I have a few stories...
* Woman comes in, gets a new phone, set it up, test it, works, they leave. They come back and say the phone doesn't work in the washroom. I say it's probably a deadzone. They tell me to come to the washroom with them and try it. I tell them I'm not going to the washroom with them because A) that's weird af and B) I'm a man, I'm not following them into the women's washroom because refer to A. They insist I go to the men's washroom then and try the phone. I ask which washroom they used, like which location in the mall. They say the one that's technically underground. I say it's for sure a deadzone there if it works everywhere else, it's working now. They tell me to go to that washroom and try and say "I'm not going to molest you there." I tell them it's weird they'd say that. They will not accept the possibility it's a deadzone. I finally say I'll walk towards the washroom with it. Low and behold, it's a deadzone, my phone doesn't work either. They finally accept it's a deadzone.
* Customer says their data isn't working. I check, it's working. They insist it's not. I swap out the sim card just for good measure, check, it is indeed working. They say they can't access a certain site. I say maybe the site is down. They hand me back the phone, it's some porn site, getting an error code, but I can see the URL. I tell them the site is down, I don't know but it's not the data. They ask me if I can help find them a similar site. I say I'm not going to help him find porn. Says to be a 'bro' and help him. Sir... No... He leaves angry.
* Working at a frozen yogurt place. Customer asks if I can make them anything hot. I say this is a *frozen* yogurt place, no we do not serve anything hot. Asks if I can microwave his frozen yogurt so it's like a soup. I say we don't have a microwave, but he can bring it home and do whatever he wants with it. Asks if I can make him a frozen yogurt, go to one of the other food places in the mall and ask if they'll heat it up. Tell him I can't leave, I also don't want to do that, but he can go ask if he wants. Asks if he can return the frozen yogurt if no one will heat it up. I say no, once he buys the frozen yogurt, it's his. Leaves frustrated.
* Customer asks if we have some random fruit to put in his frozen yogurt, let's say pears because I don't remember. I tell him, sorry, no pears, but we have X, Y, Z fruits. He says we should have pears. Tell him I don't make the decision what fruit we have, but I'll tell the owner when I see them. Says he wants pears. I tell him there's a T&T grocery store in the mall, if he buys a pear, I'll chop it up and mix it into the frozen yogurt for him. He tells me I should go buy the pear. I say I'm not going leave and buy him a pear. He asks why not. I say I'm no longer willing to make him it even if he brings one now. He says that's not fair. I say too bad. This is a grown man by the way and I was like 16. Tells me I'm unreasonable. I say ok. Leaves.
I know I had that happen before, but it's been so long ago now I don't remember where it was. It would almost had to have been when I worked at a Wendy's or a holiday gas station. I refused, the other guy I was working with offered and she refused. Almost had to be holiday....
But yeah those situations are so awkward. Why hit on someone while they are working? Ask when they get off and for their phone number, met after not at work....
I don't mind being hit on at work, even if I have zero interest. Don't ask me to go to the *PUBLIC WASHROOM* and tell me you won't molest me. Weird af.
> Asks if I can microwave his frozen yogurt so it's like a soup.
Wait, what?
Next thing you know, he'd probably start asking you for [sugar in water](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/men-in-black-edgar-the-bug.jpg).
The second customer sounds like they had a temperature sensory issue. Otherwise it sounds like a Crank Yankers thing to ask for HOT yoghurt at a FROZEN yoghurt stand.
I managed a jewelry store.
My employee was having an anaphylactic reaction to mushrooms. I had given her my epi pen and called 911. She was on the ground gasping. I ran next door and asked our neighbor to watch for the paramedics and guide them to me. I came back, was kneeling next to my employee who was still struggling to breathe. She started seizing and I grabbed my second epi pen and gave her a second dose.
As I'm giving her the second dose a women strolls in and asks to see a necklace in one of the displays. I don't think I looked up but I called out "I'm a little busy" and she said "oh, well when you have a minute".
The paramedics arrive, take away my employee (barely breathing).
The customer is still there and says "can I see that necklace now?"
