The grocery store can be a very dangerous place. With busy shoppers, tempers flare and sometimes it is taken out on the employees. People with petty complaints and arguments unite. In this piece, grocery store employees share the rudest customer they ever encountered. Keep in mind contents are edited for clarity.
The One With The Birthday Cake
“I work in a grocery store bakery as a cake decorator and people really freak out over their cakes. I took this one lady’s cake order, and she wanted a transformers cake for her son’s birthday, but she didn’t like the two options we had. She could either get the cake decorated with the toy on top or the cake with an edible photo of the transformers on the cake. She kept showing me photos of other cakes on her phone and I had to keep telling her no because we are working under strict copyright laws and can only decorate what we have been given permission to decorate. She orders the kit, or so I thought.
The husband picks up the cake, says it looks fine, and takes it. She calls the store saying she wanted the image, the cake was ugly, and her 6-year-old son was crying. She then rounds off the whole experience with ‘I just want to come in there and smash the cake in that girl’s face!’ I had never in my 10 years of retail been threatened before and for that threat she did not get any sort of refund and got chewed out for making threats.”
The One Who Loves Cherries
“I work for a major grocery chain, in the produce department, and as such we’ve got our major rotational of ‘seasons’ every year (cherry season, watermelon season, etc.). When the cherries come in, it’s a madhouse; everyone just has to have them, they get irate when we don’t have them, and the like. They also enjoy the occasional sample out of the bag to make sure they’re good. Granted I don’t have a problem with this but I’ve run into this issue where I find wet, slimy cherry pits in the bags, on the table, on the floor, in other displays, and other places not marked ‘trash.’
So there I was, closing up the department one evening and in walks a customer — and just to get a picture of him in your mind, he looks exactly like you’d imagine a high school football coach to look — and saunters right up to the table full of bagged cherries that I hadn’t put away yet.
He reaches in, pulls one out and eats it. Chewing it, savoring the flavor, he makes eye contact with me and begins sidestepping, slowly, like I wouldn’t notice him. I watch as he heads over to the side of the doors he just came through and toward a blind corner where we keep our sale ads and baskets. He breaks his eye contact only to spit the pit on the floor — I heard it ‘tic’ against the floor several times — and then he regained his eye contact with me as he power-walked away.
I’m not sure where these people learned manners from, but they need to get their money back.”
The One In The Express Lane
“I had a lady today on Express. I saw she had more than 10 items and told her I couldn’t take her. A few minutes later I see a lady with a cart and it looks like more than 10 so I go up to her and check and then tell her okay. Then she starts yelling:
Lady: ‘It’s exactly 10 okay! Don’t treat me like a child, if you don’t want me to buy more than 10 it’s your money lost! You check everyone’s cart or just mine huh?’
Me: ‘I make sure every cart on express lane is 10 items or less.’
Lady: ‘YEAH SURE WHATEVER.’
It turns out she did that stupid separate order thing with her ‘family’ so they all waited at the end until she came, and they left. Like lady, I don’t care about you, follow the rules and deal with it instead of inconveniencing the line and other people’s time like an actual child.”
The One Who Is Careless
“This happened a few years ago back when I was a cashier at a small grocery store.
The owner had a rule that you had to keep busy, no matter what so between working the checkout counter I was washing the sliding glass doors (relevant later). Cue this jack wagon bringing up drinks and some other stuff with his idiot girlfriend. I stopped cleaning and went to the counter and gave a polite greeting. I checked out the groceries and when I reached the drinks I asked for his ID. He gave it to me and I double-checked it. I handed it back, and he put it in his wallet. He paid and I wished them a good day. That’s when he flipped out on me.
Customer: My ID?
Me: Oh, I already gave it back to you!
Customer: No you didn’t, I would have remembered.
Girlfriend : Yeah, I didn’t see her hand it back.
Me: No, I gave it back and you put it in your wallet.
Customer: No you didn’t, you still have it.
Me: Why would I keep it? Because we look a lot alike (side note I’m very sarcastic. This guy was a guy and maybe in his late 20s, tall, red hair. I am a female, barely 110 pounds, mid teens, blonde).
This guy did not like my answer.
Customer: So you are trying to steal my ID!
Idiot Girlfriend: just give it back before you get fired!
Me: I don’t have it, you put it in your wallet!
Customer: I don’t see it! (Pulls out wallet and what do you know! The ID is in there!) Whatever let’s go.
