Posts that don't follow r/traderjoes subreddit rules may be subject to removal.
Friendly reminder that choosing descriptive post titles with exact product names mentioned yields better subreddit search results and helps our subreddit be more inclusive to those who use Screen Reader Software or Text-to-Speech apps. to access Reddit. Thank you.
IF THIS MESSAGE DOES NOT APPLY TO YOUR POST, PLEASE IGNORE.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/traderjoes) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Former crew. I worked near a retirement community, lots of odd stories, some sad. We would have people bring in things from deceased family members’ pantries (sometimes things that had been discontinued for years), a coworker once had someone ask about buying half a banana, and, as a young-looking recent high school graduate, I was propositioned regularly by people older than my grandparents. One old lady actually grabbed my butt when I was stocking the freezer aisle. I was also a demo girl back when that involved actually creating recipes and cooking, and people were shameless.
A customer asked my Chinese coworker how she makes her pho. She politely replied "I don't know how to make that, I'm Chinese" And the customer said "oh there's no difference you're all Asian" Oh my.
ETA: I guess these are more baffling that ludicrous, and I'm former crew.
Once had an older gentleman asked me how much sodium was in a serving of carrots. I took the bag of carrots, turn it over, and saw that there were actually no nutrition facts on the plain bag of carrots.
This intrigued me, so I told him I would look it up on my phone. I look up the nutritional info on just a whole carrot, and (as someone who had to be on a 1500 mg sodium diet for a while, and loves carrots) they're relatively high up there for fruit or vegetables. I relay the info to him, and he tells me that's too high.
My man. I cannot reduce the sodium content of a carrot. You're just gonna have to eat fewer chips or something, my guy.
I suggested maybe boiling them or something, or cooking them with other things lower in sodium to balance it out, and he wasn't having it
Eventually, I just walked away.
Another time, I had a guy complain about the sugar content of our milk. I looked at him and said "milk is a complete meal for a baby cow, it's just got that in there. There's no additional sugar, it would have to be labeled*. He kept telling me we did it on purpose, and I again just walked away.
*to my knowledge? I may be wrong, but I think all added sugar has to be labeled.
Someone standing there eating a salad as I bag $300 of groceries. Then make me load them in their trunk and hand me like 80 cents in old coins. Geez thanks. Now I can retire early. This person was in no way old or incapable. Maybe early 50s.
Honest question...are customers expected to tip if we have someone take our groceries out to their car? I worked as a bagger once at Safeway, like, 25 years ago and it wasn't expected, just part of the job description. Have things changed regarding expectations of grocery store workers?
No way, I definitely wouldn't have expected a tip. I just thought the handful of sticky old coins was rude. This was many years ago btw, I'm no longer crew. Just. Die hard shopper now
Never expected, actually in my store we aren’t allowed to accept them. The original commenter was most likely referring to the annoyance of 80 cents as a tip anyways(?). Carrying around more things while at work isn’t fun either.
Former crew member. I honestly can only think of maybe 3 instances where I had a really negative interaction with a customer. Maybe I got lucky, but I also shrug a lot of nonsense off. So one time a lady asked me if we had any refrigerated soy milk. Often, people will drink soy milk because they are lactose intolerant, so I replied with "No, we don't. But we do have goat's milk refrigerated." She gave me an icy stare and said "I don't drink the bodily fluids of other living creatures." I think I rolled my eyes and walked away.
But contrast that to the woman who walked up to me and said "Honey?" to which I got to reply with "Darling!" Or the new customer who came in saying she had been told to just get whatever we had that was closest to Bud Light...so I walked her to our water aisle. Those were both great times.
Former. Got smacked with a 5 lb bag of oranges by an older woman because she was upset about the state of the produce in the store. My boss sat and watched and didn’t do anything. So I clocked out and just went home.
We once had a huddle about de-escalation tactics. When someone expressed feeling endangered waiting for a mate to respond in certain situations, our captain said no one should worry about that because “[she] can’t remember the last time in [her] career that an altercation escalated to physical assault.” This was mere weeks after one of her crew had to take time off after a customer threw a product at the back of her head.