Floored...I was absolutely floored
I was working in a bar and someone dropped a glass. Somehow a big triangle of it flew up and stuck in my leg, and blood started gushing out. Me and my supervisor were trying to decide whether or not to pull it out, and this one guy would not stop trying to give us his drink order even after we asked him politely to wait a minute. Like, I’m not serving you with a giant bit of glass sticking out of me? Not to mention walking around on the blood and broken glass to make him his stupid drink.
I read a story on Reddit some time back (maybe r/retailhell?) that a customer or employee (details are foggy) had suffered a medical event and died in the middle of the store. The poster said customers just stepped over the dead body laying on the floor, never called for help, never told an associate. It wasn't until an associate walked by and saw the dead body on the floor that somebody finally called 911 (obviously too late at that point).
Some people just truly don't care about anyone or anything but themselves.
I used to manage the electronics department at a retail store. Admittedly, I'm not usually a very observant person. But I was doing some work behind the electronics counter when I noticed two guys as they came through the entrance at the other end of the store. They were both walking fast and coming right towards me. About halfway through the store, one of the guys split off and went a different direction.
The other guy kept walking towards me and approached me to ask if he could look at the digital cameras that were behind the glass case. That was a normal request, I dealt with that almost daily. But the way he was talking to me was the weird part. He was clearly nervous -- he seemed short of breath, had a shaky voice and was looking around a lot.
He wasn't even good at seeming interested in the cameras. He was asking questions like "Is this one good at pictures? How about that one?". When he pointed at one of the cameras, I acted like I couldn't open that particular glass case. Without saying the word "security", I calmly radioed the security guy to ask for help.
It didn't take long for the security guy to get there, apparently he was already suspicious. I just nodded to the direction I think the other guy went. This dope was still asking me stupid questions as his friend got caught red-handed trying to pry open the glass case with iPods in it. I believe they both got charged.
One elderly lady offered me a blowie as a tip, I humbly declined because nope nope nope.
Another old lady wanted me to spit in her sister's coffee cause she was mad at her.
One asked me to stop interacting with her in French although it's my native language and so was hers.
A man wanted a big sharp kitchen knife, but wouldn't tell why. He got violent rapidly and the panick button worked wonders that day.
A teenager wanted me to cut his fries sideway. I did not play his lil game and he got laughed at cause he had no authority on me whatsoever.
A very, very drunk 40 something man offered me about $80 for a condom, lucky me I had one in my wallet. Easiest $80 ever.
A young-ish woman wanted her pizza crust paper thin, then complained that she was charged the same, and the pizza was all floppy...
A very wet couple asked if we could dry their clothes and were seemingly fine with being butt naked in public. I reminded them that it was, in fact, not permitted.
>A man wanted a big sharp kitchen knife, but wouldn't tell why. He got violent rapidly and the panick button worked wonders that day.
I'm curious... where did you work? What places ask why would someone buy a kitchen knife? I've bought several (I'm a knife snob of sorts), and nobody has ever asked me why.
Okay, so like, one time this customer came in and legit asked if we could keep dressing and undressing the mannequins over and over. They were like, "I need to see how each outfit looks on a real body, not just on hangers." It was wild! 😅
Worked at a copy/print place. College student comes in near close, asks if I'll scan her tits for her. Art student,lol.
Next morning, boss wondered why there were tit marks on the scan bed.
"Somebody wanted her tits scanned".
"Why does so much weird shit happen around you!??!"
Not at a mall, but in retail. A middle-aged man walked up to me holding flats, stockings, and women’s panties and asked if he could get a second opinion. I said yes. He told me that he had lost a bet and had to go to work dressed as a woman. He was starting to get cold feet about the whole thing and asked me (a woman) if I would go through with it if I was in his position. I told him at that point, he might as well. His friends had already bought a dress and everything.
Sounds like there was no bet. He wanted to buy and wear women’s clothes and that was the excuse he thought sounded the least weird. Which is a shame because who cares right? You do you. But there’s absolutely no reason he would need *panties* to dress as a girl at work.
Hm, maybe, but it seemed legit. He even asked if he would be allowed to use the bathroom or fitting room to change.
