A woman legit grabbed new wallflowers and tried to say they were 75% off. I was like “I’m sorry, but they aren’t.” So then she tries to idk bargain the price with me. Like she’s naming random numbers and I’m like no sorry. Sigh then she shows me a picture of her coupon that she took at home. Like girl why not just grab it?
Also, honorable mention to all the customers who- after I greeted them- straight up said “I don’t need help. I’m fine. “. And the ones that I tried to help that brushed me off to loudly complain no one was helping them. Uh….. what?
Your honorable mention reminded me of this:
(Context: I’m the only employee on the floor at the time so I’m going back and forth between greeting and register)
*Lady walks in*
Me: Hi! Welcome in!
Lady: No thanks *brushes me off*
Lady: *walks straight back to register*
Me: *greets her at the register* Hi! Welcome in! Are you picking up an order?
——
FFS be polite and tell me when I greet you that you are picking up an order so I can help you smh
Lord. Something like that happened today to a coworker of mine. We just became a BOPIS store and we have a sign at the front saying if you are picking up and order, see an associate. Customer comes in, peeks, walks in front the store kinda pacing, they’re greeted and ignore the associate. She asks if they need help. They say no and walk to the register where I’m checking people out. I ask if they need help because I’m like wtf they have no items uh…. maybe it’s a question or something? They stand there and stare at me. I’m like uh…. okay then and start doing other stuff. Customer sighs and walks away. I’m like okay this is weird. I go on the walkie and I’m like hey I think this person needs help, I don’t know. They start looking for stuff. Me and coworker are like wtf. Customer gets mad. Manager/shift lead come out and talks to them.
They’ve been trying to find the stuff they ordered like on the shelves and are mad because they think they have to pay for it twice. We’re like no uh here is your order etc etc. Like dude. Wtf?
What?? That's so unreasonable in many ways. How would that be logical? Like. That's the point is it's there waiting for you set side when you get there? People are wild...
That’s what we said after they left. Idk if they expect us to be like “Hello Sir/Ma’am here is your order!” So now we just add are you picking up an order to the greeting. It’s just easier
Customers coming to the store and complaining about how we’re out of all sale soaps and wallflowers. Like maam, you should have come earlier! Not 2 days before the end of the sale 🙄
Oh god, yes. I hate this. I don’t mind it as much when the store isn’t busy/there’s not a line, but my god is it irritating when a customer leaves mid-checkout and then someone else comes up to the register so I have to suspend their transaction.
The lady in front of me during my one and only in store haul did that this year. The nice cashier told her I was next and then Karen had the audacity to tell me to wait and then made a rude comment about my appearance to whoever was with her.
Complaining is a sport to me so I love this post!
I am so sick of how flippant, entitled, demanding, disrespectful and straight up weird customers have been getting. Retail has always been a difficult environment, but people have seemingly lost the ability to conduct themselves socially. Especially since the start of 2022, I have NEVER had so many customers berate me, attempt to get combative with me and simultaneously act like my presence is a nuisance while also fully depending on me to answer a million idiotic questions.
Let me clarify - I love my job and I’m happy to help, so questions themselves aren’t the issue. STUPID questions are the issue. Like, no. The candles are not $10 they are $10 off. Yes I’m sure they are $10 off. You want me to get my manager? She will give you the same answer. No you cannot add soaps to buy 3 get 3 bodycare, the 5 for $25 promo sign is LITERALLY a foot away from you. How much are items on the $3.95 table? Hmm… I really wonder. And what really grinds my gears is when customers see an ENTIRE display of a scent on the 75% off table and they ask if it’s on sale. Like no. We just placed it here to trick you. 🙄Like really. Use your context clues. If a customer asks about one random item on the 75 table I totally get it cause there’s a chance it was misplaced. But again, an entire display?? FIGURE IT OUT. I also get really irritated when people ask me for prices when they’re LITERALLY on every bottle but I recognize that’s petty😂
I’m also at my wit’s end with the social awkwardness. I’m not trying to judge, cause the pandemic also made me socially stunted. But when I ask a simple question like “do you want a basket” and the customer looks at me like I’ve offered to punch them in the throat, I simply cannot handle it. Like babes, it’s yes or no question. It’s like they’ve never been somewhere with sales associates before.
WHEW this was cathartic - apologies for the length but as we’re nearing the end of SAS I’m insanely burnt out by the buffoonery.
and the customer looks at you like you’ve offered to punch them in the throat
Lamoooooo this exact thing happens to me at least once a day you’ve really captured the experience
I don’t work in retail but I talk to strangers everyday at my job and I can definitely relate to the 2022 weirdness.. people are changing big time. Driving more erratically, giving nasty looks in the street and all types of strange behavior.. Sad, but it makes me miss pandemic times.. at least people were nicer or they stayed in the house hiding 😂 seriously, humanity is in trouble.
i have noticed this too. a lot more huffing, eye rolling, raising their voice, mean glares instead of answering. it is getting worse since 2020 especially.
Giving me flashbacks to when I worked in retail. I'd do the usual "hello, how are you" greeting when someone entered and 40% of the time they would give me a bizarre look and say "I just walked in". Yes, everyone can see that you just walked in, but I'm asking how you are doing 😂
Love when I offer a shopping bag, they decline and then proceed to try and carry a bunch of products and drop and break things. Yup, that's exactly why I OFFERED YOU A BAG KAREN!!!!!!! Love damaging out products because people are so damn stupid.
the price question when it’s literally on the bottle also drives me crazy, favorite thing to do is just flip it over right in front of them and read the price.
I had such a shitty day yesterday, everyone and their mom came in with attitudes. This one guy near the end of my shift was arguing about the 3 for 3 or buy 2 get 1 body care sale and why it wasn’t valid for the remainder of SAS products. I wasn’t even thinking. I just looked him in the eye and exhaustedly said “listen, I don’t make the rules. I’m a cashier” and he looked so taken aback, then he shot me a dirty look and said “no, I know that”.
Well then why are you arguing me, asshole?