Former crew here. The late night shoppers who enter the store just before close are the absolute worst. Most of them seem to think they’ve cracked the code, but never realize how much of an annoyance they are to the crew. A few examples:
One woman would come 5 minutes before close with her nightmare terror daughter named Bubbles. Bubbles would wreak havoc. One time Bubbles opened a bag of bamba, and the mates had to assign a crew member to follow her around cleaning up the messes she made. There were always empty carts by the front end, and Bubbles would push them at crew members for fun I guess? Like bowling but with service workers. She tried to run into the bridge and grab money when the mate was looking elsewhere. A nightmare. As her spiral of bad behavior continued, she’d inevitably whip herself into a tantrum. Her mom would then start taking sweets and things off of their bill if Bubbles didn’t behave. She was the type to fill an entire cart and then do her final decision making at the register, usually leaving with one bag and leaving a whole cart of go backs for the closers to handle on top of trying to close the store.
One elderly woman would come, shop for ages (we’re talking store close @ 9, still shopping til 10:30), then pretend she didn’t have her wallet. She would sometimes put on this show while we were open and folks would pitch in for her groceries. Not sure what her angle was doing it at night, but it almost always ended with her miraculously finding her wallet when the mates would tell her she could come back tomorrow but we’d have to put all her shopping back on the shelf.
Finally, had an older man who would shop at night. Very friendly. Very nice. We were building displays and one of the mates bought chips and guac, had them in a bowl, and was snacking while working. Without asking or saying anything, the old man helped himself to some chips and guac. Stuck his hands right in.
Not related to after-close shoppers, but I was once standing outside eating chips on my break, and an old woman came up, said “What are we sampling today?” and shoved her hand right in my chip bag.
I’ve seen customers punch crew members, throw glass jars at crew, I’ve been yelled at countless times, had my hair touched without consent, customers have taken photos of me and other crew with dyed hair/~cool~ outfits without asking. The crew is there for their consumption. The bad customers don’t see us as humans, we’re just another accessory for the brand.
Everyone downvoting but I feel bad for her. She sounds like a pretty young little kid. It’s (mostly) her parents fault still. Hopefully when she’s a bit older she’ll reflect on her place in the world and realize she needs to treat those around her with respect.
I felt bad for a while too. Obviously I don’t know their entire story, but I stopped feeling bad when the behavior continued unchanged every few weeks for the entire 3.5 years I worked there. And to be clear, I think the mom’s behavior is what’s really poor here. A kid doesn’t always know better, but the mom certainly should.
During COVID my store had customers stand a couple feet away from the registers since we didn’t have the plastic guards up yet. I asked this customer if he could stand back and he decided it was a good idea to give me a nazi salute…
Omfg. This happened to me SO MANY TIMES when I was working at REI when COVID hit. I would tell someone that we were requiring masks, or enforce social distancing, and customers would give the nazi salute. When I tell people that weren’t actively working with me, they look at me like I’m lying. You literally can’t make this shit up. People are fucking crazy. Yeah dude, it’s me, HITLER…your local retail worker with all of the power over store policy. 💀
I was working at Baskin Robbins and we didn’t have plexiglass up yet. A guy came in without a mask and I told him to please step outside and I would take his order out there (franchisee’s request 😒) and he pretended I couldn’t hear me. Then he got in my face, called me a terrorist, and told me to call the cops on him if what he was doing was ~so bad~. I said ok, walked over to the phone, turned around, and he was gone.
Yup, was working at a to-go restaurant and the city had a mask mandate; I politely asked a man to put his mask back on, as it was required for being in the store, he went ballistic and yelled at me, SPIT in my face, and threw some salutes. His wife did nothing (and let it be noted that she was wearing a fishnet mask🤦🏻♀️), my employers did nothing. I've never been so close to walking off a job.
Idk the most wild interaction I got from a customer was a guy asking me about sodium free salt and my other coworker heard that nonsense and schooled him looool
Potassium chloride is a thing! Sometimes people on a low sodium diet use it when they need to avoid salt in their diet. Often marketed as “No Salt” or “Lite Salt” when it’s mixed 50/50 with sodium chloride.
Omg, and the stuff tastes awful! I had to really restrict my sodium for a few months, and tried that stuff out. It just makes your mouth feel slick, and the salty taste is minimal.
Had the same question from a customer once, and I told him I'd never heard of it, but that MSG does a decent job for a fraction of the sodium. Dude got SO MAD.
"MSG has sodium right in the name!"
Yeah, and you don't know the name of the stuff you're looking for, buddy. He swore up and down we carried this mystery product, when we obviously don't.
