20+ Retail workers who had bizarre customers: 'He released a box of spiders into the store... He's not allowed in any Starbucks in this town anymore'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 14, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Doing retail work will show you all sides of humanity, from the very kindest customers to the ones who have totally lost their marbles. 

There's been discourse lately about the so-called Gen Z stare. It's a new-ish phenomenon that customers have noticed when in cafes or retail stores. They approach a worker and just get a blank stare — no greeting or smile, just an unblinking glare. 

There are many reasons why Zoomers might be dully staring at their customers instead of greeting them, but it probably boils down to this: customers are very unpleasant, and the worker isn't paid enough to care about that. It seems that in the aftermath of the events of the early 2020s, people have become much meaner to retail and fast-food workers. That $15 per hour is barely going to cover the cost of a sandwich now, so why should any worker put forth any amount of effort towards their job? And especially if they're expecting every customer to spew forth a stream of vitriol from the first greeting, it's no wonder these poor workers aren't exactly beaming when they arrive at work. 

You'll know exactly what I mean when you read the stories below. These employees shared what happened with their oddest customers, who have done everything from taking a "catch it yourself" approach to the lobster tank to suing a store for getting lightly bopped on the head with a flimsy notebook. 

Next, read about the travelers who are having some rough flights, like one person who discovered that "After 24+ hours of traveling… [airline] lost my luggage." 

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  • 01
    octopuswaffle This is my husbands story. He works at a pet store. There is a lovable parrot there that the staff all interacts with and he is super sweet. It was a very busy evening so all of his co-workers were dealing with things, and he was at the till so he did not notice anything right away either. The parrot is gone.
    via u/octopuswaffle
  • 02
    Someone shoved a $3500 African Grey parrot into their coat (later when they reviewed the video tape, they saw this) and walked out the front door. Everyone was freaking out a little, as we were having a cold snap and they were worried about the poor things well being.
    via u/octopuswaffle
  • 03
    About an hour goes by, and the a -hat's girlfriend came in and brought the parrot back saying that she felt guilty and that he was having a rough go lately! I have no idea if any charges were still pressed and what have you, but what the h I people. Don't steal live animals.
    via u/octopuswaffle
  • 04

    Every grocery store has had customers like this

    [deleted] Our grocery store was about to close so one of our cashiers bought the last whole cooked chicken we had. We kept it in the warmer oven so that it would stay warm, and put a big sticker that said "SOLD"'on it so that no one would mistakenly grab it. Last customer of the day decided to ignore the sticker, and took it anyways. Our cashier
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    tried to explain to her that it had already been purchased and was in the warmer to keep it warm. The customer was not happy about this, so she threw the entire chicken at the cashiers head and stormed out. This is a story that we tell all our new cashiers when they ask about crazy customer stories.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    Outrageous_Claims My executive "team leader" at Target, let's call him Lewis. He was the LOD (leader on duty) at the time, and he meant to call the LOD at another store to warn him about two thieves that were more than likely headed to his store. But he called his own store instead... hilarity insues over the walkies
    via u/Outrageous_Claims
  • 07
    Lewis to operator "I need to speak with the LOD" Operator to Lewis "Lewis you have a call on line 225" Lewis to operator "okay have them hold" the phone rings back after a few minutes.. Lewis to operator, " Yes I've been holding for several minutes it is very urgent that I speak to your LOD!!"
    via u/Outrageous_Claims
  • 08
    Operator to Lewis "Lewis that call for LOD is back on 225, they said it's urgent and they really need to speak with you." Lewis to operator "Well I'm on the phone holding for an LOD!" silence for a few minutes while Lewis is holding for himself, and then the phone rings back a third time.
    via u/Outrageous_Claims
  • 09
    Lewis to operator "Yes! I've been holding for over 10 minutes, and I have a call holding for me could you please find me the LOD or another ETL I could speak too?!" Operator to Lewis "Lewis... that call for the LOD is back on 225 they are getting pretty agitated.. could you please take the call?
    via u/Outrageous_Claims
  • 10
    Lewis to operator and the rest of store "WILL SOMEONE TAKE THE CALL FOR THE LOD ON 225" Another manager (Molly) finally picks up line 225 "Target... can I help you find some.." Lewis to Molly "FINALLY! Look there are two..."
    via u/Outrageous_Claims
  • 11
    Molly to Lewis "Le..Lewis?" Lewis hangs up, and goes on lunch
    via u/Outrageous_Claims
  • 12
    TriscuitCracker Barnes & Noble "The Volleyball Incident" So we have a typical 7 foot high shelf with a bunch of 8" by 10" loose leaf college ruled notebooks for back to school. They are bendy, very lightweight and sometimes they fall off as their front covers bend from standing upright to long.
    via u/TriscuitCracker
  • 13
    So one fell on the head of an older teenager, it barely glanced off her head, and it hit the floor. No employee actually saw it happen, she came up and said it had. She seemed fine, we asked if she was injured, she said no, she left, and that was that.
    via u/TriscuitCracker
  • 14
    An entire YEAR later, an army of our lawyers troops. in, and measures the shelf, a typical loose leaf notebook, and deposes the entire store. The girl sued us for a head injury that has apparently affected her "Olympic Volleyball career", costing her her ability to go the Olympics. A couple months later I was aghast to learn we had settled for an undisclosed amount.
    via u/TriscuitCracker
  • 15
    [deleted] Some lady found a worm in her raw salmon after taking it home. She made a huge storm about it, recorded a video that went viral, and took it to the local news. All the comments on story were trying to tell her that eggs in raw salmon are common and it's not really possible for the store to sort them all out, which is why you cook it.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 16
    The bright side is that wild caught salmon went on sale for $2/pound after that and I snatched up as much as my freezer could fit. I ate salmon every weekend for about 2 months.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17