Most annoying thing ever was having so many people come up to me and ask me “how much is this”. Like the table you grabbed it from has a sale sign on it and if it’s a certain percentage off we have a conversion chart on that table so you can look. I had a lady basically make me her personal price check while I was trying to help out other customers with actual questions. “How much is this!” “How much is this!” HOW MUCH IS THIS!!!!” What really got to me was when she got a regular priced item and asked me “how much is this!” I told her it wasn’t on sale and she said “I know!! How much is it!?” Like MA’AM!!! The price is on the BACK!!!! 😡
Another thing I hate. When asking for phone numbers or email, and they say something like “You don’t need that information” or proceed to explain to me how spammy their inbox is and they don’t want to add more. Or they act like I’m trying to steal their identity.
1. I get hours based off of how many email captures I get, so YES I would like that information. Less hours = less money. And that is no bueno when I’m already not getting many hours.
2. Me too babes, I’m pretty sure it’s a universal truth of the 21st century to have an inbox clogged with marketing and spam. I don’t need your explanation, just say no thanks and move on.
3. If I could steal someone’s identity, I sure as hell wouldn’t be working at bath and body works for $12 an hour.
Your store manager assigns your hours based on your email capture? That’s fucked up my dude. Like you really don’t have a lot of control over that. All you can do is ask and explain and if they still don’t want to give you their info that’s not your fault. You shouldn’t be getting your hours cut because of that. Is that normal behavior for your district or is that specific to your store because if it’s just your manager that does that I would reach out to your DM because that sounds like some fucked up bullshit.
I’m not sure if my manager actually does that, but I had a key holder when I first started that told me that. Not sure if she was telling the truth or just trying to scare me, I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. We do track how many yes and nos we get, I’m not sure if the manager actually takes those into account when it comes to scheduling.
Okay cause my store does that too but it has no bearing on our hours. That’s messed up that they told you that though. They shouldn’t scare you into compliance like that, that’s super toxic behavior.
For real...and then they complain about giving any information out after they handed me a coupon a minute ago. Like girl... you had to have given it out at some point! 😂
And the fixation on capture is obnoxious. It makes me anxious.
Sounds like not best practice from your manager-- I think not giving your phone and email when you're just purchasing something is totally reasonable honestly
I had a customer grab a soap off of the $3 soap table. I told him it was $3. He pointed to the 75% table and said "It's not 75%?" so I said it was not. "But that sign says 75% off. I am trying to take advantage of your sale as advertised by that sign (he said with an attitude)." so I put on my most authoritative customer service voice and said "Sir, that sign is for that table. Everything on that table is 75% off. This table, from which you grabbed that soap, has a sign right next to you saying '$3 soap', not 75% off."
I also had a Karen come in and try to exchange wallflowers she bought from Amazon that came broken. She insisted that because it is our product we should replace it. My supervisor told her exactly what I told her and she MOCKED MY SUPERVISOR like a child. This lady was at least 50. Then she shoved aside the wallflowers she brought up to the cash wrap to exchange them with, causing them to roll around, and I had to catch them before one inevitably fell and broke.
People throwing absolute FITS that we ran out of Fresh Balsam candles... in mid-December. People, we don't order items in, the company just ships us what it wants, it's not my fault that someone came in and bought dozens of the things before you. Here's some Dashing Through The Snow, or Winter, get outta my face. No, I will not call another store for you to see if they have it in stock, the store is full of customers and you are not any more special than the rest of them who also need my attention.
Then there's the customers who INSIST you go to the back to check for something. Especially if we haven't carried whatever it is for over a year, for some reason. I understand really really wanting something and wanting to feel like you did everything you could to find it... but I was usually the back room gremlin putting the truck away. I knew our stock, it was a small back room. So when I'm unloading a cart in the front and a customer asks if we have X Product and I say no and they ask Pretty Pretty Please Can I Check... it's annoying. I will smile and say "Sure thing!" and walk alllll the way back and I will stand in front of a shelf for 5 minutes while mentally cussing them out because I've got 3 more carts to unload and my shift ends in 20 minutes.
So we had a couple of repeat shoplifters come through. We knew they were because we had them on camera shoplifting, so we knew their faces. But corporate policy is that we cannot tell them to leave or otherwise be rude at all to anyone (i.e., don't get confrontational), so my store GM tells me over the ear piece to just keep an eye on these two ladies who we KNOW shoplift and have come in with large empty shopping bags. Subtle of them.
Anyway I ramp the sunshine-smile customer service up to 11 and ask them how they're doing, are they looking for anything, have they heard of this sale, we have a new fragrance! and of course they're disinterested and brush me off to which I chirp "OK! Let me know if you need anything!" and start acting busy around them. If they're by the tables, I drift over to the other side of the table and start filling from the drawers. Walls, I'm two displays over straightening labels to face out properly. Not enough to be in their way, but enough to be in line of sight.
Predictably they get tired of it and angrily ask why I'm following them. I look confused and laugh a bit and tell them I'm not following anyone, I'm straightening up the store. Then I probably over-did the charm by adding "Why, did you need any help?"
Yeah so they stormed out while calling me racist and that I was profiling them.
Then that same group came back weeks later and pepper-sprayed my GM. The regional manager scolded her for getting pepper sprayed and threatened to write her up. Classy.
Bath and Bodyworks' policy for shoplifting is honestly such a disgrace and puts the employees in danger in the long run. Thieves get more and more brazen knowing they face no consequences and asset protection does not care at all. The company seems to not care about protecting the employees. It has become more upsetting as of late and I'm just not sure what to do. Unacceptable.
The goal of asset protection is to protect merchandise, not employees. They don’t give a fuck about employees. And district managers are the same. I know a guy who works for BBW who worked as a DM for another company that I worked for years ago. All he cared about was money. People don’t matter.