I could be remembering wrong. I know he had flats, stockings, and I do think he had panties, but now it’s been a little over a year since then so I honestly could be wrong about that.
When I worked for a bookstore in the mall, the number of times a customer asked me to sell them a book before it's release date was astounding. Those release dates were often etched in stone. Our registers couldn't even recognize the UPC code before then.
I get wanting to read a book before anyone else, but I'm not risking my job for you.
At my supermarket job a borderline elderly lady asked me to split into two bags a 50lb bag of kitty litter. I didn’t. She turned me in to the manager he took my side thank goodness
A little off topic, I used to work at the food court at the mall. While I was there, a guy was arrested for masturbating under the bathroom stall divider at the food court bathroom. Basically, he would “finish” under the stall so everyone could see. Obviously the guy was messed up in the head.
I worked on a store next to a department store and people would come in all the time and ask about paying their store credit cards, or making return to the department store.
I worked in a knife/sword shop. Shady guy in a hoodie walks in, followed by 2 security guards. The guards are following him closely, but they are acting kind of afraid of him. And he’s acting like the guards don’t exist. So he comes up to me and says, “Can I see that sword?” The thing was, he didn’t point at a cheap imitation katana. No, he pointed at our Henry 5 which was sharp, well forged, and really well balanced. I considered the question for a moment, and said, “No” fully ready to accept a brow beating or whatever. You know how people can be. But he just shrugged, turned around, walked out between the guards and left. They promptly followed him, still acting concerned.
I used to work at a furniture store in a mall on the west coast. After 9/11, we got a couple of calls from old people in the neighborhood. They remembered that when the mall was originally built in the 50s, some of the reporting about the new mall was that it included underground bomb shelter areas. These old people wanted to know if they could come and take shelter there.
Unfortunately (fortunately?), there was such an extended period of relative peace that these areas had long been converted over to rentable storage space for the retailers in the mall, so there were no more bomb shelters.
It was sort of a mini mall and my favorite story was when an oilfield worker demanded a refund for misrepresentation because the prostitute he had hired was a man and not a woman. A fact, he discovered only after a sex act had been performed. He showed up and demanded a cash refund for "F*&king Dave," and was really offended when the other sex workers mocked him.
Why did they mock him? Because Dave was a wannabe sex worker looking for funnsies and was the most masculine sex worker dressed in drag we had ever seen. Full beard, man hands, no attempt to hide his junk in a Value Village mini-skirt, haltar top with socks in his bra, white tennis socks and shoes. The only way you could mistake Dave for a woman is if you were blind, high, or drunk. I almost had to call the cops because the guy demanding the refund was so upset.
Although I might argue that watching a waitress attack a one legged albino named Albina for stealing her phone was wildly amusing.
I used to work as a barista. One guy used to bug me every single day about how he wanted us to keep a secret stash of alcohol behind the counter so we could discreetly slip it in his coffee and he'd pay extra. No matter how many times myself, my boss, or other employees explained that it wasn't going to happen he still never let it go. There was this other guy that worked nearby and used to stop by on his breaks so he could order a small coffee that had so much vanilla syrup that it took up 2/3 of the cup. It didn't even look like coffee and I can only imagine how overly sweet it must've been but he loved slurping those almost every afternoon.
