I used to work at Victoria's Secret PINK and for my first Black Friday, I was stationed to work at the front of the store. People were outside waiting to get in — some had camped out since midnight.

When the gates lifted, I was pushed backwards by the crowd and almost fell to the ground. Luckily I fell on our launch table. I climbed the table and stayed up there throwing customers hoodies and yoga pants.

It was fun yelling, "Green hoodie, size small, who wants it?" And everyone jumping and yelling for it.

Also, a girl fainted and I had to stop people from walking all over her.

| starfoxbella

I worked retail through college.

The store I worked at was holding a special sale leading up to Black Friday, and a ton of people were paying with gift cards. With lines leading out the door, my shift was a nonstop run of cashiering.

After several hours I had turned into a robot. Greet customer, ring stuff up, swipe gift card, cut up gift card, hand receipt and stuff back. I think you can see where this is going...

A client handed me their gift card and their ATM card. I swiped both, handed the gift card back, and cut her ATM card in half. She freaked out.

It was horrible.

| Opinions_Like_Woah

A guy is standing by himself at our customer service desk. Finally somebody notices him and asks what he needs.

"I'd like to pay," he says.

"I'm sorry this isn't a register," replies the attendant.

The guy then proceeds to try and convince the attendant to let him pay.

Of course, the service tech couldn't ring up his purchases, because the service desk doesn't have a register.

After 15 minutes of arguing back and forth, the guy finally left to go find the actual line. The trouble is, people saw him standing at the customer service desk, thought it was a cash register and lined up behind him.

Then people saw the shorter line and got in behind them.

With nobody to control it, the line to nowhere grew quickly. Fifteen minutes was all it took for the not-line to snake all the way around the department.

| IntentionalTexan

My dad was a police officer when the toy of the year was the Tickle Me Elmo.

(I'm sure every kid who grew up in the 1980s remembers.)

He responded to a call at Walmart or Target (can't remember which one exactly) of two women beating each other up over the last one in the store.

When he went to break up the fight, one of the women bit his arm.

She bit him so hard that she actually drew blood.

He had to get his blood tested every six months for two years after that incident to make sure he didn't get any diseases from her.

People are crazy!

| jennyanydots711

I worked for a golf superstore as a cashier. Black Friday customers come rushing in and the line starts.

I proceed to scan the first item and ... nothing. The screen went completely black.

I turned the monitor on and off. Scanned another item.

No dice.

As luck would have it, the registers are down, all of our debit/credit machines aren't working and the lines are growing fast.

The only thing we could do was take every transaction manually. Write down SKUs, calculate tax and use the old credit card swipers. This went on for three hours.

I never worked retail during Black Friday again.

| Steelergrl2310

Years ago, I worked as a cashier in a department store.

On Black Friday, every available cash register was staffed and the lines were ten-people long.

I offered to work through my break, but my manager came over and insisted I go on my lunch break. Apparently it's against the law in my state to have people working for more than four hours without a break.

I'd been on my feet all day, so I needed a little refreshment anyway.

I signed off of my register.

That's when people started booing.

I've never been booed in my life. Forty-ish customers actually booed at me as I closed my register.

| oferpetessake

I worked for six years at a Johnny Rockets as a server and manager.

Although we were inside a mall, we didn't open early on Black Friday like the rest of the stores because we are a separate restaurant.

Also, we don't serve breakfast, so it made no sense to open at 6 a.m.

When I got there to open up, we had people shaking our gates screaming that they wanted food.

I pointed them toward the food court and told them we didn't serve breakfast.

A lady spat at me and yelled, "I know you have bacon."

We do. In a fridge waiting to be cooked and put on a burger.

| Kidou

I'm a former GameStop manager. The worst shift I ever worked was Black Friday, 2006. Everyone wanted a Nintendo Wii.

When I got to the store at 4 a.m. to prep for the 5 a.m. opening, there were people wrapped around the shopping center in a line for the thing, even though I had a sign on the door explicitly stating that we could only guarantee them for the first six people.

When I made the announcement to the folks in line, I thought I was about to get mobbed by more than a couple of angry grandmas and impatient moms who had been waiting since midnight.

| CowabungaM8

A woman comes into the store with her two children — probably aged 5 and 7, no older than that. I overhear her say "I'll be back, stay here" and she just leaves them. Not a word to us, she just vanishes.

Within minutes it got busy — as in, 50 customers plus kids. There are only three employees in the store: two on register, then there's me, the shift manager, supposed to be helping people shop. ...

... Mall security called the cops. The officers show up about 25 minutes after this lady left her kids — the lady gets down and makes small talk with the boys while the man waits outside.

Things slow to a crawl in the store, so my fellow employees entertain the boys while I speak with the officers.

Apparently their mother had gone to THE OTHER MALL ACROSS THE EFFING FOUR-LANE STREET. At 7:30 p.m. During crazy-busy shopping time.

| StarCraftTenor

When I was in college I worked at a toy store and it was the year of the Furbys. They were really hard to get and our location only got 10 of them.

We were instructed to pass out numbers (rather than the actual toys) to the first ten people in line. I was the lucky one to pass out numbers.

I gave the first person their number when all of a sudden I'm on the floor — I've been tackled from behind.

This woman had slammed into me, knocked me to the floor and ripped the tickets out of my hand, breaking two fingers.

The store refused to give her a Furby and we detained her until the cops showed up.

| CharistineE

I worked as a greeter at American Eagle.

My job was to stand at the front of the store and tell you about our Black Friday deals. Pretty mind-numbing work, but I made the most of it.

Anyway, at some point during the day, a lady walked in with like eight bags. The alarm went off.

So I smiled and said that it went off most likely because there's possibly still a tag on one of her items.

This was her response: "I JUST WALKED IN AND YOU'RE ALREADY ACCUSING ME OF STEALING?!" And then she stormed off.

Nothing special honestly, just another day of retail.

| ToSay_TheLeast

A man showed up the Tuesday before Black Friday with a tent, ice coolers, generator, TV and everything he needed to brave the three nights he would be staying over.

He kept bragging about being first in line. He said he was going to get a plasma TV, and how he was hosting the next Super Bowl party, so this was just going to be the best thing ever.

At 5 a.m., the doors opened and the man goes straight to the plasma TVs. They were all gone. Completely sold out. What happened?

Turns out the garden center at the Walmart opened up about 10 seconds before the front doors. Those that came the night before scooped up all 15 plasma TVs.

This guy who had been there since Tuesday afternoon was dumbfounded and argued with management but was told there was nothing that could be done. That guy's Thanksgiving was a bust for sure.

| smuggling_info

The store I was working at held a sale on Christmas trees. They normally cost $250, but on sale they were going for as cheap as $80.

It was my first Black Friday, and I was a new employee still getting my bearings.

Well, as soon as the managers opened the door, I was like a deer staring at headlights. All the customers ran in and pushed me left and right.

I immediately got nervous.

I was being yelled at and screamed at for one tree, and then another and another. Some women were arguing and pulling either side of one of the boxes. Then a man came and grabbed it from both and started dragging it off.

It was bedlam. I literally ducked into a supply closet and disappeared 'til the chaos stopped.

| BozoWantsACookie

Our Black Friday event started Thursday at 6 p.m. I had to be out front to guide traffic.

At 5:56 p.m., one of the assistant managers at the back of the store decided it would be a great idea to start opening the plastic on some of the displays, so customers wouldn't savagely rip them open.

A customer nearby made eye contact with her, looked at the ceiling and let out a VIKING SCREAM.

This viking scream echoed throughout the store, and everyone else started screaming too. The whole thing lasted about seven minutes.