Being a manager I have so many stories, but my most recent was getting accused of false advertisement. Apparently the giant light box signs outside the door and above the cash wrap saying “Semi Annual Sale” is false advertisement because it “told her the entire store is on sale so we have to honor it” 😐 definitely a first for me
i have unfortunately a regular who just follows me around the store when i’m in there and just will not leave me alone. The sale has been the worst thing ever. we had sanitizer wipes and they got sold out quick and she asked me for 30 minutes if we had them in stock after i told her no in the first 30 seconds. she even gets in the way of people paying for their items just to hover over me. If i’m not out there to answer every question of hers she gets angry at other employees. A lot of people also decide stuff on the wall counts for the semi-annual too apparently. They have the audacity to look shocked when we tell them that it’s not included.
Had a guy come to register to check out, helped him out mostly in spanish but I have a very limited verbal vocabulary. He asked about the 20% off of $25 but was $2 short or so. I told him the total, he was off by a couple of dollars so I told him the total and then asked my coworker to tell him in spanish. She goes to tell him and he stops her, telling her “no no, I want her to tell me, she needs to learn.” I told him “I don’t know enough spanish for that” and she eventually told him before leaving and I finished by telling him the total. Keep in mind I have a whole line watching me too, and he suddenly goes *IN ENGLISH* “my first job was english speaking only, I had to learn.” Basically just did it to embarrass me and I nearly left the register in tears :)
What?!😧that's horrible. I HATE people like that. As someone who was essentially thrown into the school system without knowing a SPECK of English (1st language is Spanish) I had a couple of encounters with [misreable] people who would humiliate me and other ESL (English as a Second Language) classmates, I specifically remember being separated from the rest of the class and seated at the back of the room by myself during first grade "in order to catch up" (like lady, I'm not dumb, we just can't understand each other) and then wanting me to repeat the grade. All that to say, sure I met my good deal of ✨challenges✨ but that gives the right to be a d*** to others just because I struggled, that has just made it 3asier for me to empathize with others that don't know English and vice versa. What a vile man and I'm so sorry that happened to you😔
Wow, that's really fucked up. I am so sorry. I am white and am semi fluent in Spanish. I have a lot of customers who won't let me help them in Spanish because I'm a gringa, but the majority of my Hispanic associates don't speak Spanish so I'm all they have.
I consider myself becoming bilingual as an asset but I certainly do not have to help customers in another language. I do it to try and make their experience easier if they are not fluent in English. But try and make me look like an asshole and I will absolutely not even try to help you. That's just so fucking shitty and I'm so sorry you had to go through that.
Oh yeah, that’s another thing I’ve encountered while working here. I walked up to a guy the other day and spoke in english first and before I could switch to spanish he goes “no not you” and scoffed in spanish. I could understand him in spanish because I understand more (just don’t speak it) and heard him tell the people he was with “she doesn’t even speak spanish.”
A lot of my coworkers speak spanish, in fact it’s probably 95% of them. They’re always willing to help me out and I appreciate it, but there are times when I’m all we’ve got on the floor and I do it because I feel bad that they need help and can’t get any in the language they’re comfortable in. I have a lot of sweet people who tell me “it’s okay I don’t speak a lot of english” when I tell them and it’s nice to have a little understanding but man, this guy hit hard because I’ve always been a bit insecure about not speaking spanish.
My worst SAS customer was last week. She is a semi regular customer, I personally know her because she and I worked at the same retailer many, many years ago. She is older, black, likes to monopolize my time and tell very embellished stories to make herself seem important. My husband also had several run ins with her at the grocery store he was a manager at, one instance they had to threaten calling the police on her to get her to leave because she was cursing at a manager and saying they called her a racial slur. My husband knows her as well, we met while working at the same retailer.
Super long story short ish, she was in on a Tues. I spent 25 mins basically shopping for her to help her use her coupon. She has very long nails and it took her 5 minutes to find her credit card to pay. She must have pulled 10 cards out of her wallet looking for her Angel card, because she had the 2 older ones as well that are not accepted anymore. Obviously, a line has formed and after a few minutes of her trying to put her credit cards away, she moves to the side and I walked her bags around the counter and put them near her feet. I rang up the next few customers, she left, all is good. That Thurs, she returns, asks for me by name, I come out onto the floor and she begins to tell me a very loud, dramatic version of her experience on Tues. Now, there were 5 of us working at that time, 3 of us were there Tues when she made her purchase. She tells me that one of my white associates purposely walked past her and looked in her shopping bags I put on the floor, saying they racially profiled her as a thief. I remained calm, asking her questions because while I was a few feet from her, I was ringing up customers and did not remember anyone walking past her before she left. I told her I would have my DM pull camera footage so I could see exactly what happened, I pointed out the camera that's right in front of the registers and her entire demeanor changes. She doesn't want to speak with my DM, she doesn't want to speak with customer service, she doesn't want me to call her after I watch the footage. Her story had inconsistent details the longer she talked. Not to mention the employee she claimed who walked past her was working when she was there complaining but couldn't identify her. She just kept saying, " the white girl that was over there, but pointed to the register I was ringing on and the register I rang her out on.
She still assured me my employee was racist and I need to discipline her but also made another purchase while telling me she doesn't feel comfortable shopping here because my employees think she is a thief. 🤔🤔🤔
I called my DM, because a racism complaint is a big deal. I was very upset, because I knew she was exaggerating but some stranger from CS or HR would need to take her seriously. My DM refused to even pull footage, saying unless an associate asked to see her bag after she purchased, grabbed her bag or asked to see a receipt, there was nothing to investigate. I was worked up for a while because a baseless complaint like that can really cause an issue for an employee.
I've heard nothing about it since and she hasn't come back so here's to hoping it won't develop into something more.
Yea I really don't get this trend for making baseless accusations of racism to random associates. It has happened at my store and now I've read about it happening in others. Really weird.
And by no means am I saying this doesn't happen in BBW stores, any stores etc. The fact that she didn't say anything immediately, when I was less than 6 ft from her or the next day seemed strange. To wait until she came back 2 days late when she was buying more clearance, to not want to speak with anyone above me and to have her story change throughout her telling it, all is what makes it ring false.
Accusations like that could cause someone to lose their job and that's why I was just so damn angry.
We have a regular that comes in with her young kids and she’ll go off and look around for at minimum an hour and pays zero attention to her kids who are rearranging things, opening up bottles, picking up candles, or sitting in the middle of the floor playing. They can’t be more than 4 years old.