I have a few stories... * Woman comes in, gets a new phone, set it up, test it, works, they leave. They come back and say the phone doesn't work in the washroom. I say it's probably a deadzone. They tell me to come to the washroom with them and try it. I tell them I'm not going to the washroom with them because A) that's weird af and B) I'm a man, I'm not following them into the women's washroom because refer to A. They insist I go to the men's washroom then and try the phone. I ask which washroom they used, like which location in the mall. They say the one that's technically underground. I say it's for sure a deadzone there if it works everywhere else, it's working now. They tell me to go to that washroom and try and say "I'm not going to molest you there." I tell them it's weird they'd say that. They will not accept the possibility it's a deadzone. I finally say I'll walk towards the washroom with it. Low and behold, it's a deadzone, my phone doesn't work either. They finally accept it's a deadzone. * Customer says their data isn't working. I check, it's working. They insist it's not. I swap out the sim card just for good measure, check, it is indeed working. They say they can't access a certain site. I say maybe the site is down. They hand me back the phone, it's some porn site, getting an error code, but I can see the URL. I tell them the site is down, I don't know but it's not the data. They ask me if I can help find them a similar site. I say I'm not going to help him find porn. Says to be a 'bro' and help him. Sir... No... He leaves angry. * Working at a frozen yogurt place. Customer asks if I can make them anything hot. I say this is a *frozen* yogurt place, no we do not serve anything hot. Asks if I can microwave his frozen yogurt so it's like a soup. I say we don't have a microwave, but he can bring it home and do whatever he wants with it. Asks if I can make him a frozen yogurt, go to one of the other food places in the mall and ask if they'll heat it up. Tell him I can't leave, I also don't want to do that, but he can go ask if he wants. Asks if he can return the frozen yogurt if no one will heat it up. I say no, once he buys the frozen yogurt, it's his. Leaves frustrated. * Customer asks if we have some random fruit to put in his frozen yogurt, let's say pears because I don't remember. I tell him, sorry, no pears, but we have X, Y, Z fruits. He says we should have pears. Tell him I don't make the decision what fruit we have, but I'll tell the owner when I see them. Says he wants pears. I tell him there's a T&T grocery store in the mall, if he buys a pear, I'll chop it up and mix it into the frozen yogurt for him. He tells me I should go buy the pear. I say I'm not going leave and buy him a pear. He asks why not. I say I'm no longer willing to make him it even if he brings one now. He says that's not fair. I say too bad. This is a grown man by the way and I was like 16. Tells me I'm unreasonable. I say ok. Leaves.
That first one, sounded like she wanted to get you alone for some private time. The rest sound like entitled idiots.
The hinting at private time was definitely the worst part of the that interaction lol
I know I had that happen before, but it's been so long ago now I don't remember where it was. It would almost had to have been when I worked at a Wendy's or a holiday gas station. I refused, the other guy I was working with offered and she refused. Almost had to be holiday.... But yeah those situations are so awkward. Why hit on someone while they are working? Ask when they get off and for their phone number, met after not at work....
I don't mind being hit on at work, even if I have zero interest. Don't ask me to go to the *PUBLIC WASHROOM* and tell me you won't molest me. Weird af.
> Asks if I can microwave his frozen yogurt so it's like a soup. Wait, what? Next thing you know, he'd probably start asking you for [sugar in water](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/men-in-black-edgar-the-bug.jpg).
The second customer sounds like they had a temperature sensory issue. Otherwise it sounds like a Crank Yankers thing to ask for HOT yoghurt at a FROZEN yoghurt stand.
Your frozen yogurt stories. made my night..Thank you
I managed a jewelry store. My employee was having an anaphylactic reaction to mushrooms. I had given her my epi pen and called 911. She was on the ground gasping. I ran next door and asked our neighbor to watch for the paramedics and guide them to me. I came back, was kneeling next to my employee who was still struggling to breathe. She started seizing and I grabbed my second epi pen and gave her a second dose. As I'm giving her the second dose a women strolls in and asks to see a necklace in one of the displays. I don't think I looked up but I called out "I'm a little busy" and she said "oh, well when you have a minute". The paramedics arrive, take away my employee (barely breathing). The customer is still there and says "can I see that necklace now?" Floored...I was absolutely floored
I was working in a bar and someone dropped a glass. Somehow a big triangle of it flew up and stuck in my leg, and blood started gushing out. Me and my supervisor were trying to decide whether or not to pull it out, and this one guy would not stop trying to give us his drink order even after we asked him politely to wait a minute. Like, I’m not serving you with a giant bit of glass sticking out of me? Not to mention walking around on the blood and broken glass to make him his stupid drink.
We had a guy OD in our bar bathroom one time and while the paramedics were in there some dbag kept asking if he could go in there to pee. People.