    Nightmare shift

    soup_party Mmm. Starbucks: we had a one-legged veteran who was a little off his rocker. He used to shout at the employees and clean tables with reeeeeeally weird smelling chemicals that stunk up the whole café. Then one day he decided there was a fly problem, so he released a box of spiders into the store.
    via u/soup_party
  • 18
    He's not allowed in any Starbucks in this town anymore. He did keep stealing our newspapers though
    via u/soup_party
  • 19
    Woman leaning into freezer while grabbing package of food at grocery store
    via William Zimdahl on Unsplash+

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

  • 20

    Stealing between $1 to $5 per shift is iconic

    DrDragon13 Probably the time my old manager caught sisters stuffing clothes in their giant purses. One of them ran with both purses and drove off leaving her sister at the store. Cops were called. Sister refused to talk but matched the description of several shoplifting incidents and was arrested.
    via u/DrDragon13
  • 21
    Or the time that a coworker was siphoning between 1-5 dollars every shift (at Walmart and the in store Mcdonalds) and taking it home. She didn't get caught for nearly a decade (so long. before I got there and for a year after I left). In total she owed Wal-Mart around 10,000 from siphoning escapades. She's in prison and is actually a really sweet older lady, she just needed
    via u/DrDragon13
  • 22
    extra money for her husband's cancer treatments and 3 minimum wage jobs wasn't enough.
    via u/DrDragon13
  • 23

    Hilarious

    fixedfocus I worked in a grocery store. One day, in the seafood department, a customer started rooting around in the live lobster tank. The clerk stopped him, saying "sir, for safety reasons, you can't go into the lobster tank". He tried to argue that he "was from down East, and grew up handling lobsters". She
    via u/fixedfocus
  • 24
    persisted, and turned her back on him to put on gloves. He apparently got annoyed by this and threw a live lobster at her head. The police were called. He was charged with assault, given six months' probation, and banned from the store.
    via u/fixedfocus

    I would've loved to have been a fly on the wall when the lobster situation went down. I want to know how well this dude could actually handle the sea snippers! 