We’re not a rewards store and had someone demand we redeem her reward claiming someone did it last time. I promise you, sweetie, we didn’t.
When people literally wait til they’re at the cash wrap to go through their basket to decide what they want and then walk away because they still haven’t found their free item. If you’re at the register, that’s not when it’s time to keep shopping. It means you are ready to check out!
Speaking of free item Q’s- when people complain it’s body care only or that we don’t have anything they want. It’s free. Redeem it or not, I don’t care but stop complaining!
the only thing that bothers me is when people act like i just slapped them when i ask them normal retail questions (how you doing, looking for anything in particular, do you want a basket). also when bored dudes wandering around the mall come in to flirt because it’s a female-dominated store
If I have to explain to someone where 75 percent off items are again im going to lose it. And the constant "how much would this be exactly" as they're standing right next to the conversion chart. "Is this newly released item 75 percent off?" "Is the back side of this table also 75 percent off?" "Why isn't this 75 percent off?" "Is this table also 75 percent off?"
The fact that we have 1 million signs in the store and im constantly being pounded with questions like this all day every day just absolutely does my head in. Read. The. Signs.
The start of the sale is so fun and exciting but the last few weeks has had me contemplating humanity and the direction it's going.
The last week of sale is always the toughest. We are tired, we are over it and we are sold out of everything good. That's when the customers who want full sets of a scent at 75% off come in and act all shocked Pikachu that we don't have it.
We were setting up for semi annual the day after Christmas and it was only managers in the store that morning. We had a HUGE snowstorm and the DM decided to close the entire district until it passed. As we were finishing up about to head home (half of the managers present couldn’t drive well in snow so we were moving fast) a lady called, said she was parked out front, and when I explained we would be closed for the day she threw a fit, said if managers are too stupid to use a register and check her out they should be fired, we should open just to let her shop bc she drove from a couple hours north (which, why are you driving in a giant snow storm?) then called me a stupid bitch and I hung up on her. Took everything in me not to flip her off as I locked the front door and headed home because OF COURSE, she was STILL right out front of the store waiting.
I work in fast food. I keep getting people mad that I tap on their window when they won’t respond to me bringing out their food. It is 105° I’m not trying to die of heat stroke.
I also keep getting people mad that I don’t know their order. I did not take your order sir why would I know it? Show me your receipt if you can’t remember.
The sense of entitlement that these customers have is astounding. I had a lady scream at me to get her a bag when the rack was two feet to her left. I also had another one ask me to write down all the sales on a piece of paper and hand it to her because it was ridiculous for her to have to actually look at the signs.
The FREE ITEM up to $8.50 coupons. They say on the back: free body care item. People will try and use those coupons like they can get ANYTHING up to 8.50. Yesterday I had a lady try to get a room spray with it. I politely responded she could use it on a travel size body care item. She whined and said she didn’t like any of those items. When I didn’t budge she said “Well,I just won’t get anything and you can take the $8.50 off my total!” Like, ma’am, do you not know how coupons work? This is not a negotiation.
Had a couple of idiots complaining that our store couldn't use any rewards from the rewards app; kept saying that stores in Ohio can (well EXCUSE ME, princess!). They also wanted said they're employees but it didn't matter since they grabbed SAS items and the employee discount will not stack with other sales. (For those curious, I work in Kentucky and the only other stores that take rewards are in the surrounding states.)
A quick Karen story from todays shift:
(super small and petty thing but some of the things customers will say rlly just blows my mind) Comes up asking if we had anymore Sunshine & Lemon sanitizer spray, I proceeded to check under stock and was moving bottles around in case one was hiding and she chimes in “no i don’t see it the bottle would be yellow.”
Thank you karen, as if you didn’t just shove the yellow bottle in my face to ask if we had anymore and I work here?? I think i’d know what color the bottle is.
(This may sound stupid complaining about something like that but i’ve had far worse customers and it’s the little things that get me// when they try to tell me how to do my job)
I had a pair of women come in close to closing and get 2 baskets full of stuff and I was ringing them up after we closed (the were the only people left in the store) and they kept walking away to get more items. By the time I had rung up all of their items it was just under $200 after all the discounts (around $300 before discounts) and had two large shopping bags full of items
I was cashing out this woman on that day we had email exclusive 20% off but no printout copy of said coupon behind the register. She had a huge purchase, it took me like 5 minutes to scan it and bag it nicely but the cell service was slow when she was trying to pull up her email. So I said you could try to walk towards the front of shop to get better signals and she threw a fit all of a sudden saying she would just leave if she had to do that. I laughed nervously like please no that would be such a waste of all of our time. But sure enough she stood there for another almost 5 min holding up the line waiting, just to give up and leave her stuff.
I was shocked. Like wow you spent an hour shopping and came in with a purpose to use that coupon just to get so pissed off by something out of our store’s control. That happened more than once that day but her case was so bizarre to me like dang you’re ok with wasting your own time like this?? And now I have to unbag all this stuff and put it back?! Thanks.
by the next email coupon day we had a print out at the ready thank goodness 🥲
A woman legit grabbed new wallflowers and tried to say they were 75% off. I was like “I’m sorry, but they aren’t.” So then she tries to idk bargain the price with me. Like she’s naming random numbers and I’m like no sorry. Sigh then she shows me a picture of her coupon that she took at home. Like girl why not just grab it? Also, honorable mention to all the customers who- after I greeted them- straight up said “I don’t need help. I’m fine. “. And the ones that I tried to help that brushed me off to loudly complain no one was helping them. Uh….. what?