It was a surreal experience. I actually froze with terror.

| Duane_

My first day working retail was on Black Friday.

I got hired at Home Depot, and they didn't know what to do with me so they put me in the Christmas tree lot.

Basically somebody would come pick out a tree and I would cut it to their specifications with a chainsaw, which I had never used before in my life.

I wasn't given any gloves, and whenever I asked for some somebody would tell me they'd grab me a pair, but no one ever came back. My hands got all sappy.

The worst experience was when a woman started yelling at me because she insisted that I was the one who promised to save her some Christmas tree clippings so she could make a wreath. I had not seen her before in my life.

| hahauknowwhatitis420

Our sale was a nightmare.

It was a deal you could get any other time of the year, but people went nuts just because it was Black Friday.

Our sale was, "Buy one pair, get the next pair 50% off" on all shoes, except in small print, the coupon stated that the discount could not be applied to Nike shoes.

Cue customers throwing a huge fit when they came up to the register and heard that they couldn't claim the coupon.

After 20 minutes, my manager got so fed up that he just started overriding the transactions because he was tired of getting screamed at.

| Anonymous

I was working at a retail store and this women leaves her cart alone for one second to go check something out, and customers just raided her cart and took everything in it.

Worst part was that we were out of everything she had in the cart, so she had no way of getting it back.

| shadowrider666

My Black Friday two years ago was just the opposite of crazy — I used to work in a grocery store, so it was absolutely dead the whole shift.

I have never been so utterly and thoroughly bored before or since.

I would have killed for some crazy stuff to happen just so I could have a chuckle about it the next day.

| Anonymous

I worked at Toys R Us some years ago.

No standout bad customers, but it surprised me how many parents brought their young children to the stores at 3 a.m. to stand in line and wait for the sales.

These kids would still be in their pyjamas, hair matted and they'd be falling asleep in line.

Then the moms would get mad and would yell at their children for whining/crying because, "You won't get any toys! Christmas is next month!"

Your kid is exhausted and you dragged them to a toy store, of course they're gonna be cranky and tired.

Working there really changed my perspective on people.

| because_science

Worked at Walmart on Black Friday last year.

The first couple in line had been there for about 13 or 14 hours. They had actually camped out overnight.

We open the store, expecting that they'll make a beeline for the electronics or toys. You know, the expensive stuff.

Nope. They entered the store and filled a shopping cart full of towels that we had on sale for $2.

That's it. Just towels. They were first in line outside and waited over half a day for $2 towels.

When I left after my 12 hour shift, we still had shelves full of these towels, along with tons more in the stockroom.

| Lineman72T

I worked at Old Navy in college. We would usually have several items on one table, but only one of them would be on sale.

It was clear though: We would have T-shirts, skirts and sweaters all on the same table, but the sign would say, "T-shirts $5."

During Black Friday, a guy got super angry that everything on the table wasn't on sale and started flipping out about false advertising.

We wore lanyards and he grabbed my manager’s lanyard and started choking her.

We were ready to call the police, but she was a pretty tough older woman and got him to stop.

| CeeDee

[I] worked at Walmart when I went to college a few years back.

On Black Friday, when we sold out of one item we’d have to restock the merchandise in front of customers. It felt like setting up a buffet in front of a bunch of hungry bears.

I was restocking video games when a guy literally jumped over the crowd of people and into the game display, knocking it over.

Games went everywhere. It turned into a mob trying to get their hands on Call of Duty. Luckily no one got hurt.

Another fun story from that day happened when we opened up the display for the board games. This old lady (she had to be at least 80) had two empty carts and FILLED them with board games. As many as she could fit.

I guess there’s nothing really wrong with that, until she ripped a board game straight from a little kid’s hands and threw it in her cart.

You see the worst of humanity on Black Friday.

|*likemike2422

I had a lady saying she was going to faint.

She kept saying, "Please just let me pay so I can get to a doctor." I knew she was lying and called my manager over so he could talk to her.

He said, "Ma'am, they told me you were in need of medical assistance. I've got an ambulance on the way."

She freaked out, yelling at my manager about the line being too long and how it was his fault she was feeling sick.

She then yelled at me, saying, "This is all your fault! If you would have just let me cut the line we'd be out of this mess."

My manager told her to leave and if she didn't he would call the cops. She tried to stay until a random cop came in to check out the crowd. She left so quick.

By the way, my manager never called an ambulance in the first place.

He was just pulling her leg.

| mamajrocks

Black Friday a few years ago.

We were giving away free DVD players with certain purchases. This woman picked up the most expensive Blu-ray player from electronics and insisted we give it to her for free.

I informed her that I couldn't do that. She pressed on.

We went back and forth for a few minutes and I was beginning to stress out, because a huge line was developing behind her. She refused to leave until she spoke to a manager.

When management showed up, she screamed at them until they told me to just give it to her at 50% off.

It's people like her that make my job intolerable.

| mrrogersinasvubasuit

One year I had to sit on top of a ladder because I was stuck on it once I got up there — the customers had managed to pull down a section of slat wall digging through some heavy items and I had to fix it in the middle of the madness.

I was just digging out sizes of merchandise at the top of the wall for customers all day while they screamed out sizes. The aisle was so packed, no associates could break through to even get to the wall for other customers.

So I was the last person standing in that area and had to shout out orders to other areas of the store and call down sizes at the same time.

It was surreal. I even had to talk an associate through the return process and give them my code because I myself couldn't get down off the ladder to get to a register.

| morgueanna

I was working at a Best Buy-type of place and was "line busting" — that’s where you head out to the line outside, get customer orders, and prep temporary receipts in the system so that the cashiers can rapidly ring people out.

This was the year that netbooks first made their appearance.

These were in high demand, and my store had a door-crasher netbook special, so the lines were really huge and people had been waiting a long time.

I noticed a scuffle breaking out towards the front of the line, so I went to break it up (silly mistake, should have let them fought).

I break it up, while giving them grief for being immature jerks.

As I walk away, the guy I have my back turned to tries to punch the other guy. Misses, hits me square in the back of my head.

Ow.

| splashdown

I worked at a shoe store for six years. Black Fridays were the worst for theft.

Every year I’d find huge mountains of empty (stolen) shoe boxes scattered throughout the store. I hate shoplifting with a passion — one time I saw that someone had walked out with a pair of $250 shoes and it burned me up.

I also hated that every year we opened earlier and earlier.

First it was 7 a.m., then 6 a.m. and eventually 5 a.m. Oh, and the store would be open until 10 p.m. the night before.

Many co-workers had family hours away, and they had to turn around on Thanksgiving to drive back to be there that night when the store opened.

I don't work retail anymore but I refuse to go anywhere on Black Friday.

| currywursts

I held a seasonal position at Target.

The first lady to come into my line had a large screen TV, maybe a 40 or 50-inch model, that barely fit in the cart.

I whip around the register with my scan gun… and notice the barcode is on the bottom of the box inside the cart.

I lift the front of the box out of the cart, balancing it on my hand and the handle of the car and scan it.

I check the computer at the register to make sure it scanned, and that's when I felt the weight start to shift. Uh oh.

It revolves around my right hand and tips over, hitting the lady right on top of her head.

I was so embarrassed but she assured me she wasn't hurt and everything was fine.

| pepsivanilla

I was scheduled to work a 12 hour shift, starting at 5 a.m.

Not much of a breakfast person, I chose to only consume a granola bar before going to work. As the hours go by, I found that the demanding circumstances (I was behind the register) coupled with hunger makes me feel a tad light-headed.

At 2 p.m. I was denied a 15 minute break to eat something a bit more substantial.

At 3 p.m. an ambulance arrives due to the fact that a young, female sales associate has collapsed from exhaustion and hit the tile, and is probably suffering from a concussion.