So the guy and his girlfriend leave and I think that’s the end of it. I go back to washing the windows (on the outside of the building). A couple minutes later, a car pulls up next to me and yells ‘stupid witch!’ And throws an empty plastic water bottle at me (they missed).
Ah the days of the grocery store.”
The One With The Mayo
“Sometimes, you can just feel yourself dying a little inside. I just got a call from a little old lady. She had bought some brand-name mayo and couldn’t get the lid off. Yes, she called and asked to speak to a manager because she couldn’t get the lid off of her mayo. And asked if I had any suggestions.
Me: ‘Well, have you tried wrapping a towel around it?’ Apparently that wasn’t the kind of innovative logic she was looking for.
Old Lady: ‘Would there be a plastic wrapper around it, and where would that be?’
Me: ‘Well, there could be, and it would cover the lid and part of the bottle itself.’
Old Lady: ‘Can you go check that for me?’
I’m halfway through a company mandated video that will be followed by a test, upstairs, in the back, on the opposite end of the building.
Me: ‘Sure, let me put you on hold.’
So I get to the mayo aisle, ask her which one in particular it was. She only then decides to tell me that it was a squeeze bottle. For those not familiar with a squeeze bottle of mayo, they have a twist on lid (at least most do), which is not tight, because there is an inner seal.
Me: ‘Well, the ones I’m checking are pretty easy, they just twist right off, and then there is a seal across the neck of the bottle…’
Old Lady: ‘With a pull tab?’ She interjects, telling me that she probably knows better what she is doing than she thinks she does.
Me: ‘Yes, you grab that pull tab and pull off the seal, and put the lid back on.’
Old Lady: ‘Do you have to take that seal off before you can get the lid off?’
Me: What? ‘No, you have to take the lid off to take the seal off. It’s on the neck blah blah same thing I’ve already said.’
Old Lady: ‘Now I got some of the [other name brand she can’t pronounce, here’s a clue, sounds of a lot like SMELLMANN’S], and it had a wrapper around the lid.’
Me: ‘Yes, it does.’
Old Lady: ‘Would it have that seal inside?’
Me: ‘No, that’s what the outer seal is for.’
At this point I’m thinking that she’s going to actually have to drive back in and have me open the bottle for her. Or she’s going to demand that I come to her house, open the bottle, and spend three hours listening to stories about her dead husband and her 28 cats. But aha! I have an idea!
Me: ‘You can get the flip top lid up, right?’
Old Lady: ‘Yes.’
Me: ‘If you stick a knife in that slot and poke through the seal you will be able to squeeze it out.’ Genius, right?
Old Lady: ‘Well, you don’t think that lid was made into the bottle, do you?’
Pause while brain tries to regain traction.
Me: ‘What do you mean?’
Old Lady: ‘Well, you don’t think it’s attached to the bottle, all one piece, do you?’
Would I still be having this conversation if that’s what I thought?
Me: ‘No, it comes off.’
Old Lady: ‘Well if I stick a knife in through that slot and poke a hole in the seal, will that be sufficient?’
You mean what I told you to do two minutes ago??? Yeah, I think that will be sufficient!!”
The One In The Cart Incident
“I work as a bagger in a grocery store, but because I try hard and I am old enough to work in other departments I get shoved here and there to do things while people are off or out sick. My managers really show no appreciation for all the extra work I put in for them. I had carts twice today, and it started off not so bad the weather was warm and a nice breeze. The store wasn’t overly busy so there wasn’t a huge rush to get carts in the store.
About 20 minutes into my cart shift I am at the back of the lot and there is a customer unloading her cart into her car. Her car is parked a pace away from the cart return rack. Normally I would just walk up to her and grab her cart so she wouldn’t have to go the five steps and put it away. But, I already had a string of carts that happened to be a smaller size and would not stack with the one she had. I was about 20 feet away from her when I see her just park the cart in the empty spot beside her and walk to get in her car – the return was less than three steps away. That was just enough for me today for some reason.
I walked up to her and said:
Me: Ma’am would you mind putting that in the return please?
Rude Customer: Well isn’t that your job now Missy? Why don’t you just put it in that stack you have there.
Me: Sorry Ma’am that carts doesn’t fit with these.
Rude Customer:: It is still your job so you come take it.
Me: No Ma’am my job it to collect the carts from the returns customers are responsible for getting them in the returns. Also the store is not responsible for any damage caused by loose carts. And it is quite windy today so if while your driving off, the wind blows it into your car and scratches your shinny paint job then it would be no fault other than yours.