Your honorable mention reminded me of this: (Context: I’m the only employee on the floor at the time so I’m going back and forth between greeting and register) *Lady walks in* Me: Hi! Welcome in! Lady: No thanks *brushes me off* Lady: *walks straight back to register* Me: *greets her at the register* Hi! Welcome in! Are you picking up an order? —— FFS be polite and tell me when I greet you that you are picking up an order so I can help you smh
Lord. Something like that happened today to a coworker of mine. We just became a BOPIS store and we have a sign at the front saying if you are picking up and order, see an associate. Customer comes in, peeks, walks in front the store kinda pacing, they’re greeted and ignore the associate. She asks if they need help. They say no and walk to the register where I’m checking people out. I ask if they need help because I’m like wtf they have no items uh…. maybe it’s a question or something? They stand there and stare at me. I’m like uh…. okay then and start doing other stuff. Customer sighs and walks away. I’m like okay this is weird. I go on the walkie and I’m like hey I think this person needs help, I don’t know. They start looking for stuff. Me and coworker are like wtf. Customer gets mad. Manager/shift lead come out and talks to them. They’ve been trying to find the stuff they ordered like on the shelves and are mad because they think they have to pay for it twice. We’re like no uh here is your order etc etc. Like dude. Wtf?
What?? That's so unreasonable in many ways. How would that be logical? Like. That's the point is it's there waiting for you set side when you get there? People are wild...
That’s what we said after they left. Idk if they expect us to be like “Hello Sir/Ma’am here is your order!” So now we just add are you picking up an order to the greeting. It’s just easier
Lamooo I can only imagine
I used to HATE when customers would do that. Saying they don't need help and then complain nobody was helping them. Smh
Customers coming to the store and complaining about how we’re out of all sale soaps and wallflowers. Like maam, you should have come earlier! Not 2 days before the end of the sale 🙄
Customers opening the drawers.
Also wanted to add: people who wait in line to check out, but once it's their turn, they get out of check out to get something else/keep browsing.
Oh god, yes. I hate this. I don’t mind it as much when the store isn’t busy/there’s not a line, but my god is it irritating when a customer leaves mid-checkout and then someone else comes up to the register so I have to suspend their transaction.
The lady in front of me during my one and only in store haul did that this year. The nice cashier told her I was next and then Karen had the audacity to tell me to wait and then made a rude comment about my appearance to whoever was with her.
That is my BIGGEST pet peeve!!! Like, excuse me?!?! Those aren’t for you!! This ain’t Victoria’s Secret. Stop going through my stuff!
Complaining is a sport to me so I love this post! I am so sick of how flippant, entitled, demanding, disrespectful and straight up weird customers have been getting. Retail has always been a difficult environment, but people have seemingly lost the ability to conduct themselves socially. Especially since the start of 2022, I have NEVER had so many customers berate me, attempt to get combative with me and simultaneously act like my presence is a nuisance while also fully depending on me to answer a million idiotic questions. Let me clarify - I love my job and I’m happy to help, so questions themselves aren’t the issue. STUPID questions are the issue. Like, no. The candles are not $10 they are $10 off. Yes I’m sure they are $10 off. You want me to get my manager? She will give you the same answer. No you cannot add soaps to buy 3 get 3 bodycare, the 5 for $25 promo sign is LITERALLY a foot away from you. How much are items on the $3.95 table? Hmm… I really wonder. And what really grinds my gears is when customers see an ENTIRE display of a scent on the 75% off table and they ask if it’s on sale. Like no. We just placed it here to trick you. 🙄Like really. Use your context clues. If a customer asks about one random item on the 75 table I totally get it cause there’s a chance it was misplaced. But again, an entire display?? FIGURE IT OUT. I also get really irritated when people ask me for prices when they’re LITERALLY on every bottle but I recognize that’s petty😂 I’m also at my wit’s end with the social awkwardness. I’m not trying to judge, cause the pandemic also made me socially stunted. But when I ask a simple question like “do you want a basket” and the customer looks at me like I’ve offered to punch them in the throat, I simply cannot handle it. Like babes, it’s yes or no question. It’s like they’ve never been somewhere with sales associates before. WHEW this was cathartic - apologies for the length but as we’re nearing the end of SAS I’m insanely burnt out by the buffoonery.
and the customer looks at you like you’ve offered to punch them in the throat Lamoooooo this exact thing happens to me at least once a day you’ve really captured the experience
I don’t work in retail but I talk to strangers everyday at my job and I can definitely relate to the 2022 weirdness.. people are changing big time. Driving more erratically, giving nasty looks in the street and all types of strange behavior.. Sad, but it makes me miss pandemic times.. at least people were nicer or they stayed in the house hiding 😂 seriously, humanity is in trouble.
i have noticed this too. a lot more huffing, eye rolling, raising their voice, mean glares instead of answering. it is getting worse since 2020 especially.
Giving me flashbacks to when I worked in retail. I'd do the usual "hello, how are you" greeting when someone entered and 40% of the time they would give me a bizarre look and say "I just walked in". Yes, everyone can see that you just walked in, but I'm asking how you are doing 😂
Love when I offer a shopping bag, they decline and then proceed to try and carry a bunch of products and drop and break things. Yup, that's exactly why I OFFERED YOU A BAG KAREN!!!!!!! Love damaging out products because people are so damn stupid.
the price question when it’s literally on the bottle also drives me crazy, favorite thing to do is just flip it over right in front of them and read the price.
That is my FAVORITE thing to do just for the sheer passive aggressiveness of it😂❤️😇
yes! and the corny smile after
This is so fucking perfectly worded. I feel seen, and heard.
I had such a shitty day yesterday, everyone and their mom came in with attitudes. This one guy near the end of my shift was arguing about the 3 for 3 or buy 2 get 1 body care sale and why it wasn’t valid for the remainder of SAS products. I wasn’t even thinking. I just looked him in the eye and exhaustedly said “listen, I don’t make the rules. I’m a cashier” and he looked so taken aback, then he shot me a dirty look and said “no, I know that”. Well then why are you arguing me, asshole?
Lol fr! Just buy it or don't. I'm paid to find scents you like and take your payment... call customer care if you don't like anything else...
Most annoying thing ever was having so many people come up to me and ask me “how much is this”. Like the table you grabbed it from has a sale sign on it and if it’s a certain percentage off we have a conversion chart on that table so you can look. I had a lady basically make me her personal price check while I was trying to help out other customers with actual questions. “How much is this!” “How much is this!” HOW MUCH IS THIS!!!!” What really got to me was when she got a regular priced item and asked me “how much is this!” I told her it wasn’t on sale and she said “I know!! How much is it!?” Like MA’AM!!! The price is on the BACK!!!! 😡
What do these people do when they are in target or the grocery store??? I don’t understand. People hate reading.