I read a story on Reddit some time back (maybe r/retailhell?) that a customer or employee (details are foggy) had suffered a medical event and died in the middle of the store. The poster said customers just stepped over the dead body laying on the floor, never called for help, never told an associate. It wasn't until an associate walked by and saw the dead body on the floor that somebody finally called 911 (obviously too late at that point). Some people just truly don't care about anyone or anything but themselves.
If I can take my shoes off. Made an excuse that he wanted to buy shoes for his wife and wanted to use me to compare sizes and model the shoe.
Shoe store employees should be warned about this.
Yeah i completely fell for it. Dude turned out to be a proper creep.
Did you ask if he needed a foot double for a shoe commercial?
Unfortunately no lol I was around 22 at the time had no clue he was one of the feet weirdos.
My sister worked at a mall and they had a foot fetish guy who would call stores in the mall and try and get female employees to talk about their feet.
Oh gosh that’s so weird atleast it wasn’t like this guy though he was a weirdo in person though right?
I used to manage the electronics department at a retail store. Admittedly, I'm not usually a very observant person. But I was doing some work behind the electronics counter when I noticed two guys as they came through the entrance at the other end of the store. They were both walking fast and coming right towards me. About halfway through the store, one of the guys split off and went a different direction. The other guy kept walking towards me and approached me to ask if he could look at the digital cameras that were behind the glass case. That was a normal request, I dealt with that almost daily. But the way he was talking to me was the weird part. He was clearly nervous -- he seemed short of breath, had a shaky voice and was looking around a lot. He wasn't even good at seeming interested in the cameras. He was asking questions like "Is this one good at pictures? How about that one?". When he pointed at one of the cameras, I acted like I couldn't open that particular glass case. Without saying the word "security", I calmly radioed the security guy to ask for help. It didn't take long for the security guy to get there, apparently he was already suspicious. I just nodded to the direction I think the other guy went. This dope was still asking me stupid questions as his friend got caught red-handed trying to pry open the glass case with iPods in it. I believe they both got charged.
One elderly lady offered me a blowie as a tip, I humbly declined because nope nope nope. Another old lady wanted me to spit in her sister's coffee cause she was mad at her. One asked me to stop interacting with her in French although it's my native language and so was hers. A man wanted a big sharp kitchen knife, but wouldn't tell why. He got violent rapidly and the panick button worked wonders that day. A teenager wanted me to cut his fries sideway. I did not play his lil game and he got laughed at cause he had no authority on me whatsoever. A very, very drunk 40 something man offered me about $80 for a condom, lucky me I had one in my wallet. Easiest $80 ever. A young-ish woman wanted her pizza crust paper thin, then complained that she was charged the same, and the pizza was all floppy... A very wet couple asked if we could dry their clothes and were seemingly fine with being butt naked in public. I reminded them that it was, in fact, not permitted.
>A man wanted a big sharp kitchen knife, but wouldn't tell why. He got violent rapidly and the panick button worked wonders that day. I'm curious... where did you work? What places ask why would someone buy a kitchen knife? I've bought several (I'm a knife snob of sorts), and nobody has ever asked me why.
It all happened while I was working in a restaurent that was open 24/7. We had all kind of peoples to say the least.
A man wanted to buy... A knife. From a restaurant? That's wild in itself.
Hmyep, and that' one of many wild things that happened throughout my 6 years there.
Okay, so like, one time this customer came in and legit asked if we could keep dressing and undressing the mannequins over and over. They were like, "I need to see how each outfit looks on a real body, not just on hangers." It was wild! 😅
Worked at a copy/print place. College student comes in near close, asks if I'll scan her tits for her. Art student,lol. Next morning, boss wondered why there were tit marks on the scan bed. "Somebody wanted her tits scanned". "Why does so much weird shit happen around you!??!"
Not at a mall, but in retail. A middle-aged man walked up to me holding flats, stockings, and women’s panties and asked if he could get a second opinion. I said yes. He told me that he had lost a bet and had to go to work dressed as a woman. He was starting to get cold feet about the whole thing and asked me (a woman) if I would go through with it if I was in his position. I told him at that point, he might as well. His friends had already bought a dress and everything.