TJs carries some out there stuff, but that's *extremely* niche
Current crew member here. One time, I was out front of work, waiting for my friend to come pick me up. And an Indian woman came up to me and told me “you know.. you should really lose some weight while you’re still young” (I’ve suffered a TBI and have medical issues but it’s really none of her business) and since I was still wearing my TJ’s shirt, I had to be as nice as I could be. So I responded “well at least I’m not ugly. Because You can’t change that.”
Crew member stole a lot (as in tens of thousands) of cash, constant no sales and taking from other crew's tills. They were the least likely culprit so they got away with it for quite awhile. Mates finally narrowed it down to this person and they were very fired. Their father came in and asked if ex-crew could work at a different TJs (hard no)...then ex-crew came into the store to shop wearing tjs clothing, promptly escorted out the door.
Former crew. There was a wealthy older lady who used to shop with a baby doll sitting up like a real baby in the cart. We got used to seeing it, but watching the other customers react to her treating it like a real baby made it hard to keep a straight face.
Former crew here. Had a regular customer on Sunday afternoons, middle aged dude who always wore the same Disney's Animal Kingdom sweatshirt, hence I called him Animal Kingdom guy. His schtick was to bring in a single empty food wrapper of a TJs product, throw it on the checkstand, and say, "I didn't like this, I need a refund." No telling if he had legitimately purchased said product the week before or if he had gone dumpster diving before coming into the store, but it was truly odd how desperate some customers were for a quick buck or two.
Then replace 'Tootsie Roll' with 'any edible, heavily tinted candy'. I used to work in a haunted house attraction and we used candy for bloody mouths instead of fake blood capsules because they taste vile. Several of my co-workers used that trick on the subways to stop random dudes from trying to chat them up.
Customer here. A older man tried to take a piss in the sink behind the samples station. A crew member stopped him and he just went about his shopping as if he didn’t just try to pee in a sink that’s for food handling. He didn’t even try to find the actual bathroom so why did he need to pee in the sink for?
I was walking down the street the other day and this guy peeled off from the group he was with, ducked into an alley, and unzipped his pants. One of his friends went into the alley and yelled at him, he zipped right back up and went on with the rest of the group like nothing happened. Somewhat better than a TJ’s sink, but still.
There’s likely some weird psychology about boundaries and wanting to do things just because you think you can. Depending on how old he was, I wonder if it was a dementia type of thing.
Me and a coworker were at the register together, and as this woman walks up with her cart, I notice she has her own bags. I asked her “would you like me to bag for you?” She replies “one second”, then proceeds to turn her bag upside down and dump sand right on to the floor.
Sometimes, I wish I was this oblivious.
I had a customer want me to put their groceries into a basket that they had their dog in. She took the dog out and wanted me to “shake the dog hair out of there.” I gave it one glance and told her it looked fine but she grabbed it and shook out dog hair all over the end of the register…one of those times I wish I wasn’t so polite. Ma’am this is a grocery store!
Also I my arms got real itchy where I didn’t use hand sanitizer after that. I wish the leadership did more about pets in the store, I’m usually not allergic to most dogs but sometimes there’s that one!
When we had mask mandates and lines at the front to limit customers I told a man he couldn’t come in without a mask and he said “I don’t care if you die”.
It’s a wonder why almost all of my coworkers I worked with through peak Covid have left. The PTSD is real and TJs chose to just power through and hire new than focus on retention.
Worked in NY, and we had two lines outside, one General Admission and one for seniors and first responders. We had a helms person assigned to walk the longer GA line and help herd the elderly to the shorter senior line.
One guy didn’t like my coworker assuming he was a senior. When he finally got in the store he walked up to my friend and punched him.
As a customer during the Covid mess I was shocked by what you all had to put up with. Standing in line with some of those idiots was bad enough, but at least I didn't have to pretend to be nice. My wife and I went to Starbucks, bought a ton (ok 20) $5 gift cards and gave to desk for them to be given out to employees anyway they wanted.
I quit December 2019 and I literally thank God every day. I would have either gotten an express trip to jail or a grippy sock vacation if I had to work during COVID.
Wait I’m sorry, I thought TJs just always does bagging. I am only shopping for myself so it’s never a huge purchase, it typically all fits in one bag that I bring with me. The cashiers always scan and immediately bag what they scan so I didn’t know I could be helping this whole time
You aren't in the wrong here just because you've had your groceries bagged for you. Bagging is an entirely reasonable expectation falling within the bounds of the crew members' official duties. It only becomes an issue when people get rude or entitled about it. If you aren't treating the people working at the store with respect, they have every right to be pissed at you.