That sales associate was me. I recovered just fine, but at 4 p.m. my boss called me from the hospital bed and inquired, "Are you coming back to work?"

And that's why I am now a bartender.

| peacelovewaffles

Two years ago a pair of ladies were throwing down fisticuffs over a Dyson vacuum. It wasn't even on sale.

Some of the people that shop on Black Friday have this mentality that they must fight and shove. It’s preposterous. There’s really no need for it.

| Areniker

Not so much a horror story, but something I just couldn't believe.

Black Friday at Walmart there were these microwaves being sold for like 70% off, and the store was so busy you couldn't move.

There were empty shelves all along the aisle up to these microwaves, so a guy got down on his belly and army-crawled along the shelves, grabbed a microwave and army-crawled back with it.

| verylazylewis

It was technically the day AFTER Black Friday, but it was still busy as all heck.

I worked as a customer service supervisor at a CompUSA before they closed down (it was like Best Buy), and ALL of my employees called in sick that morning.

ALL OF THEM.

So I am the only one ringing people up for the first six hours of the day.

When I finally got a 15-minute break, I went into the back area and blew up at the first manager I could find. I was so flustered and stressed. He just sat there and let me vent.

After a little while I went back and apologized to him, but he understood my frustration.

That day was no fun.

| zechgroove

I work at the largest lingerie retailer in the country.

You know, the one with the racy fashion show every year? That's the one.

Anyway, we had a security guard last night for the beginning of Black Friday. Some lady decided she didn't want to wait in a 50-person-deep line and tried to cut.

Our security guard asked her multiple times to step to the back of the line or leave.

She proceeded to start screaming, hitting him with every curse word in the book, and ended by threatening him with a gun she had in her bag.

This will be my last holiday in retail.

| kittykatie0629

When I was 15, I got my first actual job.

It was at a clothing store and my first day was Black Friday. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal because I was hired for men's formal wear and it looked like it was a slow department.

When I show up at 4 a.m., they manager tells me I'm working women's shoes instead. Someone had called in sick and they needed people to help out on the sales floor.

Absolute madness.

The worst part was that I didn’t yet have an employee number, so I didn’t earn commission for that day. I lost hundreds of dollars in extra pay.

| beardedbooty

About 15 years ago, I was working at a bookstore in a mall. Somehow, around 5 p.m. maybe, I was the only employee in the entire store — not a single co-worker to be found, and we were slammed with customers.

We usually had music playing in the store, controlled by an ordinary five-disc stereo in the back office, and of course this is the day the inoffensive holiday music gets brought into circulation.

Around the time I found myself alone, I noticed the stereo had become stuck on repeat, just playing the same song over and over.

It was at least an hour before I was able to get away from the counter, and so that was the day I was forced to listen to some kind of generic "A Very Jazzy Jinglebells" some 30 times back-to-back.

| heynomad

I sold a couch to a guy who drove a Prius with no roof-rack.

We do not deliver and he wouldn't leave until WE found a way to get this thing secured to his car somehow.

Not only had he clearly not planned ahead or thought it through, he was a total jerk about it and insisted on making it our problem.

We ended up using half a spool of twine to tie this thing down and he had to climb in through the window because the twine went through his doors. I REALLY wish I had taken a picture.

At one point he complained to our manager, who had no idea what we were supposed to have done to appease this doofus.

Finally, we insisted that he sign a waiver before leaving because we were not about to be held responsible for his own poor planning.

Of course, this was also during the busiest part of the day.

| uberhypnotoad

About six years ago I was working at a mall bookstore's cafe. I had the opening shift, which was 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

I actually had a customer who was stalking me and spent the ENTIRE day sitting in the cafe reading a book and occasionally coming up to order something new.

When I wasn't behind the counter or in the back room he followed me around, including during my two hour shift gap.

I didn't dare go to my car on my break, because I didn't want him knowing what it looked like, and my manager didn't want to call security on him if he didn't actually approach me. Worst Black Friday ever.

Two weeks later he did approach me while I was working. He asked if he could clip my fingernails and have them as a keepsake.

That was enough to get him banned from not only the store, but also the mall. My manager also made sure someone walked me to my car for the next few months.

| needsmoreyellow

I worked at a restaurant that is right across the street from the mall. I'm sitting in the back on Black Friday morning, waiting for my inevitably long shift to start. It was incredibly busy already, it was but I wasn't about to clock in early.

I was chatting with one of the managers when I heard a hostess scream, "HELP HELP!"

I immediately rush to the entrance to see two grown men on the ground fighting. One was wearing nothing but his underwear.

My shift lead tried to pull them off each other while screaming, "STOP. THIS IS A FAMILY RESTAURANT. THERE ARE CHILDREN HERE!"

I jolted forward in an attempt to break up the fight. This is where it gets weird.

Everyone is gathered around this small area watching or trying to help when someone grabbed a fire extinguisher and started spraying us with it.

So, we have a bunch of people trying to break up a fight between a man in his underwear and some other dude, and someone spraying us with a fire extinguisher. All while we have wholesome Christmas carols playing in the background.

Finally we get the fight broken up. Cops show up. Turns out the fully dressed guy got the last TV from Best Buy, and the other guy got angry and followed him over to try to buy the TV from him.

The one who got the TV told him, “no,” so this guy took off his pants and they got into a fight.

| usernamesarestupid12

I work at a gas station, so I'm somewhat shielded from Black Friday craziness. I do see it second hand, though.

Just this morning, we had a few Walmart workers come in, and they looked like they just came back from the war. Two of them had ladies ram their carts into their legs to get at the merchandise.

Another guy said once the doors opened, it was just a flurry of shredded plastic and hands grabbing at you.

Nobody got a full break, and the catered food was cold by the time they could stop by the breakroom to eat.

One girl said she was practically trampled. She's a petite little thing, and got tripped by one customer, fell down, and had several more walk on/over her.

She's okay, she's just sore and a little bruised.

We seriously thought she was joking, but she was dead serious.

| abbyabsinthe

I worked at Wal-mart during Black Friday about 12-13 years ago. The hot items that year were $10 DVD players and trampolines.

The DVD players were stacked on two tables near the registers and the trampolines were in sporting goods.

I'm walking to the receiving area in the back and someone from sporting goods asks if I can grab a trolley to load up the last trampoline.

I had to go all the way to the grocery section to get one and as I'm coming back, a customer pulls me aside for a minute.

I walk two feet away from my cart and some woman grabs it and runs towards sporting goods. I get there and the woman and husband are loading up the trampoline and it wasn't even for them.

The other lady that had it and purchased it (she the had receipt and all, just needed a carryout) said, "Hey, that's mine," and the husband got in her face and said, "What are you gonna do about it?!”

They started to walk off. I was shocked, my jaw dropped. The husband looked at me and said, “You got a problem, huh?”

I just smiled and told the sporting good guy to call management.

The husband then said, "Run, honey!" And they booked it to the front. They made it out of the store with the trampoline too.

| duckmunch

I worked in a Best Buy for a few years. The one that definitely takes the cake was the time my general manager had to call the police and fire departments when a family became irate when he told them they couldn't deep-fry their Thanksgiving turkey in the parking lot.

They started threatening to torch cars and burn the store down.

| JQuilty

I've worked for Best Buy for three and a half years now. One year I go in at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving to prep for our midnight opening.

We hand out tickets at 9 for the doorbusters. A few of the people at the front of the line aren't there to keep the product, just sell it for profit. One lady sells her ticket to someone closer to the middle who didn't get one.

The "buyer" gives her $200 cash. When she gets inside to pick up her TV that was on sale for $200 she insists she paid for the TV already. She couldn't comprehend the fact that she bought a ticket from another customer, not a TV.

