If you have ever worked in retail, you can most likely relate to the frustrating reappearance of minimum wage, unsatisfied customers and working hours you would rather spend anywhere else. Sometimes you'll meet a really interesting person that will make your day and other times you're counting down the hours, or even minutes, until you get to leave and take off your name tag. Wherever you work or worked, you'll hopefully relate to these scenarios and situations a retail worker will usually run into.
1. "Can I speak to a manager?"
No matter what you say or do, some customers will never believe you. They will cut you off mid-sentence and roll their eyes before looking around the store and demanding to speak to your boss or manager while they hold up the whole line behind them.
2. The "Price Checker"
The most frustrating situation to be in is having a customer bring up a bunch of items that you expect them to buy without realizing every item was associated with a question. For example, "I saw that there was a sign for buy one get one free in the meat department...does that have to do with the goldfish in aisle 3?" or "This has a tag on it for $1.99. Does that mean that's the price?".
3. The "Return" Specialist
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with returning an item if there is a problem with it. However, the situation of people returning their whole order without reason on multiple occasions is definitely not a fun one. They'll usually burst into the store looking for the customer service desk like it was what they were born to do.
4. The "It Must Be Free" Line
For anyone who has not worked in retail, it should be common knowledge that this line wasn't funny the first time and will never be funny. I'm not too sure why people still insist on using this line while cashiers stress out trying to figure out a price.
5. Hearing the Same Songs On Repeat
Depending on where you work, you may have the opportunity to hear some good music. However, if you're stuck with the top 100 worst songs of the 90's you're probably not going to want to hear those songs over and over again.
6. When a Customer Gets a Little too Personal
Nothing is worse than a middle-aged man hitting on you if you're barely a legal adult. It's not like there's anywhere to run to, so sometimes you just have to keep calm and pretend everything is completely normal.
7. When a Customer Refuses to Believe Their Card is Declined
"Well why was it declined?!" I'm not sure why they think retail workers have any sort of affiliation with the bank, but we honestly have no idea what happened to your card or how to fix it.
8. Customers Running into Old Friends and Holding Up the Line
It's nice to see people catch up with someone from the past, but it's very difficult to complete the transaction when people begin having reunions back in the frozen aisle with their third cousin.
9. "Why do you look so tired?"
Nothing is worse than working after barely having any sleep until someone stares at you completely bothered that you're tired. The very mysteriously surprising answer (spoiler alert) to this question is that working can sometimes be tiring after not getting enough sleep.
10. When a Customer Forgets Their Wallet in the Car
Usually the "I'll be right back" means that they'll see you back at the register in about half an hour. I'm not sure if customers are driving to their homes and back, but usually the whole line is backed up while all of the other shoppers give you dirty looks as you wait for the "wallet leaver" to return.
Hopefully these sarcastic situations will be able to be related to for those working or who had previously worked in retail. The retail life is definitely not an easy one, so definitely give yourself some credit for being a part of it.








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