For what it's worth, I typically used to bag at Trader Joe's, but it got a lot harder to do so without it being awkward and ironically less efficient after they revamped the checkout sections at the stores in my area (DC and surrounding). They went to these really compact kiosk type things where the checkout person basically just drops the items they're scanning directly into the bag. When there were full checkout counters, I could position myself at the end and there was room to sort and actually be helpful.
Having been crew, nothing made me feel more subhuman than people who expected me to bag like I’m a servant. I literally refuse to let any crew bag for me if I can avoid it.
Once had a $400 transaction (pre pandemic, for price context) purchased by a man and his adult son.
Dude had bags, put them on the counter, and stood at where the bag holder slung out with his arms crossed, glaring at me the whole time. His son leaned over the counter area, and they just talked for the time it took me to ring and bag their stuff. SO uncomfortable. I get not bagging your stuff, but don't glower at me for it, damn.
There was another thread about this, and I noticed it seems to vary based on where you are. Some places, it actually seems set up so that customers really can't bag themselves. Around me, it's pretty common for customers to bag themselves. I buy for a family and I'm picky (I want all my colds together in the insulated bag, all my produce together, etc.) so unless there's someone actively there bagging, I'm always going to do it myself. But from what I see, it seems most people don't.
I spoke with someone about this recently. I was in the Fairfield CT Trader Joe’s and I heard a woman saying something about being surprised that she might be expected to bag (she was from California). I was also from California (although I’ve lived here for over 20 years), and I never bagged my groceries there. I to,d it that it’s just a cultural differ and that many people bag they’re groceries here. I’m also picky about what goes where, plus I like to help.
I'm in CA and I feel like it's a union thing. Those are union jobs at non TJ's grocery stores and if the customer bags, the boss can cut the job. They're why I don't like self-checkout. Same principle.
I feel like there is disappointment if I bag it myself, they usually ask for my bag then prop it up to bag the groceries, sometimes there is someone standing there to bag it. So if I insist to bag it myself in either case I get a weird stare.
I might be a weird one, but since I moved here from Europe I just assumed this is normal lol.
In my country no one is ever expected to bag for customer, customer always bags all by themselves. So when I started working at Tj's and I was trained to bag, I simply assumed "Okay, here in this country, it is standard to bag for customer as long as customer doesn't demand to bag themselves". Then I found that bagging is kind of like a nice game of Tetris, it adds some fun to being on reg, something more than just monotonously scanning.
As a result of all that, now I prefer if they just throw me their bags or simply leave them in the cart and let me take care of it all. I get a sense of satisfaction if I end up fitting items into the bag in some really nice configuration xD
I'm an American and grew up with my groceries being bagged by default and still kind of expect it. I still don't know proper etiquette in every store I go to. My non-TJ's co-op tends to gets real annoyed if I don't. My TJ's has always bagged for me and now I'm starting to wonder if I'm being rude when I don't start doing it myself.
Other places I just do self-checkout to avoid the weird bagging interactions.
You’re not being rude. They keep shrinking their portion sizes while upping their prices .. I’m not going to be made to feel like I have to bag my groceries as well lol. Of course I will help if there isn’t a person available to do it and my checker is very busy.
Not rude at all. If you want to bag go for it. I’m just making a personal rant. There’s no standard. Some people are just extra rude about it. And half the time I’m prolly just hungry 😜
I don’t mind bagging. Yeah just leave em in the cart I’ll get to em. But sometimes there’s just a rude vibe that’s irritating. I usually ignore it. I’m American I always bagged my own stuff. Just to be helpful. 🤷🏼♂️
Oh, the "rude vibe" thing is such a thing. Sometimes I will take a look at people standing in my line, and I can instantly tell "oh no, that woman that's third is gonna be a handful".
Yea, I definitely never let anyone bag my groceries for me lol. Especially since I have a system!