Rude Customer: grumbles as she walks 5 feet to the return and pushes the cart in, acting as if she was pushing a wall sized boulder I am NEVER coming to this store again”
I smile to myself as she drives away. And finish up my cart shift and go inside to deal with the same stuff as normal.
Now this is where my day just goes nuts.
I had another cart shift a few hours later. I walk outside and dodge cars right and left. I see one car smash into another one about half-way through my shift and get to hear people scream at each other cause neither part was paying attention. I sigh wondering how people can be so blind when no less than 20 minutes later this happens.
I am at one of the dividers in the lots, trying to gather the carts people had stuck on there because they are to lazy to walk to the return. I have them lined up about three behind this van when all of a sudden the van turns on and starts to back up without even looking.
The stupid customer backs into me and my carts causing awful scratches on her ugly tan van. She stops for a second then begins to back up again. I try to move out of the way while she pushes the carts some more, then stops. She get out of her car and looks at the back of her van.
Stupid customer: Oh My god, look at my van! Look at all the scratches caused by those carts. Why did you have them there!
Me: me just staring at her opened mouth Ummm…well..uh…you hit them. (I know not my best moment but i was really shaken up)
Stupid customer: getting madder This is your fault you were in my blind spot. You could have really gotten yourself hurt. And look at my poor van. I am going to tell your manager about this.
Me: Ma’am I’m sorry but you hit me..
Stupid customer: interrupting me No, now move these carts out of the way NOW!
She then gets back in her van. At this point I am worried she was going to run over me again, so I move the carts out of the way, and she whips out of the parking spot and leaves. I then get to go inside and explain to my managers about what just happened. I wasn’t hurt and really didn’t feel like having the police come out to our store for the second time today (the first time was for the crash in the lot) or filling out an accident report. They watch the tape and tell me they would keep an eye out for her. And that was it. They sent me back to work without any more words spoken.
I don’t get paid enough to do this job. A note to the cashiers who work with us. We are not your slaves please take into mind what we have to deal with. We know your job is hard, but we have to do all the foot work that y’all don’t have to do.”
The One In A Rush
“Last night at work, I was just about to close my register down and get my returns after my last customers. They’re still working on paying for their food, when this woman on the phone comes up to my register and sets her stuff down, making a statement to me, ‘Please don’t tell me you will say no to checking me out here.’
My light is clearly off and my close sign had been up for 10 minutes before her.
I tell her, ‘I’m sorry ma’am, I’m on a schedule.’ Considering I’m on a 40-hour work week!
She then, hilariously, tells the person on her phone that ‘the lady at checkout’ won’t let her check out there even though the lines are bad.
She comes around to the other side of the register, still on her phone, and she asks me ‘What is your name? I am going to report you!’
I ignore her, and when I’m finally finished with my customers, I tell them to have a good night and I sign off my register.
I look back, to see if I could see the lady, and I don’t know where she had gone. So I hurries to grab my returns, takes them to customer service, and then goes to the back to clock out. The lady never gets my name. I’ll be back to work tomorrow (in a different department), I wonder if I’ll get called into the office or something.
That lady reminded me of a small child not getting something he wants on the shelf. ‘I’m gonna tell my mommy!! What is your name? WAHHH!’
Oh, and I clocked out at exactly three minutes before I was scheduled off! Since I’m on a 40-hour work week, imagine if I was late clocking out?”
The One Who Needed One Bun
“I work in a grocery store bakery part-time. Because I have the closing shift, most of my job is packaging up buns and unsliced bread, then labeling them and putting them out on the shelf to sell them the next day. I was in the back slicing some bread when I hear a lady call for me.
Lady: ‘Hello, is anyone there?’
Me: ‘Hi ma’am, how can I help you today?’
Lady: ‘Can I just get one hamburger bun?’
Now I was a bit confused at first because we had packages of hamburger buns (of 6 and 12) out on the rack. Who buys just one hamburger bun? Did she want 2 for just one burger or actually just one bun? I had already emptied and packaged the ones left in the bulk case.
Me: ‘I’m sorry ma’am, but the bulk case is empty. We have packages of buns right here though!’
Lady: ‘Yes. I can see that. But I want just one. You don’t have any in the back?’
So I explain to her that we don’t keep any in the back and if they aren’t in the bulk case than there’s no more singular buns available until tomorrow. She’s asks a question about why the bulk case is empty, so I turn my head to look at it while I answer her question. And she has the audacity TO SAY
Lady: ‘When you are talking, you LOOK at me.’