  • 25
    [deleted] Not in retail anymore, but I used to work at Future Shop (basically Best Buy with employees that had to know what they were talking about) and over the holidays we needed to hire on a few extra people. Hired this young guy who wanted to take the initiative to clean ALL of the laptop monitors which would have been great except he used the
    via u/[deleted]
  • 26
    industrial cleaner and if you know anything about computer monitors it's that a lot of cleaners will ruin the screens. So he wrecked a lot of sh. Also Best Buy ended up buying the company so I lost my job suddenly. It was great.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 27
    Woman in red shirt browsing clothing at store
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

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

  • 28
    klt2 This retail job is about 25 years ago, but we had a lot of theft in the store. We had extra staff meetings, had to watch videos about spotting shoplifters, and lots of talk about it. Turns out the head manager was the thief.
    via u/klt2
  • 29
    JacobeyWitness More of a collection of incidents. At the Canadian tire I worked at, If someone. was shoplifting they would let out a coded announcement for any employee able to stop them to do so. One big guy I worked with at the garage caught like 5 people. They usually would try and evade
    via u/JacobeyWitness
  • 30
    around the garage but this guy would usually be able to cut them off. He just had to intimidate a couple people to stopping but he tackled like 3 of them cuz they were runners. He would be so amped every time he heard that announcement.
    via u/JacobeyWitness
  • 31
    sonia72quebec (This happened more than 10 years ago.) A manager at Costco closed the warehouse and forgot that Stéphane was still there. Twice. Poor guy had just been hired to clean the bakery and didn't know anyone. The lights were out so he kind of freak out. He just
    via u/sonia72quebec
  • 32
    remembered a name, found it in the phone book and call him. Fortunately the guy answered and call the Manager to get him out. Is Stéphane still there? After that it was the routine question when closing.
    via u/sonia72quebec
  • 33
    sable-king Not one particular incident, but a myriad of incidents involving the same customer. My first encounter with this guy was one night near closing time. I was the only cashier up front and had a constant line of customers. This one guy comes up with a handful of PVC attachments and tells me that he couldn't find a particular piece. I tell him
    via u/sable-king
  • 34
    exactly where it was, and his mood shifts. He tells me that he spent twenty minutes. back there looking for it and refuses to move further with his purchase until I go back and get it for him. I politely inform him that I can't leave my register, especially since there was a line behind him. He steps to the side in a huff, and come back after the line is cleared, adamant about me going to get this item for him. Thankfully my
    via u/sable-king
  • 35
    head cashier was nearby and helped the guy. About a month later, I was working our self checkout station one day and I notice the same guy go up to a machine. Everything appears to be fine until the machine doesn't give him the remaining 25 cents of his change. He storms over to me and says, "Alright, give me my quarter." I inform him that I can't open
    via u/sable-king
  • 36
    open my register without making a sale and that they can take care of him at the return desk. He says "Just give me my reciept.", rips said receipt out of my hand and storms out. Finally, the one that got him banned from the store. At our store we offer military discounts if you have a valid ID. One type of ID we can't accept is the small emblem on your drivers license, due
    via u/sable-king
  • 37
    to some kind of fraud risk. Well, my favorite customer goes through the line of one of my coworkers, a sweet- as-can-be elderly lady, and shows her the emblem on his license, and she tells him that we cant accept it. He yells, "You all are COMMIES!" and tries to leave the store without paying. Thankfully our LP guy was near and ran out after the guy and was able to get back the
    via u/sable-king
  • 38
    merchandise. Funny thing is about a week after this, an elderly man comes through my line down in our lumber department and informs me that the man from before is actually his son, apologizes for his behavior, and calls him "al sh scumbag".
    via u/sable-king
  • 39
    daliwalli Tag switching...and they're not smart about it. Putting a small tag on a large shirt.
    via u/daliwalli
  • 40
    teenyjoltik Not retail, but food service. A specialty cake bakery. We did cakes for everything from birthdays to baby showers. This was a birthday cake and the only customer we ever blacklisted. A couple rules: we try not to take phone orders because of the custom nature of our cakes. It's easy to
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 41
    miscommunicate on the phone. Also, we need two weeks notice. Anything shorter than that and we require 50% up front to make the cake. If you cancel in those 2 weeks you forfeit your deposit. Before I came to work, a woman had called to place an order for a cake. We tried to talk her into visiting the shop but she would not. She wanted a sheet cake, in the
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 42