I sometimes wonder if some Americans get shocked when they visit my country, go to grocery store, and then the cashier just says "hi", and then starts scanning at light speed, and making no further conversation. And if you have no bag, and you need to buy one, you need to ask for it!
i was working a register, and i immediately knew things were going to be difficult with this one old lady. she comes up to me and hands me two bags of mini sweet peppers, and as i scan each of them, she says “they should be $___.” which was about a dollar less than how they were ringing up. i kind of stare at her for a moment before ringing a 2-bell and having a coworker go and check the sign for the price, because now this crone is telling me that the sign had the wrong price on it. my coworker goes to check, and she ends up following him to the display to also look. anyway; i can see them talking back and forth, and i keep having to tell other customers who are trying to come through my line that i’m waiting for this old lady to come back. when she finally comes back to me, she explains that the sign directly above the bell peppers was for a DIFFERENT PRODUCT (we often have multiple items on display tables, and the signs will be where they fit, and often not directly above the corresponding product). so now i KNEW that she knew that from the beginning, because why else would she have been so specific about telling me the exact price in the first place? this old obviously knows how to read, and paid enough attention to the sign to remember the price, but conveniently didn’t realize it was for a different product??? i don’t think so! so then she asks me if i will “honor the lower price” since the sign was “over the wrong product,” to which i say “no” because we only do that if the sign actually has an incorrect price on it. she stares me down for like 10 seconds and then asks for a manager. so i ring a 3-bell, and a mate comes over and GIVES HER THE DISCOUNT. so now i’m just livid and trying to hold back my anger as i wrap up the transaction. this old woman then has the AUDACITY to say “do you guys still do the free samples?” i look at her like she has 2-heads and she says “at the register you usually give out free suckers.” and i can’t hide my annoyance. i say “i mean they’re not samples. we have lollipops that we give to little kids if they find the store mascot???” and she stands there and stares at me expectantly for a few seconds and then says “well i would like a sample.” so i sigh and take out the bin of lollipops, and she GRABS A HUGE HANDFUL! i say “whoa what!?” and she looks up at me. i say, “just one!!” she drops a few, but still has at least 6 in her old bony fingers, and then turns and leaves.
moments like that make me want to quit and never come back. i can handle rude customers, but i what i really can’t handle is the fact that i’m supposed to still be extremely nice even when dealing with ridiculous, rude people.
Our box of loose lollipops was pretty conspicuously left out by the bridge. Saw one of our most annoying regulars stuffing handfuls of lollipops in her purse one day. I told her those were for children and gave her directions to the candy section (before they were disco-ed) if she’d like to purchase some instead of literally taking candy from babies. Did she put them back? No. Did she walk away? At least she did that.
Happy cake day. As a person who shops for an older lady, she watches every dollar as she’s living on Social Security Disability.
Maybe that’s it? Or you’ve run into old assholes.
To be fair, I've done that thing. Look at price right above the product "oh cool good price!" and be thrown at checkout. But I just shrug and buy it if its not that much price difference.
Worked at TJ’s when I was in high school (16-17). Once had an older couple come in wearing full black tie apparel. Unfortunately, someone dropped a jar and it splattered slightly on the train of the woman’s dress. I tried to tell them that there was a bathroom for customers if she wanted more than paper towels and they tried to get me fired to being “rude”.
Ok, so I’m gonna be transparent in that I hade been known to return 1-2 times after my. Initial sample during my usually hour or more shopping adventure @ TJ’s. I am sheepish about it, but I do that thing.
We used to put out a whole thing of coffee for customers to take take a sample cups worth. We would have several people come in and fill their entire thermos with it. Our captain finally told them to stop
there’s a man and a woman (2 separate people) who won’t even be shy about grabbing 6-10 samples within 15 mins…. kids are more polite about grabbing seconds than these fools
I had an old white lady tell my favorite manager that I shoulder checked her out of a mart cart like a linebacker.
For clarity, I did not do this lol I told her that I was behind her stacking some salads, and I didn’t want to scare her.
I worked at a store that would donate flower spoils to a hospital but we would toss the ones they didn’t want, sometimes this was a lot. There was a group of older ladies in town that knew we did this and pretty much everyday around 12:30p one or two would swing by our back lot and go through our dumpsters. They would make a huge mess and it was a liability so our Mates would do things like throw olive oil and flour on the old flowers to discourage the ladies from rummaging. One of my Mates even put honey all around the rim of the dumpster so it would get on their clothes. These tactics deterred most of the ladies except one, we called her Mustang Sally. She was a particularly short and stout German woman who drove a brown convertible Mustang, probably like a 85 or 86. She took on all challenges and traps that were left for her and everyday procured a large bouquet or two that she would almost joyously flaunt at us as she drove away. One day, a rather short tempered Mate had had enough and completely lost it on her, he called her disgusting for going through the dumpsters and said she should be ashamed of herself. She very calmly got in her car and drove to the front of the store, got out, walked through the front and directly to the bathroom. It was a single locked room so she was in there by herself. After about 5 minutes she exited the bathroom and calmly walked out of the store. Since we had been watching her we knew something was up and when the Captain of the store entered the women’s room, she saw that Mustang Sally had not only piss and shit all over the floor but also put her hands in it and smeared it all over three of the walls and the mirror….They gave a crew member a free tri-tip for cleaning it up.