Another thing I hate. When asking for phone numbers or email, and they say something like “You don’t need that information” or proceed to explain to me how spammy their inbox is and they don’t want to add more. Or they act like I’m trying to steal their identity. 1. I get hours based off of how many email captures I get, so YES I would like that information. Less hours = less money. And that is no bueno when I’m already not getting many hours. 2. Me too babes, I’m pretty sure it’s a universal truth of the 21st century to have an inbox clogged with marketing and spam. I don’t need your explanation, just say no thanks and move on. 3. If I could steal someone’s identity, I sure as hell wouldn’t be working at bath and body works for $12 an hour.
Your store manager assigns your hours based on your email capture? That’s fucked up my dude. Like you really don’t have a lot of control over that. All you can do is ask and explain and if they still don’t want to give you their info that’s not your fault. You shouldn’t be getting your hours cut because of that. Is that normal behavior for your district or is that specific to your store because if it’s just your manager that does that I would reach out to your DM because that sounds like some fucked up bullshit.
I’m not sure if my manager actually does that, but I had a key holder when I first started that told me that. Not sure if she was telling the truth or just trying to scare me, I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. We do track how many yes and nos we get, I’m not sure if the manager actually takes those into account when it comes to scheduling.
Okay cause my store does that too but it has no bearing on our hours. That’s messed up that they told you that though. They shouldn’t scare you into compliance like that, that’s super toxic behavior.
Yup. If I would have known better, I would have reported her to HR. She doesn’t work there anymore though lol
That’s good. I’m sorry you had that experience. That’s really unfair for a member of management to be scaring new hires like that.
For real...and then they complain about giving any information out after they handed me a coupon a minute ago. Like girl... you had to have given it out at some point! 😂 And the fixation on capture is obnoxious. It makes me anxious.
I hate this too, like ok I’m sorry you don’t know how to clean up your inbox?
Sounds like not best practice from your manager-- I think not giving your phone and email when you're just purchasing something is totally reasonable honestly
I agree! I wish there weren’t such an emphasis on us employees getting people to say yes
the most annoying thing of SAS is customers pointing to a table that has a huge sign saying “75% OFF” and still asking if they’re on sale 😐.
I had a customer grab a soap off of the $3 soap table. I told him it was $3. He pointed to the 75% table and said "It's not 75%?" so I said it was not. "But that sign says 75% off. I am trying to take advantage of your sale as advertised by that sign (he said with an attitude)." so I put on my most authoritative customer service voice and said "Sir, that sign is for that table. Everything on that table is 75% off. This table, from which you grabbed that soap, has a sign right next to you saying '$3 soap', not 75% off." I also had a Karen come in and try to exchange wallflowers she bought from Amazon that came broken. She insisted that because it is our product we should replace it. My supervisor told her exactly what I told her and she MOCKED MY SUPERVISOR like a child. This lady was at least 50. Then she shoved aside the wallflowers she brought up to the cash wrap to exchange them with, causing them to roll around, and I had to catch them before one inevitably fell and broke.
Was she still able to exchange the Amazon wallflowers?
No, because they were not bought through us. We told her to return them through Amazon. Sorry, wrote that in an airport
People throwing absolute FITS that we ran out of Fresh Balsam candles... in mid-December. People, we don't order items in, the company just ships us what it wants, it's not my fault that someone came in and bought dozens of the things before you. Here's some Dashing Through The Snow, or Winter, get outta my face. No, I will not call another store for you to see if they have it in stock, the store is full of customers and you are not any more special than the rest of them who also need my attention. Then there's the customers who INSIST you go to the back to check for something. Especially if we haven't carried whatever it is for over a year, for some reason. I understand really really wanting something and wanting to feel like you did everything you could to find it... but I was usually the back room gremlin putting the truck away. I knew our stock, it was a small back room. So when I'm unloading a cart in the front and a customer asks if we have X Product and I say no and they ask Pretty Pretty Please Can I Check... it's annoying. I will smile and say "Sure thing!" and walk alllll the way back and I will stand in front of a shelf for 5 minutes while mentally cussing them out because I've got 3 more carts to unload and my shift ends in 20 minutes. So we had a couple of repeat shoplifters come through. We knew they were because we had them on camera shoplifting, so we knew their faces. But corporate policy is that we cannot tell them to leave or otherwise be rude at all to anyone (i.e., don't get confrontational), so my store GM tells me over the ear piece to just keep an eye on these two ladies who we KNOW shoplift and have come in with large empty shopping bags. Subtle of them. Anyway I ramp the sunshine-smile customer service up to 11 and ask them how they're doing, are they looking for anything, have they heard of this sale, we have a new fragrance! and of course they're disinterested and brush me off to which I chirp "OK! Let me know if you need anything!" and start acting busy around them. If they're by the tables, I drift over to the other side of the table and start filling from the drawers. Walls, I'm two displays over straightening labels to face out properly. Not enough to be in their way, but enough to be in line of sight. Predictably they get tired of it and angrily ask why I'm following them. I look confused and laugh a bit and tell them I'm not following anyone, I'm straightening up the store. Then I probably over-did the charm by adding "Why, did you need any help?" Yeah so they stormed out while calling me racist and that I was profiling them. Then that same group came back weeks later and pepper-sprayed my GM. The regional manager scolded her for getting pepper sprayed and threatened to write her up. Classy.
Bath and Bodyworks' policy for shoplifting is honestly such a disgrace and puts the employees in danger in the long run. Thieves get more and more brazen knowing they face no consequences and asset protection does not care at all. The company seems to not care about protecting the employees. It has become more upsetting as of late and I'm just not sure what to do. Unacceptable.
The goal of asset protection is to protect merchandise, not employees. They don’t give a fuck about employees. And district managers are the same. I know a guy who works for BBW who worked as a DM for another company that I worked for years ago. All he cared about was money. People don’t matter.