    shape of a guitar, for like... Four days from the day she called. So we tell her it'll be $150 and we need $75 up front. She and moans and pays only $15 up front. The next day, when I come in to work the order is all drawn up. I get a phone call from a weird, airy voiced woman. She says she wants to cancel her order and get a refund. She gives me the
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 43
    info and I find her $15 short notice order and tell her, we can't refund you. "Well the card I used to pay for it was overdrafted and I didn't know. My boyfriend told me it overdrafted and now my bank is going to charge me a fee. I can't do that because we're going to Vegas this weekend and I need the money. So you have to put the money back in my account so that the
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 44
    bank won't charge me a fee." I tell her, that's not how it works. Besides the fact that it will take a return probably three business days to process, you agreed to our contract. We read you the cancellation policy, because you didn't want to come in. You agreed. I can cancel the cake, but you forfeit your downpayment. She's not thrilled and says she'll talk
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 45
    to her boyfriend and call me back. She does, and asks to change the design. How much would a football cost? We can do a footall for $40. This sounds much better to her and says okay, please just make it a football. We agree, I change her contact, and I have the next day off.
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 46
    I come in to work on day 3 of 4, and it turns out the day I was off she called back and changed the order AGAIN, after AGAIN not getting a refund. The owner tells her, we will change it, but this is the FINAL DESIGN. No more changes. So she changes it to... A. plain white cake, with an edible image of Kristen Stewart, and "happy birthday Andrew". For $35, it's the cheapest option we
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 47
    have. We all have a good laugh at how crazy she is. D-Day comes and her pickup time comes around. No show. One hour passes, two hours, then three hours after her pickup time, the phone rings and our owner answers. It's her, with her airy voice. She tells the owner that they had to rush out of town TO VEGAS because her nephew is on life support. I'm shaking my
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 48
    head at her and making throat-chipping motions, she told me four days ago that she was planning her trip to Vegas. The owner tells her we're so sorry to hear that. Crazy lady says, she won't be able to make the pickup, through sniffles and hiccups. Owner says okay, we understand. Life happens. Crazy lady turns it's on the waterworks and asks, "Well... Since I can't make the pickup... Is there any
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 49
    way... I can get my money back??" Owner says, "ABSOLUTELY NOT" and hangs up. Tears the contract from the wall and writes across the front page, "NEVER TAKE ANOTHER ORDER FROM HER AGAIN." Tapes it violently to the office wall and tells me to put this into my training of every new employee.
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 50
    Three years later, it still hangs there.
    via u/teenyjoltik
  • 51
    Young woman with ponytail and tan shirt looking downwards with cardboard boxes and another woman in the background
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 52
    TriSarahTops47 A truck back up into the storefront, shattering the glass windows and door, loaded up the hard equipment (paint sprayers, pressure washers, rotary cleaners) individually worth $1000-$4500/piece WHICH WERE ALL CHAINED TOGETHER and drove away.
    via u/TriSarahTops47
  • 53
    For some reason not all of the stores had alarms at that time, but it was a large corporation so, while it sucked, I didn't really feel that bad about the whole thing.
    via u/TriSarahTops47
  • 54
    rainwander I run my own little online shop. I make ceramic things. I have a wholesaler who emails me requesting "bowels" instead of bowls. I have never corrected her because getting these messages just makes me laugh so much, especially when she goes through a list of colors or sayings she wants on them. Favorite so far is "blessings bowels."
    via u/rainwander
  • 55
    sunyoung-luna I work in a grocery store as a cashier. One day we hear a high pitched beeping sound that we can't identify, and considering all the customers are going about business as usual, all of us cashiers ignore it too. We only found out that was the fire alarm when a woman walked up to my register and we were chatting for a while before she said "By the way,
    via u/sunyoung-luna
  • 56
    what's with that fire in the bakery?" Needless to say I freak out, the managers call 911, and firemen finally show up. But yeah, our fire alarm's noise is so unusual that no one had any idea what it was. For a different event, there was a snake found in our bread aisle one time. For the record, I live in an area that has very few snakes, but unfortunately the back of
    via u/sunyoung-luna
  • 57
    our building leads out to a creek where the few snakes live. All of us remember seeing the stock manager sprint out of the bread aisle and straight out the front door, and a minute later two stock boys run into the aisle with a garbage can and two brooms. Snake was successfully caught. A few people got selfies with it and then is released out by the creek.
    via u/sunyoung-luna
  • 58
    Our store doesn't have many customers.
    via u/sunyoung-luna

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