We spent about an hour with her before she left mad without her TV and $200 less in her pocket.

| SurfNC02

I used to work at Best Buy in college a few years ago. They had zones [that] us blue shirts couldn't move from. So I got zoned for Wii systems and games, not so bad.

One lady comes running up and asks if we have Christmas-themed baby music on CD. I say there is no way we have that, but I can't help since I'm zoned for gaming. She storms off like I had just become Scrooge to her Black Friday.

Probably two hours later she comes back pushing a CD [in] my face like she had bested me. All I said was congratulations for taking two hours to find it.

| serpicoded

I had a rude/obnoxious customer refuse to leave the store after we closed (we were re-opening an hour later for a sale event), so I told him "OK" and just let him be.

Once we reopened I told him that he had to get at the end of the line before he would be allowed to purchase anything.

| ff7jordan23

I was in a Walmart a couple of years ago when a guy got in a fight with a woman over a toaster. It got really heated and the woman took out a switchblade/pocketknife.

She started swinging all over the place trying to scare others away and she ended up slicing the guy down his arm. The guy sprinted to the front of the store, and the woman grabbed her toaster and sat down across the aisle.

An employee came by a few minutes later and mopped up the blood. She got the toaster.

| imnotpopular

I worked at RadioShack for a year in college. During Black Friday, one of the sale items was a $10 calculator marked down to $5. Two sweet, elderly women came into the store looking for them.

When I told them there was only one left in the display, it was ON. It turned in to a geriatric version of roller derby without the skates.

I always imagined some little kid opening presents on Christmas morning and getting this stupid $5 calculator, not really wanting it and having no clue about the back story behind it, as his grandma, sipping her tea, looks on with a triumphant gleam in her eye.

| Jsquaw

I remember once when I used to manage a department in Walmart on Black Friday there was this plastic kayak for like a really low price with the oars and everything.

Some guy got in the kayak while scooting himself through aisle with the oars just tossing stuff onto it.

Was pretty funny. I didn't tell him anything cuz, well, it made me laugh.

| Griim004

I stood behind a lady at Target who was returning a newly bought iPad. She was livid because her iPad wasn't charging. She claimed that the tablet had [a] Wi-Fi connection to the store, and it wasn't charging like it was supposed to.

She was told that the cord [that] came with it was the only way to charge it.

She balked at the statement and adamantly said that since it's hooked up to Target's free Wi-Fi, it should be charging. Sadly, this is not the case ...

Sad to think she thought Wi-Fi charged her iPad.

| djchristensen

One woman thought that it was a good idea to break the glass on the game display case to get to the games rather than asking for me to unlock them.

As she cradled her bloodied elbow and forearm, she yelled at me for not using tempered glass.

Sorry lady, [I] didn't realize that someone would be using their arm as a battering ram on my cabinets.

| PityandFear

A woman I was working with was at Best Buy waiting in line on Black Friday. There was a gentlemen in line, two people in front of her. He tells the cashier he will pay for the next two people in line's items.

The guy in front of her had like a big screen TV and a few other items. She only had a Celine Dion CD. Why only a Celine Dion CD? Who knows.

Turns out the person who said he would pay for the items was Chad Johnson. Former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver.

| TheOpen

On Black Friday at ASDA (British Walmart) there were these microwaves like 70% off, and the store ... was so busy you couldn't move.

There were empty shelves all along the aisle up to these microwaves, and a guy laid down on the shelf and army-crawled along the shelves, grabbed a microwave and army-crawled back with it.

| VeryLazyLewis

[I] worked at Walmart and there weren't anymore shopping carts. [I] saw a man lift a car seat with a baby in it out of the shopping cart and leave said baby in the middle of the aisle while Mom was busy trying to get $5 DVDs.

I'm watching as this goes down, and I pick up the car seat with the baby and tell the mom what happened. Do I get a "thank you"? NO!! She proceeds to yell at me for touching her kid and letting the man steal her cart!

... I just walked away as she continued yelling and digging through the DVD bin.

| babadaboopi83

[I] worked at Walmart during college a few years back. Because Walmart keeps the store open, unlike say Target or other stores, we are setting up the merchandise right in front of the customers, it's literally like setting up a buffet in front of hungry bears or something...

We opened up the display for the board games. This old lady, I'm talking maybe in her 80s, had two empty carts, and when we opened it up she grabbed as many as she could fit in the two baskets ...

Nothing really wrong with this until she started ripping the games from some little kid's hands and throwing them in her cart.

You see the worst of people on Black Friday.

| LikeMike2224

A pet store near a store I used to work at caught a lady on Black Friday trying to smuggle a lizard out of the store by sticking it down her pants.

... I believe that this must be a common idiot's way of trying to steal stuff. In their pants.

| Anonymous

I worked at a Toys R Us. While I was walking around to find people that need help, I found this guy in a corner covering his face and crying his eyes out.

When I asked him if he needed help with something, he just kept saying "I just want to go home... I just want to go home..."

He looked to be about 50 years old.

| sunsetblud

I was working at a mall bookstore's cafe. I had the opening shift. Unfortunately, the late shift person called in sick, so I had two hours off before a 4 p.m. to close shift.

I actually had a customer who was stalking me and spent the ENTIRE day sitting in the cafe reading a book and occasionally coming up to order something new.

Any time I wasn't behind the counter or in the back room he followed me around, including during my two hour shift gap. Worst Black Friday ever.

Two weeks later he did approach me while I was working and asked if he could clip my fingernails as a keepsake. That was enough to get him banned from not only the store, but also the mall.

| NeedsMoreYellow

The worst moment for me came when a customer tried to buy a pack of scrapbook page protectors.

The customer was attempting to buy a pack of 25 but was convinced the price was wrong because she was looking at the sticker for the pack of 10. She screamed at me for a good five minutes while I calmly tried to explain the price.

Finally, it ended with the quote, "You're ruining my Thanksgiving, you stupid witch."

Trying not to scream back after that comment, I replied with "I'm sorry to hear that, but unfortunately, I cannot give you the lower price as it was not mislabeled."

She responded to that by throwing a punch, which I ducked. My manager saw the whole thing and the customer was escorted out and banned from our store.

| pictures_of_success

I wasn't that great at my job, so they had me running people from the line they had set up to different registers and quickly answering questions from customers. No big deal.

At about 1 a.m. as I'm running customers back and forth we hear a commotion on the other side of the store and a few police officers come in.

Turns out some guy had broken a bit of plastic off one of the information plaques and tried to use the pointy bit to stab an employee in the neck. I never found out why he did it. People are crazy. I am so incredibly thankful not to be working retail anymore.

| npc_Human

Get to the store around 3 a.m. and there was a line around the building.

Usual busy as heck story up until I was asked to help some elderly ladies with a carryout. They smiled as we were walking out, but, as we passed through the doors, our alarms went off.

Our policy says we have to rescan or recheck the items and these ladies start to freak out. Saying our systems are screwed up, they didn't do anything, that I put something in their cart.

We open up their boxes and find several cartons of ammo. So at this point, we have to call the cops but they decide to (very slowly) book it but we're not allowed to follow them out so I see them make it to their van and drive away

| Wet_napkins

It was the first year we did nation-wide online orders, and so I went to one of our shipping locations.

Turns out the computer system that communicates with our store server was down and we had no way of knowing.

We showed up at 1 a.m. to pull orders, and they trickled in, about three per hour — obviously, it felt like a waste — and at 5:30 a.m., we had 600 orders pop in to pull immediately.