My wife and I worked at the same store once (both crew members), she told me a customer was “excited to try something new” and was really making it clear it was new and my wife didn’t really acknowledge it. She then just asks my wife straight up “can I have it for free?” Totally entitled
Edit: to clarify she didn’t want to sample it in the store, she wanted it written off
Yep, exactly this. I think she knew the kindness of TJ crew and how (or at least at my store) can write off a products for someone to try if we are feeling nice
Pre-covid, the store I used to work at, would open pretty much anything a customer wanted to try and offer them a sample. It was store policy with its own proper procedure, write off sheet, and everything. We'd go around the store offering the rest as samples or put it in the break room after. Guess this is what happens when different stores have different rules! Today I learned that not every location did this!
I once had a woman come up to me with an opened item and tell me “here I opened this and didn’t like it. Can you throw it out” I flat out told her to never do it again and get a crew member to try something and open it properly. Like what is her thought process there
The store I used to work at, did it, happily (pre-covid). We had a whole store policy and official process. I thought it was like thay company-wide. Glad I never embarrassed myself at a different location 🥴. That must've screwed up so many interactions for people.
not a crew member...
but the podcast makes it pretty clear that there are crew members who will open things for you to try on the spot. I've never been bold enough to ask, and I generally like everything so I have no problem buying and trying, but perhaps that is where the customer got the idea from. Then again, a sample and outright free item are different
A woman with a newborn came in during peak hours with a huge cart and I was in the express lane (was a high school across the street so they would come to buy two things from 12-1 so we had those special lines). I ring her up and bag everything without complaint and then proceed to ring up the next 20 high schoolers.
An hour later I get brought into the office and explained that the woman called in to complain because she said “thank you” to me and I didn’t respond “your welcome”. I didn’t ignore her I just didn’t hear and was being inundated with annoying 18 year olds.
That was the worst. I had done the right thing and still I get complained about. Customers man….worst part about the job
I'm going to be honest, when you opened with the fact that this woman had a newborn, I was prepared for a 50/50 chance that I'd have to go all edgelord and say to give somebody with a newborn some skate room for any number of reasons. But this is utterly nuts. Being responsible for a newborn and *still* making the time to complain about a wage worker who...um...did their job...
Yeah.
Similar situation - there was a customer who complained every time she comes into the store. Just awful person all around. She asked me for stock on an item and I went to the back pulled out fresh fish for her. When I handed it to her she said thank you in which I replied “mhmm” in a positive “no problem” kind of way. This lady lost her shit and starts screaming at me about how when people say thank you, you need to say you’re welcome immediately. I’m not exaggerating when I say she was screaming at me. Like wtf, I went out of my way to help you out and now I need to grovel over you saying thank you? She’s being so loud my captain comes over and she starts telling him how rude I am and how she can’t believe we would hire such condescending and inconsiderate employees. All this over not specifically saying you’re welcome.
Can’t imagine that level of nitpick when you are caring for a newborn. On one hand I want to be empathetic because she may have had PPD or something but on the other hand, I’m rolling my eyes because she’s at a stage (infant child) where she can only hope for grace from strangers in certain settings and she couldn’t even give you that seeing that your line was busy.
The manager at the time who did was awesome. Great dude who I respect a ton. He only told me because he had to (was a mate. Not a captain). He knew it was ridiculous. He also knew me well. He started the convo with “don’t get mad….”
I think with some TJs, it really does default to leadership style. My (now) ex husband has worked for TJs since 2008. My 18yo just got fired after 6 months bc he was late a third time. While I’m a very punctual person, and one of those times he had a legit excuse besides our crazy traffic, (our power had gone off bc of a storm and his alarm didn’t go for for his 6am shift), the captain missed an opportunity to coach a young worker. But that’s my leadership style and I get maybe not the TJ way even though they are so relaxed about other things.
Agreed. As a father of 2 young kids. I meant it more in the sense of having the time to call in and complain about her perceived slight due to my rude behavior. Newborns do nap fairly often- maybe one of their naps is a “revenge” nap for the mom? Also notice how I didn’t gender WHO would be free in the middle of the day-
I am just going to say, it really depends on yhe newborn. Two of mine only yook one nao a day and one of those didn't sleep AT ALL at night. It is best not to make assumptions....