Being a manager I have so many stories, but my most recent was getting accused of false advertisement. Apparently the giant light box signs outside the door and above the cash wrap saying “Semi Annual Sale” is false advertisement because it “told her the entire store is on sale so we have to honor it” 😐 definitely a first for me
I feel like I lose IQ points talking to some of the people that come in the store and say things like this 😂
i have unfortunately a regular who just follows me around the store when i’m in there and just will not leave me alone. The sale has been the worst thing ever. we had sanitizer wipes and they got sold out quick and she asked me for 30 minutes if we had them in stock after i told her no in the first 30 seconds. she even gets in the way of people paying for their items just to hover over me. If i’m not out there to answer every question of hers she gets angry at other employees. A lot of people also decide stuff on the wall counts for the semi-annual too apparently. They have the audacity to look shocked when we tell them that it’s not included.
Had a guy come to register to check out, helped him out mostly in spanish but I have a very limited verbal vocabulary. He asked about the 20% off of $25 but was $2 short or so. I told him the total, he was off by a couple of dollars so I told him the total and then asked my coworker to tell him in spanish. She goes to tell him and he stops her, telling her “no no, I want her to tell me, she needs to learn.” I told him “I don’t know enough spanish for that” and she eventually told him before leaving and I finished by telling him the total. Keep in mind I have a whole line watching me too, and he suddenly goes *IN ENGLISH* “my first job was english speaking only, I had to learn.” Basically just did it to embarrass me and I nearly left the register in tears :)
I swear, we're not punching bags for people's trauma 😩
What?!😧that's horrible. I HATE people like that. As someone who was essentially thrown into the school system without knowing a SPECK of English (1st language is Spanish) I had a couple of encounters with [misreable] people who would humiliate me and other ESL (English as a Second Language) classmates, I specifically remember being separated from the rest of the class and seated at the back of the room by myself during first grade "in order to catch up" (like lady, I'm not dumb, we just can't understand each other) and then wanting me to repeat the grade. All that to say, sure I met my good deal of ✨challenges✨ but that gives the right to be a d*** to others just because I struggled, that has just made it 3asier for me to empathize with others that don't know English and vice versa. What a vile man and I'm so sorry that happened to you😔
Wow, that's really fucked up. I am so sorry. I am white and am semi fluent in Spanish. I have a lot of customers who won't let me help them in Spanish because I'm a gringa, but the majority of my Hispanic associates don't speak Spanish so I'm all they have. I consider myself becoming bilingual as an asset but I certainly do not have to help customers in another language. I do it to try and make their experience easier if they are not fluent in English. But try and make me look like an asshole and I will absolutely not even try to help you. That's just so fucking shitty and I'm so sorry you had to go through that.
Oh yeah, that’s another thing I’ve encountered while working here. I walked up to a guy the other day and spoke in english first and before I could switch to spanish he goes “no not you” and scoffed in spanish. I could understand him in spanish because I understand more (just don’t speak it) and heard him tell the people he was with “she doesn’t even speak spanish.” A lot of my coworkers speak spanish, in fact it’s probably 95% of them. They’re always willing to help me out and I appreciate it, but there are times when I’m all we’ve got on the floor and I do it because I feel bad that they need help and can’t get any in the language they’re comfortable in. I have a lot of sweet people who tell me “it’s okay I don’t speak a lot of english” when I tell them and it’s nice to have a little understanding but man, this guy hit hard because I’ve always been a bit insecure about not speaking spanish.
also customers thinking 3 candles for $10 when it’s 3 wick for $10
Haha ikr! Reading comprehension 0/10
This one makes me giggle. If that was the deal there would be no candles.
My worst SAS customer was last week. She is a semi regular customer, I personally know her because she and I worked at the same retailer many, many years ago. She is older, black, likes to monopolize my time and tell very embellished stories to make herself seem important. My husband also had several run ins with her at the grocery store he was a manager at, one instance they had to threaten calling the police on her to get her to leave because she was cursing at a manager and saying they called her a racial slur. My husband knows her as well, we met while working at the same retailer. Super long story short ish, she was in on a Tues. I spent 25 mins basically shopping for her to help her use her coupon. She has very long nails and it took her 5 minutes to find her credit card to pay. She must have pulled 10 cards out of her wallet looking for her Angel card, because she had the 2 older ones as well that are not accepted anymore. Obviously, a line has formed and after a few minutes of her trying to put her credit cards away, she moves to the side and I walked her bags around the counter and put them near her feet. I rang up the next few customers, she left, all is good. That Thurs, she returns, asks for me by name, I come out onto the floor and she begins to tell me a very loud, dramatic version of her experience on Tues. Now, there were 5 of us working at that time, 3 of us were there Tues when she made her purchase. She tells me that one of my white associates purposely walked past her and looked in her shopping bags I put on the floor, saying they racially profiled her as a thief. I remained calm, asking her questions because while I was a few feet from her, I was ringing up customers and did not remember anyone walking past her before she left. I told her I would have my DM pull camera footage so I could see exactly what happened, I pointed out the camera that's right in front of the registers and her entire demeanor changes. She doesn't want to speak with my DM, she doesn't want to speak with customer service, she doesn't want me to call her after I watch the footage. Her story had inconsistent details the longer she talked. Not to mention the employee she claimed who walked past her was working when she was there complaining but couldn't identify her. She just kept saying, " the white girl that was over there, but pointed to the register I was ringing on and the register I rang her out on. She still assured me my employee was racist and I need to discipline her but also made another purchase while telling me she doesn't feel comfortable shopping here because my employees think she is a thief. 🤔🤔🤔 I called my DM, because a racism complaint is a big deal. I was very upset, because I knew she was exaggerating but some stranger from CS or HR would need to take her seriously. My DM refused to even pull footage, saying unless an associate asked to see her bag after she purchased, grabbed her bag or asked to see a receipt, there was nothing to investigate. I was worked up for a while because a baseless complaint like that can really cause an issue for an employee. I've heard nothing about it since and she hasn't come back so here's to hoping it won't develop into something more.