Of course, since it was such a waste of time, the location manager sent the receiving team home at 5 a.m., and I had stuck around in protest. So I was the only one on hand to fulfill the orders. Rough day.

| Thirdwhirly

One year while working at Kmart on Black Friday, I stood up too close to an end-cap, and ended up gashing the top of my head on a sharp shelving corner. The cut was just inside the hairline, and blood starts going everywhere.

Luckily, I thought, I'm near the back of the store, and I was only about 20 yards away from the "employees only" area. I got stopped three times by customers. With blood pouring down my face, in a span of about 50 paces.

Only one of them asked if I was okay (after I helped them with their shopping problem FIRST, of course), and they all gave me this dull look as they talked as though they were consciously trying to block the fact that, yes, they WERE talking to someone who needed medical attention, but they REALLY needed to find that $20 DVD player first.

| lordhellion

I went to a local Target and the store had already opened by the time I got there.

My friend and I were browsing some of the PS3 accessories and games on sale there and we heard a giant crash from the other isles. I kid you not, I heard a massive "ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR."

I peeked out of the aisle to see some guy dressed as a grizzly bear completely tearing up this store. He had techno music playing from every stereo system at Target.

I watched as he tackled shelves and other things in each aisle.

When the workers came to realize what was going on. I watched as they chased this bear throughout Target and it was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. Eventually the bear got tackled by some security guards.

| AngryCherry

One year at Best Buy, we had several complaints where just was someone would grab something they'd feel an incredible shock and fall down.

My manager was terrified that some wiring under the laptop display had come loose and the display was shocking people.

After a quick review of the tape I discovered the truth. Some guy was standing behind the first wall of people and had a small handheld taser. When the cops were taking him away he was commenting that he was only getting the jerks!

Sure enough he would wait until someone was shoving their way to the front or throwing elbows and would wait for them to grab whatever they wanted then zap them.

| AKBigDaddy

One man tells me he drove over an hour to get to me, only to wait another hour in a line, to have the concierge say no appointments.

He gives me this huge sob story, blames the fact that he's pissed off due to waiting in line and wants me to comp him a new iPad for his troubles. I tell him I can't and it will be $320 to replace it.

The next bit happened like a flash. He flipped out and started smashing the iPad on the studio wall table. Threatening me with my life and job...

Glass was going all over the place, the store which was packed came to a halt to watch this dude flip out on me. My manager runs over and what I witnessed astounded me.

We comped him a replacement iPad and a case...really? Retail is the worst.

| xxthegreekxx

One evening during the Black Friday rush at the big-box retail store I worked at, one of my cashiers called me over.

This lady had her dad's credit card and about $1,000 worth of merchandise.

The cashier refused to sell it due to her using someone else’s credit card — it’s just protocol. The woman got defiant and the crux of her argument was that she had power of attorney (POA) over her father, he was quite ill, so she had the right to use his credit card to buy Christmas presents.

I didn’t buy her story, and I refused the sale. I was going through the same thing with my grandfather, so I knew all about POA. Our attorney had emphatically told us that we couldn't go shopping for personal uses with the POA, so I knew this woman was lying.

Anyway, she would not back down. Busy Friday night, lines longer and longer, she thought she could yell me down, wait me down — I would not budge. She stormed off, but an hour later came back with her very ill-looking father.

I felt bad for the guy and I apologized to him, but explained the situation and he was cool with it. I felt bad for the cashier, too — she felt bad for causing all the trouble.

I hated retail.

| Anonymous

Circuit City. I worked 16 hours that day. Got in at 4 a.m., and there was a line wrapped around the store already. I worked in the back, so we handled all the larger items (TVs, stereos etc.).

Whenever an order is placed from a sales associate on the floor, it makes a loud screech noise once.

6 a.m. comes and everyone starts flooding in. Grabbing everything. We are all in the back observing this madness because it hasn't hit us yet.

Then the orders start. It's screech after screech for the next 14 hours that I'm there. It never stops. You'd think it would take a break for few minutes? Nope. That thing screeched non-stop.

By the time I left, I heard that screech noise in my sleep. In my dreams. When I woke up. For the next two weeks I couldn't get rid of that noise. It was awful.

| CarnitasWhey

A lady actually beat me with one of the store advertisement books.

I was helping another customer find something and holding her booklet, when another lady grabbed it from me. I told her it wasn't mine to give, but I would find her one in a second.

She proceeded to beat me with it. It didn't hurt, but it was very demeaning. Instead of getting mad, I went and tracked down another advertisement book, found her and gave it to her.

The look of horror on her face that someone would be kind to her after that was better than anything. I made her feel like a bad person all while I remained a good person.

| Fervidor

A lady came in, loaded up her cart with TVs that weren't on special and thought she could just walk right out with them.

Needless to say security tackled her at the door, and she punched the security girl right in the stomach. Big mistake! She got slammed HARD against the brick wall before being cuffed.

She was dragged back into the store kicking and screaming about how we were "ruining her children's Christmas."

As security dragged her in two young college boys in line started a slow clap for her that led to every guest in line clapping and shouting "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" It was glorious.

| Pearl725

First job after moving was at Fry's. Also the first real day of work was Black Friday.

Had a family come in. His kid starts screaming I want Xbox. So dad decided to buy one, unfortunately I had just sold the last one.

Dad and kid went into berserk mode screaming at me, I get knocked to the ground.

Could have stopped there but no Dad starts kicking me in the ribs, his kid decides its okay that daddy is beating me for not having an Xbox for his son so he starts kicking me too.

Ended up having to be rushed to the hospital. Several broken bones, nose and ribs.

After my brief stint in the hospital I decided I never wanted to go through that again so I moved to Sweden. Much safer here.

| SevrenBG

I work at a large fabric and craft store. To purchase fabric, you have to first take the bolt(s) to the cutting counter.

People bring their fabric to us [at the register] and expect us to cut it. When I tell them I can't do that, some of them understand. Some of them argue.

One man brings a basket of unmeasured trim to the front. Sent him back to the counter, guy flat out refused. Wouldn't listen to us, yelled over our explanations. Called us all idiots and some other colorful obscenities.

He keeps getting louder and more aggressive.

He turned and started chucking the spools of trim in the direction of the cutting counter. Took out a candy display and some other stuff.

It was kind of terrifying, this guy was out of control, for a second I thought he was going to actually assault one of us, but thankfully once he ran out of trim he stormed out of the store.

| antiquarked

I used to work at a game store a little more than 10 years ago. Once a woman came in dressed fairly trendy and asked for two PlayStation Portables (PSP), two Xbox 360’s and a handful of games and accessories. My store was pretty slow so this would be a pretty big sale for the day and I was excited about it.

She goes to pay and hands me a credit card which was not laminated and appeared to be printed out on a home color printer. I told her it wouldn’t work and she said just scan it anyway. So I scanned her fake credit card which clearly did not have a magnetic strip and it didn’t work— of course. She told me to just “put the numbers in” on the computer. I refused and she asked why, seeming legitimately confused. I told her I just couldn’t.

She told me she would be back with cash. I put everything back on the shelves. She did not return.

| RudgerZ

Years ago I worked at a small hardware store where they were constantly getting huge rolls of copper wire stolen. One day this guy and his girlfriend come in to return a roll. I was a few months in on the returns counter.

They had no receipt and when I scanned the item for the return it was only doing the price per foot. I couldn’t figure out how to get the SKU or the price for the whole roll. Called the manager and he comes out and right away knows there’s no way these people bought a roll and returned it.

So he asks when they bought it and they say two weeks ago (a common response) and my manager tells them “oh really because the last time we sold an entire roll was over three months ago.” The guy starts to get brave and tells him “so you’re saying I stole it?” And my manager says yes.