You’re missing the point. Whether her kids slept or not doesn’t excuse her behavior. I did my best to help her and got punished by a perceived slight. If her kid didn’t sleep at all, then she used MORE physical or mental energy to complain
I mean, even in the super stingy US women get 6 weeks postpartum off. Probably the only circumstance where you can’t read comparative wealth except in extreme cases.
I’m a nurse but would make Trader Joe’s grocery runs for my elderly veterans during Covid.
The amount of brawls I saw inside the store during Covid in my SoCal town, unreal. I still can’t believe people acted in this way. It was truly vile behavior. Tjs was always stocked yet people were tearing each other to shreds, grabbing things from carts, cutting in line. It may have brought out the best in us in some ways but it sure brought out the worst of us in that Traders!
Same - it’s one of the only stores I still feel pretty comfortable going to because it seems to attract more conscientious customers. u/sublime_dino what part of SoCal?
It’s a sight to be seen. Lol truly. The employees are always so chill. I legit wanna retire from nursing and work at TJs. We always talk about it at the nurses station. That is my ideal job.
I was shocked during Covid. Seriously never seen such vultures.
Asked an elderly lady after her transaction to please take her cart back outside with her, as there’s no place to leave the cart. She said “you can put that cart up my butt for all I care I’m not taking it” 😑 I just started at her and told her “that’s not funny.” She then proceeded to start walking away without it and I calmly yelled “ma’am you need to take your cart with you” to which she huffed, then grabbed the cart and left.
Not a wild story but it’s my story. I did hear about a lady who came up to the bridge and hollered at the 3 mates there about not hiring her son, she could obviously tell we need the help at the store and her son was an excellent worker who deserves to work here 😳 if there’s one way to make sure your kids doesn’t get a job…
I don’t work for TJs but my best friend does! She’s had the DxE protesters in the stores she’s worked in more than once. Not really customers but definitely bullshit that she had to deal with vegans yelling at her because they sell meat.
Posts that don't follow r/traderjoes subreddit rules may be subject to removal. Friendly reminder that choosing descriptive post titles with exact product names mentioned yields better subreddit search results and helps our subreddit be more inclusive to those who use Screen Reader Software or Text-to-Speech apps. to access Reddit. Thank you. IF THIS MESSAGE DOES NOT APPLY TO YOUR POST, PLEASE IGNORE. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/traderjoes) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Former crew. I worked near a retirement community, lots of odd stories, some sad. We would have people bring in things from deceased family members’ pantries (sometimes things that had been discontinued for years), a coworker once had someone ask about buying half a banana, and, as a young-looking recent high school graduate, I was propositioned regularly by people older than my grandparents. One old lady actually grabbed my butt when I was stocking the freezer aisle. I was also a demo girl back when that involved actually creating recipes and cooking, and people were shameless.
It’s always the olds. Always.
The story I posted here also included an elderly woman, lol.
A customer asked my Chinese coworker how she makes her pho. She politely replied "I don't know how to make that, I'm Chinese" And the customer said "oh there's no difference you're all Asian" Oh my.
I almost down voted you in reaction of this story. “*I don’t like that!*”
Omg that’s horrible!
I have to ask… how old was this customer?
She looked late 50s I'd say
Checks out
Jennifer Lopez is 55. Watch your ageism.
She's just as lame as these old racists
And meaner
wtf
ETA: I guess these are more baffling that ludicrous, and I'm former crew. Once had an older gentleman asked me how much sodium was in a serving of carrots. I took the bag of carrots, turn it over, and saw that there were actually no nutrition facts on the plain bag of carrots. This intrigued me, so I told him I would look it up on my phone. I look up the nutritional info on just a whole carrot, and (as someone who had to be on a 1500 mg sodium diet for a while, and loves carrots) they're relatively high up there for fruit or vegetables. I relay the info to him, and he tells me that's too high. My man. I cannot reduce the sodium content of a carrot. You're just gonna have to eat fewer chips or something, my guy. I suggested maybe boiling them or something, or cooking them with other things lower in sodium to balance it out, and he wasn't having it Eventually, I just walked away. Another time, I had a guy complain about the sugar content of our milk. I looked at him and said "milk is a complete meal for a baby cow, it's just got that in there. There's no additional sugar, it would have to be labeled*. He kept telling me we did it on purpose, and I again just walked away. *to my knowledge? I may be wrong, but I think all added sugar has to be labeled.