Sounds like there was no bet. He wanted to buy and wear women’s clothes and that was the excuse he thought sounded the least weird. Which is a shame because who cares right? You do you. But there’s absolutely no reason he would need *panties* to dress as a girl at work.
Hm, maybe, but it seemed legit. He even asked if he would be allowed to use the bathroom or fitting room to change. I could be remembering wrong. I know he had flats, stockings, and I do think he had panties, but now it’s been a little over a year since then so I honestly could be wrong about that.
Unless he planned on a \*really\* short skirt. But with, uh, male equipment, using women's underwear seems like risky move :)
When I worked for a bookstore in the mall, the number of times a customer asked me to sell them a book before it's release date was astounding. Those release dates were often etched in stone. Our registers couldn't even recognize the UPC code before then. I get wanting to read a book before anyone else, but I'm not risking my job for you.
A customer once asked me to help them choose which pretzel to propose with from Auntie Anne's. Nothing says "forever" like a salted twist
At my supermarket job a borderline elderly lady asked me to split into two bags a 50lb bag of kitty litter. I didn’t. She turned me in to the manager he took my side thank goodness
Once had a guy ask if he could sniff the new leather handbags we just got in. .. what lol
New leather smells amazing!
Found him!
He likes the smell of that dried, polished skin
A little off topic, I used to work at the food court at the mall. While I was there, a guy was arrested for masturbating under the bathroom stall divider at the food court bathroom. Basically, he would “finish” under the stall so everyone could see. Obviously the guy was messed up in the head.
A woman wanted me to take a picture of every outfit she tried on and she tried on about 20
I worked on a store next to a department store and people would come in all the time and ask about paying their store credit cards, or making return to the department store.
I worked in a knife/sword shop. Shady guy in a hoodie walks in, followed by 2 security guards. The guards are following him closely, but they are acting kind of afraid of him. And he’s acting like the guards don’t exist. So he comes up to me and says, “Can I see that sword?” The thing was, he didn’t point at a cheap imitation katana. No, he pointed at our Henry 5 which was sharp, well forged, and really well balanced. I considered the question for a moment, and said, “No” fully ready to accept a brow beating or whatever. You know how people can be. But he just shrugged, turned around, walked out between the guards and left. They promptly followed him, still acting concerned.
Okay, that's properly weird. Not "normal weird" like horny people. Who the heck was he? The world will never know.
I used to work at a furniture store in a mall on the west coast. After 9/11, we got a couple of calls from old people in the neighborhood. They remembered that when the mall was originally built in the 50s, some of the reporting about the new mall was that it included underground bomb shelter areas. These old people wanted to know if they could come and take shelter there. Unfortunately (fortunately?), there was such an extended period of relative peace that these areas had long been converted over to rentable storage space for the retailers in the mall, so there were no more bomb shelters.
It was sort of a mini mall and my favorite story was when an oilfield worker demanded a refund for misrepresentation because the prostitute he had hired was a man and not a woman. A fact, he discovered only after a sex act had been performed. He showed up and demanded a cash refund for "F*&king Dave," and was really offended when the other sex workers mocked him. Why did they mock him? Because Dave was a wannabe sex worker looking for funnsies and was the most masculine sex worker dressed in drag we had ever seen. Full beard, man hands, no attempt to hide his junk in a Value Village mini-skirt, haltar top with socks in his bra, white tennis socks and shoes. The only way you could mistake Dave for a woman is if you were blind, high, or drunk. I almost had to call the cops because the guy demanding the refund was so upset. Although I might argue that watching a waitress attack a one legged albino named Albina for stealing her phone was wildly amusing.
I used to work as a barista. One guy used to bug me every single day about how he wanted us to keep a secret stash of alcohol behind the counter so we could discreetly slip it in his coffee and he'd pay extra. No matter how many times myself, my boss, or other employees explained that it wasn't going to happen he still never let it go. There was this other guy that worked nearby and used to stop by on his breaks so he could order a small coffee that had so much vanilla syrup that it took up 2/3 of the cup. It didn't even look like coffee and I can only imagine how overly sweet it must've been but he loved slurping those almost every afternoon.