They end up leaving and leave the roll behind. Before they leave the store the guy says “I’m coming back and bringing the cops.” My manager says “go ahead, that way you can explain to them how you stole the roll.”

| celesticaxxz

When we knew that someone was returning a stolen item we would simply tell them that it was now reduced in price to $1 and they could take it or leave it. Since we were a chain we couldn't actually accuse them of stealing it without getting into trouble.

We also would use a blank key on the register keyboard that would throw an error up on the screen when we scanned an item and we would simply tell them that the item was no longer in our system but we could offer them a refund of $1. Some were so desperate (stupid?) that they would actually accept it even on items that were worth $10 or more. Also, way back in the day in the early 90's we would get people trying to write bad checks all of the time.

So one day this guy came in right around the time when DVD players were coming down in price and he decided to write a check for one. I think they retailed for around $200. He was so happy that his bad/forged check cleared our managers approval (this was before TeleCheck even existed, you decided if you wanted to accept a persons check by calling the bank or just by looking at them) that after he took the DVD player out to his car he came back in to purchase three more because he wanted one for every one of the TV's at his mansion.

As he starts to write a check for the next purchase we decide to call mall security which back then happened to be two off duty plain clothed LAPD detectives that the mall employed —yeah, it was beautiful to have two actual cops there in two minutes when needed. Long story short, I can still remember the look on his face when the two plain clothes detectives showed up and flashed their badges at him and wanted to make sure his checks were valid.

He ended up being busted for fraud of a merchant, false identification and grand theft.

| dkcs

At the Kmart returns counter, I had a guy try to return a CD (with receipt). The shrink wrap had been sliced and the CD taken out. He claimed it was like that when he bought it. I told him I couldn't return it for cash but could swap it for the same thing. He went to get a new CD and brought some other artist. Told him it had to be the exact same thing. I had the electronics employee bring up the right CD. As I checked that they were the same and told him I would give him a new one, a smile grew on his face which quickly melted away when I took out a knife and cut open the plastic on the CD. No, you can't return that one later.

Another scammer that I actually caught was this guy who was paralysed on the left half of his body. He walked slowly around the store, dropping stuff. One day I caught him bagging Oxiclean in his cart. Notified LP and she watched him. He went through a self checkout and told me he bought the Oxiclean in electronics. LP called electronics, who said no such sale was made. I think she let him go that time but the next time he came in, he got a police escort.

This one was an insider job — this guy who worked in electronics also did layaway. One of the service desk girls would put a giant bag of dog food in the layaway. Then the electronics guy would empty the bag and fill it with expensive electronics. Turns out they had been getting away with this for years, then the LP staff changed and the new lady knew how to police the place.

| mr_humansoup

One of my embarrassing memories from working retail is falling for one of these scams. I had actually been a cashier for probably five years at this point and had never heard of this particular method. I had seen people come in with cloned credit cards, barcodes switched and placed on the wrong product, returns that are filled with junk, counterfeit money, etc. but never had heard of this type of thing.

Some guy came in and wanted to pay for a cheap item with a $100 bill. I count out his change and am about to hand it over — let's say $95.15 — when he changes his mind and says "oh wait, give me that $100 back, I have the exact change. I can give you the .85 cents so that you won't need to give me the coins and you can just give me the $95." And heck if I didn't just hand it over. He spaced it out just long enough that I was still holding the $95 and because I had to take time to put the coins away by that point I completely forgot that I had given him back his $100.

I had no idea it had happened until the next day when my manager brought me in to review the video and asked me if I remembered the customer on the screen. I did (because he was friendly and we had chatted while I started ringing him up). I even told my manager 'oh yeah, nice guy' and then was informed of what had happened. It's one of the few times in my life I can remember being honestly startled and blown away that I hadn't realized what happened.

| forsaleortrade

I work at a major cell phone retailer. I once had a man come in with his wife to do an upgrade to whatever the new iPhone was at that time. While they were sitting in the store working with one of my reps (I was in management at the time) the wife starts getting text messages from someone claiming to be her husband’s mistress. This did not go over well. They took it outside before it got overly nasty, and we all assumed they were gone for good.

So, the husband comes back in. Alone. He finished upgrading his phone (priorities) and left. The very next day he tried to return the phone claiming that we had sold him one with screen damage. He brings it in, and it looks like someone took a diamond ring or something to the screen and scratched the heck out of it.

Now we have a strict “open the box and hand it to the customer before they leave” policy to avoid these situations. I was able to pull tape, show the customer where he held the phone for a good five minutes without pointing out any flaws and tell him that my company offers no warranty on that brand even if it’s bad out of the box — and especially when he didn’t show it to us before leaving the store. I suggested he take it up with the manufacturer if he truly believed the phone was damaged out of the box.

He did, right there in the store he called them. They also told him to kick rocks. The best part? I was new to management so I didn’t have a manager name tag yet. He asked to speak to the manager and I got to give him my best evil grin and say “I am the manager.” He left after that and we never saw him again.

| Wrashionis

I used to work at Best Buy. This guy came in and returned a laptop saying that the box had some old laptop in it. He was yelling and screaming that we don't know how to do business. Manager gave him a full refund.

We started to check that old laptop he brought in — it won't turn on. Looks like the motherboard was toast. We pulled the hard drive out and started checking the data. Hard drive was completely fine with everything on it.

We started looking for the clues and found the pictures of the guy who returned the laptop. It was his old machine. We had all his info. Manager called him and said he has 15 minutes to bring the new laptop back or he is calling the police.

The guy came in and dropped the laptop at the front desk. Never saw him again in the store

| Vick7171

At my old job, they used to have sales pretty often and would also give out coupons for specific dates. For Boxing Day, they had a 30% off sale and we'd also given out coupons that would start the next day. A lady came in on Boxing Day and we worked out that she'd get more of a deal if she used the coupon instead, so I offered to hold her items for her. I explicitly told her that she wouldn't be able to get the 30% off and she decided to use the coupon instead.

She comes back the next day, goes to cash to purchase her items and gets angry because they wouldn't give her both the 30% off and let her use the coupon. She told the cashier that the person she'd spoken to the day before had told her she could do that, sees me, and says "it was that girl who told me!"

I went to cash to speak to her (I was a keyholder at the time) and her story changed about three times through the whole thing. First she said that I told her she could combine the discounts, then she said that I never told her she couldn't combine the discounts and then finally it was "well I don't understand why I'm not able to do this." Another manager came over to help sort it out and as I walked away I heard her saying that I was a liar.

Now, I work at Sephora and we always get people trying to return fake products. My favorite one was when someone returned a face mask but had put a can of tuna in the box instead of the actual face mask.

| ShadyLady709Q49

I worked at a Jewel many, many years ago. Opening shift as a cashier, a man comes through with two 24 packs of Pepsi. It’s opening shift, so at that time we count our registers and confirm they’ve got the correct opening cash. We didn’t carry too much cash and we all know how much is in the drawer to start. He ends up paying with a $100 bill for these sodas. I counted back his change with mostly 20’s — all the 20’s I had just counted.

There were no more 20’s I could have given him and I don’t know how he did this, but he shuffled them in his hand, and showed me that I supposedly short changed him. Now, I knew immediately that he was no good.

I told him that I would call a manager over and have them double check the register. The manager came, counted down the register and explained that the drawer was balanced, which means I didn’t short change anybody. But, if for whatever reason the drawer turned up $20 over at night, we could give him a call.

The manager tries to take his info down and he asks for his name and the guy thinks about it and says “Steve…Bush!”

| Bakingjingo

When I worked on a checkout a woman pulled a barcode label from a container of $4 tinned fruit and stuck it over the barcode of a $25 container of medjool dates. She pretended that she didn't do it. Another time a man carried a $30 bag of dog food to the customer service counter without paying for it and asked for a refund. My manager gave it to him even though we both knew he had stolen it while we watched him.