So at this point I don’t feel like helping her at all anymore. I just tell her once again that because the case is empty she has to buy the bags. She just rudely huffs and walks away from me, and I stand there for a few seconds kind of shocked.
I later found out from a coworker that she wanted to take one bun from an already PACKAGED AND LABELED BAG and was very angry that she could not. Why are people like this?”
The One Who Made A Mistake
“So a few years ago when I was still at school I had a part-time job at a grocery/takeaway shop. I used to work starting from 4:30 on a Saturday and the first thing I would do is pack up the sandwich ingredients as we stopped making sandwiches from 4:30. One shift this man came in one night at about 7 and wanted a sandwich and brought a note with all the ingredients he wanted on them. I asked the kitchen staff telling her I was more than happy to tell him we had put all the sandwich ingredients away but she agreed to anyway. So sandwich’s made paid for and I put the note away and got on with my shift. About twenty minutes later I get a phone call from said customer
Me: Hi, how can I help you?
Customer: I want to make a complaint I came in earlier for a sandwich and you left the egg off. This is unacceptable. I expect better than this.
Me: Sir, I’m sorry about this. If you come in tomorrow, I will make a note, and they can give you a refund.
Customer: Good, I’ll definitely be coming in to get a refund.
Then I hung up and thought for a moment that I didn’t remember reading egg on the list, so I find the note and low and behold he had not written it down on the list. It was a busy shift, and I was on my own in the front of house handling customer orders/phone/till/stocking the grocery and cleaning, so I didn’t have time to call back, so I wrote a note for the staff the next day explaining the situation and taping the note he had written to it and finished my shift went home and didn’t think much of it.
The next day on my day off at about lunch while hanging out with my friends I get a call from work from a new staff member clearly flustered telling me that a man had come in for a refund, and she couldn’t give it to him, and he had DEMANDED that the staff member that was on last night to come in!! I couldn’t believe he had the gall to demand I come into work on my day off but I went in because I was close by and I wanted to help out my coworker who was clearly freaking out.
Walking in, I see he’s angry, so putting on my best retail voice.
Me: Hi sir what seems to be the problem?
Customer: I came in to get a sandwich and you got the order wrong and now won’t give me a refund this is unacceptable.
Me: (with my best smile) I grabbed the note he wrote and said, ‘As you can see here sir on the note, you wrote you never actually put down egg therefore as we were not at fault in this situation we can’t actually give you a refund I’m sorry sir.’
His face changed from angry to sheepish so fast, and he quietly leaves.”
The One With An Angry Old Man
“I work at a grocery store and was on register. A man came up with a bag of peaches and a small container of the hot buffet-style food that we sell, which he appeared to have purchased in the café.
I start by ringing up the peaches, and then pleasantly say:
Me: And the food is paid for?
Old Man, suddenly extremely angry and nasty: Can’t you see my receipt right here? Look I have a sticker on it! Here, you can read it yourself!
Me: Okay, that’s fine.
Old Man: I don’t need to be questioned! I have the receipt…RIGHT HERE! YOU CAN READ IT!
Me: Sir, it was a simple question…
Old Man: I DON’T NEED TO BE QUESTIONED! I’M A SICK OLD MAN AND I DON’T NEED unintelligible grumble
Me: I go to put the purchased hot food in the bag
Old Man: I don’t want it in that bag!
Me: Okay, do you want it in a separate bag?
Old Man: No! I want it in my hand! And don’t put my receipt in the bag either! I need it out in case someone questions me again!
Me: Sir, I asked you a question that frankly, you didn’t even need to answer. Now if you’re going to come in here with an attitude like this, you don’t need to shop here.
Old Man: You’re right! I don’t! You can tell [high up executive name] that I’m not shopping here anymore!
Me: Fine, I will tell him!
Old Man: You know where I’m going? I’ve got four letters for you: A L D I!
Me: Yeah! Go there! They have better prices anyway! I hand him the bag of peaches I hope that this is the absolute worst thing that happens to you all day.
Old Man: Trust me! It won’t be!
About two minutes later, I hear him shouting at the woman at the service desk about how he ‘didn’t do nothing wrong!’ and pointing at me. She’s trying to calm him down, but he won’t have it. I decide that it’s not worth it to get involved, so I keep ringing.
Once he’s gone and the crowd has died down, I go and see what on God’s green earth he had to say about me, and according to him, I was so worried about whether or not he was stealing that I charged him for the wrong type of peaches, and he demanded double his money back. The service desk woman did as he asked (even though double your money back doesn’t apply to this) just to shut him up and then she gave me the peaches to put back.”