Let’s face it, every person who has ever worked in retail knows how crazy people can be. Not only have I had many experiences, but I constantly can relate to other people’s retail stories. Some of these stories may seem unbelievable, but they are 100% true. Anyone who has ever worked in retail will relate to these stories.

1. The religious card dilemma.

One day while working a cashier shift at Target, I had a girl walk up to my register. I kindly greeted her with a smile and asked how her day was going. I could immediately tell something was wrong though because right after I asked her how she was doing she responded, “I’m shitty because of YOU.”

Now like every retail worker, we have gone through constantly getting blamed for things that are not under our control. I remember responding to her, “I’m sorry can hear that; can you tell me more about your situation to why you are upset?” Right after saying this, she became furious. Her eyes became huge, and I could tell that I was about to get yelled at more. She instantly yelled loud enough for the whole store to hear, “There are no Religious cards at this Target, and it is all your fault!” Now you see, I was biting my tongue at this point. I knew that the Target I worked for had Religious cards because I just bought one the week before. I calmly responded, “I know we have a row of Religious cards. I can gladly show you where they are if you would like.” This woman then did the thing that all retail workers hate. She threw the rest of her items at me, and stormed out of the store yelling, “Fu*k you and fu*k Target too.” Looking back on this situation, I have no idea how she was looking for a Religious card with that attitude.

2. Oh, you want to return your shoes?

After learning service desk at Target, I experienced one of the funniest situations that I still remember to this day. When I was working one day, I had one of my sister’s ex-best friends come in. She noticed that I was working service desk, so she ran to the bathroom. When she came back, she didn’t have shoes on anymore. But, I didn’t think anything about it until she walked up to me. She took out a pair of shoes from her bag and said she didn’t have a receipt but would love to return the item. Now, it is common for guests to still be able to return things without a receipt, but there are regulations that need to be meet in order for this to happen.

Now, there was one big thing wrong with this pair of shoes. They were super worn down. After realizing this, I asked her “How long ago did you buy these shoes?” The girl responded, “Three days ago, they just didn’t fit right.” I have worked service desk many times before this situation, and I can honestly say that these shoes were bought more than three days ago. I further inspected the shoe to make it seem like I was considering returning the shoes, even though I already decided that I sure the hell wasn’t going to.

This is then when I came across the second problem with the shoes. I saw that the shoes were actually a brand of Maurices Shoes… I worked at Target. I then stated to her, “These shoes weren’t even bought here.” To which she responded, “Yes they were, three days ago.” I was getting impatient at this point, so I slammed the shoe on the counter and pointed at the symbol showing that the shoes were from Maurices. She then tried to argue with me that I was wrong and that I should return them since she was my sister’s friend. There were several problems with this statement, including the fact that my sister hated her.

So, then I looked right into her eyes and said, “These shoes aren’t from here, and to be honest I think they are the shoes you wore in here considering you aren’t wearing any shoes. I’m not returning them because I’m not stupid. Stop wasting my time.” Let’s just say after this day, the girl and I never spoke again. But hey, maybe she got Maurices to return the shoes.

3. An expired coupon is ALWAYS an expired coupon.

I’m not even going to lie, I was a jerk when it came to coupons. Usually, when people used coupons, they always used them in separate transactions, so they can get the most out of their money. Although I would gladly help any person with this, I remember one situation when I almost yelled at the guest.

This person was a regular coupon user at the store I worked at, so she already knew all the guidelines. The coupon she wanted to use was expired by three months. YES, THREE MONTHS. That is a long time. Sure a few days off is one thing (more than likely we wouldn’t use it then either), but three months is not something that I would be able to work with.

I explained to her that the coupon was expired. To which she then handed me ten of the same coupon, each also expired by three months. I then told her, “I’m sorry I will not be able to accept any of these coupons due to the fact that they are all expired by three months.” This woman then had the nerve to say something that I would never have thought she would have said. This girl yelled, “Well this is my first time shopping here, so why don’t you just fu**ing take my coupon and move on to the next item.” I now had enough with this. Not only have I helped this girl MULTIPLE times in this very store, but she always seemed to serve a problem every time. So I kindly stated, “I am very sorry, but due to corporate rules I cannot accept this coupon.”

This woman then seemed to think that throwing things at me would be okay. She threw all her of her coupons at me, even the ones that weren’t expired, and a few of her items including hand soap, laundry detergent, and batteries. She then exited the store shouting, “Don’t go to lane 3, because he doesn’t know how to do his job. The customer is always supposed to fu**ing be right.” That was the last time I saw her in my store. I guess some other Target now has to deal with her expired coupons bullshit.

4. What Are You Doing Friday?

This retail story is one of the worst situations I have ever been in. I was working a cashier shift at Target when I had a man come up and put everything on my counter to scan. This guy seemed extra nice towards me, and I couldn’t figure out why. I carried a conversation with him through the entire scanning process, and honestly, he seemed like a really nice guy.

When I told him the price of what his goods came to, he replied, “Okay Babe.” This was super uncomfortable for me, but I just carried on acting like I didn’t notice anything… but I did. When he handed me his money, he then rubbed my hand when I grabbed it out of his hand. I was now beyond uncomfortable. But what was still to come I wouldn’t have imagined. He asked where I was from exactly, and I told him a town that I wasn’t from out of fright. Then, he asked what I was doing on Friday, which I replied working (even though I had it off).

The guy then grabbed his stuff and left. I turned off my lane light so I could go talk to the manager on duty about what just happened. After realizing my manager was busy, I went back to my lane. Then something happened that still scares me to this day.

The guy walked back up to my lane. He set down a pack of condoms to pay for, and I scanned them and told him the price he had to pay. As he was putting in his credit card, he looked me right in the eyes and said, “I hope to use these on you on Friday.” I lost it. I turned off my light and went straight to my manager. She could tell I was scared, so she stopped what she was doing to talk to me. After speaking to her, she let me off 2 hours early because she was sorry about what I just went through. This situation is still the most awkward situation I have ever been through.

As you can see, retail workers go through a lot of things. From things getting thrown at them, getting called nasty words, getting blamed for things that you cannot control, and finally getting placed in the most awkward situations. These are just four of the many retail stories that I have. I can honestly say that I miss working retail because of all the crazy situations you experience, but I don’t ever think anyone who has worked retail would be able to go back to working retail.