Oh, and another time a group of people were using fake credit cards to steal. Not sure exactly how it worked but they ended up typing in a different card number into the EFTPOS terminal while another dude tried to distract you. These guys were super friendly and chatty and probably thought I was young and dumb but I caught them trying to take off with about $500 worth of groceries. They were all like, "just let us go and get some cash out, we'll be back soon to pay.”

They never returned and my manager gave me a box of chocolates for picking up on it. Proudest moment of my retail career.

| puddingandp1e

I work at an Italian deli/specialty market. It’s family owned and has a super tight knit cast of employees. It’s also in a rougher part of town. One day, a presumably homeless woman came into the store. No big deal — we’re by the shelter and a lot of the homeless folks are friendly and just getting something nice to eat. However, this lady was clearly out of her mind. Whether it was drugs or mental illness wasn’t clear. Honestly probably both.

She was in the store for an hour just harassing employees and customers. Eventually, the owner (the Italian man after which the store is named) had to intervene. He firmly asked the lady to leave, but she had a surprising response: “oh it’s okay, I work here.”

Imagine the surprise on the owner’s face. He certainly didn’t remember hiring her. Dumbfounded, he told her that was impossible, since he’s in charge of the hiring to which she responded: “oh, are you hiring?”

Honestly I’ve got to respect a good gambit. Unfortunately for her, it didn’t seem to pan out. I don’t have any new coworkers yet.

| SirPickell

I used to work for a store that did trade-ins for old gaming systems. One day a man comes in trying to trade in his Xbox 360 to get credit for the (at the time) new Xbox One. We’re pretty lax about the condition of the product. As long as it turns on, we’ll take it. I’m talking to the man as I’m taking the Xbox box out of the bag he brought it in, he’s pleasant. I open the box up and ... cockroaches just come crawling out.

I almost dropped it, and I told the guy we can’t accept this. Boy, does he get mad. He has the gall to ask where in our terms does it specifically say they can’t accept this? The manager gets involved and he eventually leaves, only to come back the next day to try it on another employee.

I radio the manager when I recognize him. Guy puts up a fuss again and the manager eventually tells him he’ll give him the trade in credit IF he takes his bug ridden machine with him and never brings it back. I still get creepy crawlies thinking about those cockroaches.

| zahliailhaz

I work in a high end jewelry store that does jewelry repair on site. I had a lady come in and drop off an older 80’s style Omega chain for a simple solder and fix. We have our customers sign the envelope where we write a description of the piece and then they sign the same envelope when they pick up their merchandise and are satisfied with the work.

This woman saw what I wrote and then signed the bottom, no problem. When she picked up her chain she was ecstatic and said it was the best work she’s ever seen. She pays for the repair and signs the envelope agreeing that the work was all in order. She leaves.

10 minutes later she calls saying we switched her chain. I’m like look lady, we haven’t carried this type of chain in over 10 years because no one buys them, I wouldn’t even have a chain to give you. Also, we have cameras in the store including the jewelers room, please come in and take a look at the video surveillance assuring you that we didn’t switch your chain.

She would not let it go and was insisting that we reimburse her the money for her chain that we switched and hat any other store would have done it. I politely let her know that we would be doing no such thing since there is no way we switched her chain.

She said she was going to write me the nastiest Yelp review. That was a month ago. I’m still waiting for her to come in and demand her chain. She was clearly scamming since she did not want to see the video tapes and was expecting us to just pay her out. But as a small privately owned jewelry store, we can’t just accept that the customer is always right like the big corporate stores do.

| Twistedlittlelady

I worked at a Fossil store for a while and if customers brought in their Fossil pieces we would replace the batteries. So this guy brings in his watch and needs the battery replaced — no problem.

I take his watch to the back and replace the battery, bring it out front and hand it to him. He looks at it for a moment, then looks at me and says "that's not my watch.” I didn't know what to say. I legit said to the guy "I'm sorry sir I don't know what to tell you. That's your watch, it didn't leave my hands from the moment you gave it to me.”He looks at it again and says "No, that's not my watch.” We spent a painfully awkward moment just staring at each other (I had no idea what to say) and then just sort of repeated the above interaction a few more times.

Eventually, I said "I can ask for clearance from my manager to show you the repair station if you want to take a look back there" my manager walks over and says "everything okay?" and the guy just walks out the door. I still have no idea what he was trying to do.

| alexander_karamazov

I work at a cafe inside a big store and we have some regulars. Some are really nice and some ... not so much. This one lady, we have dubbed her “the breadstick lady” comes in probably every other day. She gets the same order every single day she comes in — two breadsticks, like a little pan of them.

And she has got to the point where she will walk into the store, hold up two fingers and we know to throw them in the oven since they take about 10 minutes to make. We also sell drinks, which can be found at the registers to check out groceries too.

So she will buy the breadsticks and then grab two or three cups from a register and not pay for them. And every time we ask to see the receipt for the cups and she asks “I thought the breadsticks were a combo? Two breadsticks and three drinks?”

And every day the answer is no. It’s crazy to see how many times she tries this and continues to fail, but continues to try as well!

| SneakyDonut23

Had a customer who would send her aid to the store — amongst the groceries bought were two bags of frozen shrimp. About a week later the aid would return with a ziplock bag with the ones she didn't want, which was less than a single bag, for a refund on both of them.

We allowed it and it happened a couple of more times until the aid came in and explained to us that she would constantly take them out of the freezer, thaw the whole bag, eat some and refreeze it, and said that she would be ok (in fact, happy) if we said no.

So we did and the lady files a complaint against us weekly now trying to get a $10 gift card for her complaint. Had a guy argue with my associate about a Play-Doh feature that had a factory sign on it that said .50 cents. He claimed that it meant half a cent each and wanted two for a penny. He was doing it out of spite.

One of my egghead peer assistant managers was baffled and said ok, but when my store manager approached him at the register he told him he was not right and to keep his penny — he didn't want it.

| kanuvpayne

Worked at Winn Dixie when I was a teenager. They had these really good sales on crab meat — like $5 for a 1lb can. One day this woman comes in with four cans asking for a refund; the cans were bulging and hot to the touch. She claimed that they were like that when she bought them. Really? Sure you didn't leave them in the car all day? The store also had a policy that they would sell meat that was about to expire for 50% off. People would grab steaks out of the meat department and hide them in the freezer section, under or behind other products, then come back later to buy them.

Not only is it pretty obvious when someone is digging through frozen peas to pull out a steak, it's really obvious when they come through the register with a frozen steak.

They also had a buy one get one free if someone found expired bread. People would hide bread in other sections of the store then come back for it a few days later. I remember one lady had a cart literally filled to overflowing with bread — half of it expired.

As a result of these shenanigans, we had to comb the store every night for products hidden in the freezers.

| Dalgeek

One time I had a guy come in, try to pay for a $500 phone with a card and the card was declined. "Sir your card was declined, do you wanna try a different card?"

"Nah man, let me just call my bank to see what's the problem."

He then called some number from his phone and handed it back to me. On the other end of the line was a guy who was very well spoken. CLEARLY not in cahoots with the man in front of me who was not well spoken. The guy on the other line walked me through the steps to push "force sale" on the card and assured me that there were funds on the account and it was a problem on their end.

