Crazy customers

So how bad can Karen be? We looked at Reddit and picked the best entitled Karen encounters and stories we could find for your reading pleasure.

Dear customer, it’s come to my attention that you may be having trouble identifying who the retail workers are when you visit a store. If you find that you have to approach every person you meet with questions like “do you work here?” then this guide is for you. So buckle up and let’s jump right in. 

Many years back, we had a lovely mall store with these tall, narrow glass showcases inset into the walls. In the glass-fronted mall aisle, there was a stand inside that we would put our best items on, and there was a 2′ wide, 10′ tall glass door on the backside. We kept these scrupulously clean, as any respectable business would do.

So, this rather large lady brings up a very nice comforter set up to the counter. She said it didn’t have a ticket on it, but according to her “they were all the same price back there” and handed the cashier a 2nd, $40 comforter set to scan the price from. The cashier wasn’t new or dumb, so she didn’t fall for it, and she called for a price check, and started ringing up some of the other stuff the large lady had bought…

I worked on a delicatessen counter. Some customers had this weird habit of eating what they had just ordered at the counter. One family really took this to the extreme though. Every saturday morning, a big heavy guy with a ponytail, his petite wife and their two terrible, loud kids would rock up to the counters and ask for some slices of turkey. The minute they got hold of the wrapped bag of turkey I prepared for them, they ripped it open being vaguely careful not to rip the barcode on the sticker, and started noshing on it, tossing some to their kids and making appreciative noises and grunts.

At Waitrose we had a middle aged couple who would come into the store 10 minutes before closing time looking for bargains. I’m sure you know the type, but these two were something else. They were certainly not amateurs, they were like something between apex predators and commodity traders (as they seemed to know the price of everything, and what discounts they could get), moving fast and quietly, scanning the shelves and counters for their prey.