of South Asian / Indian extraction who spoke the King's English. He said to me "where you are from, do you not ever use the term 'sir'?"
    via u/AudiencePure5710
  • 12
    I simply said no we do not, and further find such terms to reinforce the class system which we do not believe in at all. In fact even Mr Surname is not well liked. First names are preferred thanks, if you don't want to be called 'mate'.
    via u/AudiencePure5710
  • 13
    Cheezburger Image 10531063296
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 14

    He sounds insufferable

    Beep_boop_hu... Happened to a coworker of mine who called a man 'darl' (common term of endearment in my area). He ended up writing the company a huge a letter
    via u/Beep_boop_human
  • 15
    about 'if the roles were reversed I'd be called misogynist pig' blah blah blah Bitter loser + too much time on their hands is a horrible combo.
    via u/Beep_boop_human
  • 16
    StoriesandStones "Not professional?" It's Walmart (or as I like to call it, "The Walmarts"), not a Bloomingdale's. I've lived in the south most of my life, and if I'm not honey, hun, darlin, sweetheart, baby, to customer service at any store, I wonder why they're mad at me lol.
    via u/StoriesandStones

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employee work stories customers employees workplace nicknames grocery store
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