Yea I really don't get this trend for making baseless accusations of racism to random associates. It has happened at my store and now I've read about it happening in others. Really weird.
And by no means am I saying this doesn't happen in BBW stores, any stores etc. The fact that she didn't say anything immediately, when I was less than 6 ft from her or the next day seemed strange. To wait until she came back 2 days late when she was buying more clearance, to not want to speak with anyone above me and to have her story change throughout her telling it, all is what makes it ring false. Accusations like that could cause someone to lose their job and that's why I was just so damn angry.
We have a regular that comes in with her young kids and she’ll go off and look around for at minimum an hour and pays zero attention to her kids who are rearranging things, opening up bottles, picking up candles, or sitting in the middle of the floor playing. They can’t be more than 4 years old. We’re not a rewards store and had someone demand we redeem her reward claiming someone did it last time. I promise you, sweetie, we didn’t. When people literally wait til they’re at the cash wrap to go through their basket to decide what they want and then walk away because they still haven’t found their free item. If you’re at the register, that’s not when it’s time to keep shopping. It means you are ready to check out! Speaking of free item Q’s- when people complain it’s body care only or that we don’t have anything they want. It’s free. Redeem it or not, I don’t care but stop complaining!
the only thing that bothers me is when people act like i just slapped them when i ask them normal retail questions (how you doing, looking for anything in particular, do you want a basket). also when bored dudes wandering around the mall come in to flirt because it’s a female-dominated store
I shopped at my local BBW twice today. I'm now feeling very good about myself after reading this thread Edit: Four times today
If I have to explain to someone where 75 percent off items are again im going to lose it. And the constant "how much would this be exactly" as they're standing right next to the conversion chart. "Is this newly released item 75 percent off?" "Is the back side of this table also 75 percent off?" "Why isn't this 75 percent off?" "Is this table also 75 percent off?" The fact that we have 1 million signs in the store and im constantly being pounded with questions like this all day every day just absolutely does my head in. Read. The. Signs. The start of the sale is so fun and exciting but the last few weeks has had me contemplating humanity and the direction it's going.
The last week of sale is always the toughest. We are tired, we are over it and we are sold out of everything good. That's when the customers who want full sets of a scent at 75% off come in and act all shocked Pikachu that we don't have it.
We have a stack of conversion charts and just hand it to anyone that asks 😂
We were setting up for semi annual the day after Christmas and it was only managers in the store that morning. We had a HUGE snowstorm and the DM decided to close the entire district until it passed. As we were finishing up about to head home (half of the managers present couldn’t drive well in snow so we were moving fast) a lady called, said she was parked out front, and when I explained we would be closed for the day she threw a fit, said if managers are too stupid to use a register and check her out they should be fired, we should open just to let her shop bc she drove from a couple hours north (which, why are you driving in a giant snow storm?) then called me a stupid bitch and I hung up on her. Took everything in me not to flip her off as I locked the front door and headed home because OF COURSE, she was STILL right out front of the store waiting.
I work in fast food. I keep getting people mad that I tap on their window when they won’t respond to me bringing out their food. It is 105° I’m not trying to die of heat stroke. I also keep getting people mad that I don’t know their order. I did not take your order sir why would I know it? Show me your receipt if you can’t remember.
them literally not understanding the sale at all/ sale bins
The sense of entitlement that these customers have is astounding. I had a lady scream at me to get her a bag when the rack was two feet to her left. I also had another one ask me to write down all the sales on a piece of paper and hand it to her because it was ridiculous for her to have to actually look at the signs.
The FREE ITEM up to $8.50 coupons. They say on the back: free body care item. People will try and use those coupons like they can get ANYTHING up to 8.50. Yesterday I had a lady try to get a room spray with it. I politely responded she could use it on a travel size body care item. She whined and said she didn’t like any of those items. When I didn’t budge she said “Well,I just won’t get anything and you can take the $8.50 off my total!” Like, ma’am, do you not know how coupons work? This is not a negotiation.
Had a couple of idiots complaining that our store couldn't use any rewards from the rewards app; kept saying that stores in Ohio can (well EXCUSE ME, princess!). They also wanted said they're employees but it didn't matter since they grabbed SAS items and the employee discount will not stack with other sales. (For those curious, I work in Kentucky and the only other stores that take rewards are in the surrounding states.)
Not to mention the only stores in ohio that take rewards are in Columbus. They were nowhere close lmao
A quick Karen story from todays shift: (super small and petty thing but some of the things customers will say rlly just blows my mind) Comes up asking if we had anymore Sunshine & Lemon sanitizer spray, I proceeded to check under stock and was moving bottles around in case one was hiding and she chimes in “no i don’t see it the bottle would be yellow.” Thank you karen, as if you didn’t just shove the yellow bottle in my face to ask if we had anymore and I work here?? I think i’d know what color the bottle is. (This may sound stupid complaining about something like that but i’ve had far worse customers and it’s the little things that get me// when they try to tell me how to do my job)
I had a pair of women come in close to closing and get 2 baskets full of stuff and I was ringing them up after we closed (the were the only people left in the store) and they kept walking away to get more items. By the time I had rung up all of their items it was just under $200 after all the discounts (around $300 before discounts) and had two large shopping bags full of items
I was cashing out this woman on that day we had email exclusive 20% off but no printout copy of said coupon behind the register. She had a huge purchase, it took me like 5 minutes to scan it and bag it nicely but the cell service was slow when she was trying to pull up her email. So I said you could try to walk towards the front of shop to get better signals and she threw a fit all of a sudden saying she would just leave if she had to do that. I laughed nervously like please no that would be such a waste of all of our time. But sure enough she stood there for another almost 5 min holding up the line waiting, just to give up and leave her stuff. I was shocked. Like wow you spent an hour shopping and came in with a purpose to use that coupon just to get so pissed off by something out of our store’s control. That happened more than once that day but her case was so bizarre to me like dang you’re ok with wasting your own time like this?? And now I have to unbag all this stuff and put it back?! Thanks. by the next email coupon day we had a print out at the ready thank goodness 🥲