I'm sure it would have forced the transaction, said approved and then a day or two later it would have failed or declined. Anyways I said no and gave the customer back his phone and took back ours.

| xTheatreTechie

I worked 10 years in fast food and 5 years at a grocery store, these are my favorite from each:

At a chicken store we sold a 16 piece meal for over $30. We wouldn't give a refund without them returning the product but would usually replace it without any proof because of corporate. So a common scam was to go to one store and get a replacement and then take that to a second store for a refund. One day I had a guy come in for a replacement. I was pretty sure he was full of it but I went ahead and did the replacement. I initiated the bottom of his coleslaw super fast and after he left I called around to our sister stores to watch out for a refund meal with my initials. Sure enough he hit the nearest one where they laughed him out.

At the grocery store the funniest was a lady who tried to replace corn syrup last winter that expired in 2005. "I bought two of these last week by accident!" I had countless people over the years clean out their cabinets and try to get cash for all the expired stuff that they supposedly bought.

| lilyluc

I get a lot of guests that pick receipts off the ground, parking lot or trash and then go into the store to pick the item off the shelf and return. I’m usually pretty good at calling our security and stalling the transaction for as long as I need to.

This guy the other night, who regularly does this (I feel like he has an accomplice(s) because our AP is always watching someone else when he is in the store) and for some reason I always happen to be at guest service. Anyway, he got loud with me the time before, so I didn’t even want to deal with it and notified my manager even though I am technically a supervisor.

Well, we deny it by forcing the system to come up with an error message and he starts yelling again. As if the three different beat up cash/ debit card receipts he had didn’t make us suspicious enough, he pulls out a bag of probably 100+ beat up receipts to prove to us how often he shops here. Like nah, bro, but thank you for the laugh.

Only annoying thing is I know for a fact multiple of my guest service team members have done returns for him before. He mentioned them by name to me by claiming “so and so” never gives him a problem, only me. Really, really hope we can catch him for good soon because I am tired.

| man_iamtired

I work in sales at a telecommunications company. Oh man do I love scammers, especially on a quiet day. You can tell a mile away their point is to get a high end phone for $0 while keeping their hands free with a fake or someone else's ID.

Although they are not as outrageous as what I've read here, I get a huge kick listening to them struggle. Usually I'll tell them the credit check will take a few minutes as my system is slow and immediately call fraud management. Hand over the info and conference the loser into surprising them with a new person full of questions.

A few examples I have is when a customer was looking to get a new device and I said the plan would be $200 a month when it was really $85 a month. "Oh, do you have anything cheaper?" — nope! Then "oh um, okay but the phone is free right?" — yup.

Today I got a call — the same old traditional young scammer. So I do my routine by surprising them with my favorite department. He offered a driver's license amongst the ID and the fraud rep asked him "what's your nearest major intersection?" First time I ever heard that — the customer became frustrated and said "I don't know, I don't drive!" I nearly died.

I have stories daily. I could process the order fully and flag it or tell them I have to speak to another department where they just hang up and end it there. That's no fun.

| Yujiza

I used to work at Victoria’s Secret when I was in high school. A lady brings a bra over and as I’m about to scan it and take tags off she asks if she can get some kind of discount because it’s stained. I look it over and there’s what looks like bright blue icing on it.

My eyes then trail over to her child who is eating a cupcake with bright blue icing and it had clearly just been stained by her. So I go “oh this is from the cupcake” and she goes “yeah any discount like half off or something?”

And I swear to god I just looked at her for a solid five seconds until I could spit the polite response out because in my brain I was going “did you really just ask me for a discount on an item YOU just ruined as you brought it to the cash register?”

Instead I politely told her I can’t sell damaged items. Like? Let me just smash the window of a brand new car and get $15,000 off because that makes sense

| mekelarje

I work at Hobby Lobby. You'd be surprised at what people try.

The most common thing is people buy a TON of wedding stuff then use it, keep the packaging and bring it back a month later. I don't even ask them why anymore.

Another common thing is people stealing from one store and taking it back to another store for an exchange card. What they don't realize is that we then flag the card and when they try to use it, it won't work and we direct them to corporate.

| PackinSnacks63

[I’m a] cashier at Home Depot. [A] guy comes through the self checkout with a big $550 Dewalt drill combo. Does his checkout business, then asks me to remove the alarm tag for him. Notice SCO screen is still up on his transaction and it's only $14. Tell him there was a mistake and to go to returns (I know he was scamming us).

Comes back and drops the, "Oh i'm going to check out the other model" line and then leaves. His buddy, also on SCO, ripped a barcode, so I had to help him and not pay attention to the other guy trying to steal the combo kit. They both leave, [we] call the cops. [The] cop already has them in [the] cop car for pulling them over for expired plates or something as they left the store parking lot.

Turns out the guy had peeled the UPC off a $14 toolbox and put it on his hand. As he covered up the Dewalt UPC, the SCO scanned the toolbox code. Police arrest the guys and I go to court in case I have to testify or something. Guys end up in jail, I [got an] award and $50.

| Salvo1218

Had a group of teens try and get a refund for their movie. They tried to tell us that the usher wouldn't let them in, to which I said:

1. Your ticket is ripped, that means you were let in.

2. Why didn't you come get your refund when you weren't let in, not when your movie is getting out?

3. One [of my] assistant managers was in [a] box with me and he had just walked by that theater and just saw those kids walking out of it. I had to say "I'm not giving you a refund" like 20 times before they finally walked away.

| Anonymous

I used to work in a clothing store and people would switch tags all the time. I'm sure some of them slipped by me but sometimes they would switch an expensive item with something much cheaper.

Like I wouldn't notice a $200 dress is ringing up like $30. Or sometimes they would take the sale sticker off of sale items and put it on brand new merchandise.

| Anonymous

Someone tried to bring in Great Value (Walmart) diapers to return them — I worked at a totally different grocery store.

We didn’t even accept diapers as a return either.

And they kept arguing that they got them here.

| lotusalchemist

I had a coworker at my previous job get handed a bad check by a customer who was buying stuff for a birthday party.

Coworker had to call a manager over so she could "approve" the check (store policy) before she could run it. Manager comes over, takes one look at the check, and excuses herself for a moment so she could laugh.

Apparently, the customer had altered the check so much that it was ridiculously noticeable. Parts of the account and routing numbers were scratched off and written over in pencil, the name didn't match the driver's license, all kinds of crazy stuff. Needless to say the customer bolted from the store when this happened.

| Anonymous

I have gotten quite a few crazy coupons in my day.

Coupons that would make $60 to $100 items free and were clearly faked.

It's just so funny how mad these people get, even if they didn't know the coupon was fake.

Do you really expect to get a major electronic item for free like that?

| sellyourdreams

My store had a lady who would take the barcode stickers off of teeth whitening stuff (a $20 or $30 item) that she had purchased, and put them on the cheap plastic travel containers for pills or shampoo. She would try to return the cheap stuff for the higher price. If you weren't paying attention and just scanned it, it would come up as being on her receipt. When I scanned it, I noticed it said something like Rembrandt and that the prices weren't even close. I then peeled off the sticker and was all, "Oh, this isn't the same thing, sorry I can't do this return."

She tried arguing that she paid for it and that it was on her receipt. I told her, "Here, let me get my manager and they can look it up on our cameras and see what happened."

She said nevermind and booked it out of the store. She'd still come back occasionally, but never when I was working there.

| Ajajane

I worked at a grocery store that’s just in Texas and Mexico. I worked at the business center.

We had on more than one occasion customers try to return Walmart store brand items saying they got it there. I would ask for their receipt first usually because I liked playing with them.

Of course they wouldn't have it. I would say, "Well this was not purchased here as it’s Walmart/Sam’s Club store brand.”

They would get all flustered and ask if I could do it anyway. It was crazy because usually it was less than $10 to $20 worth of stuff.

| Joseph_Kickass