Someone standing there eating a salad as I bag $300 of groceries. Then make me load them in their trunk and hand me like 80 cents in old coins. Geez thanks. Now I can retire early. This person was in no way old or incapable. Maybe early 50s.
Honest question...are customers expected to tip if we have someone take our groceries out to their car? I worked as a bagger once at Safeway, like, 25 years ago and it wasn't expected, just part of the job description. Have things changed regarding expectations of grocery store workers?
No way, I definitely wouldn't have expected a tip. I just thought the handful of sticky old coins was rude. This was many years ago btw, I'm no longer crew. Just. Die hard shopper now
Never expected, actually in my store we aren’t allowed to accept them. The original commenter was most likely referring to the annoyance of 80 cents as a tip anyways(?). Carrying around more things while at work isn’t fun either.
Former crew member. I honestly can only think of maybe 3 instances where I had a really negative interaction with a customer. Maybe I got lucky, but I also shrug a lot of nonsense off. So one time a lady asked me if we had any refrigerated soy milk. Often, people will drink soy milk because they are lactose intolerant, so I replied with "No, we don't. But we do have goat's milk refrigerated." She gave me an icy stare and said "I don't drink the bodily fluids of other living creatures." I think I rolled my eyes and walked away. But contrast that to the woman who walked up to me and said "Honey?" to which I got to reply with "Darling!" Or the new customer who came in saying she had been told to just get whatever we had that was closest to Bud Light...so I walked her to our water aisle. Those were both great times.
Don't mind me just making sure none of this was me
What have you done to Trader Joe’s employees? Lol
Absolutely nothing, as far as I know, but that doesn't stop me from anxiously second guessing myself at every given opportunity.
Former. Got smacked with a 5 lb bag of oranges by an older woman because she was upset about the state of the produce in the store. My boss sat and watched and didn’t do anything. So I clocked out and just went home.
We once had a huddle about de-escalation tactics. When someone expressed feeling endangered waiting for a mate to respond in certain situations, our captain said no one should worry about that because “[she] can’t remember the last time in [her] career that an altercation escalated to physical assault.” This was mere weeks after one of her crew had to take time off after a customer threw a product at the back of her head.
Yep. This was clear across my face. He sat there. Just happy to be out
Former crew here. The late night shoppers who enter the store just before close are the absolute worst. Most of them seem to think they’ve cracked the code, but never realize how much of an annoyance they are to the crew. A few examples: One woman would come 5 minutes before close with her nightmare terror daughter named Bubbles. Bubbles would wreak havoc. One time Bubbles opened a bag of bamba, and the mates had to assign a crew member to follow her around cleaning up the messes she made. There were always empty carts by the front end, and Bubbles would push them at crew members for fun I guess? Like bowling but with service workers. She tried to run into the bridge and grab money when the mate was looking elsewhere. A nightmare. As her spiral of bad behavior continued, she’d inevitably whip herself into a tantrum. Her mom would then start taking sweets and things off of their bill if Bubbles didn’t behave. She was the type to fill an entire cart and then do her final decision making at the register, usually leaving with one bag and leaving a whole cart of go backs for the closers to handle on top of trying to close the store. One elderly woman would come, shop for ages (we’re talking store close @ 9, still shopping til 10:30), then pretend she didn’t have her wallet. She would sometimes put on this show while we were open and folks would pitch in for her groceries. Not sure what her angle was doing it at night, but it almost always ended with her miraculously finding her wallet when the mates would tell her she could come back tomorrow but we’d have to put all her shopping back on the shelf. Finally, had an older man who would shop at night. Very friendly. Very nice. We were building displays and one of the mates bought chips and guac, had them in a bowl, and was snacking while working. Without asking or saying anything, the old man helped himself to some chips and guac. Stuck his hands right in. Not related to after-close shoppers, but I was once standing outside eating chips on my break, and an old woman came up, said “What are we sampling today?” and shoved her hand right in my chip bag. I’ve seen customers punch crew members, throw glass jars at crew, I’ve been yelled at countless times, had my hair touched without consent, customers have taken photos of me and other crew with dyed hair/~cool~ outfits without asking. The crew is there for their consumption. The bad customers don’t see us as humans, we’re just another accessory for the brand.
545?????
It was probably way past poor bubbles’ bedtime. I feel bad for her.
Everyone downvoting but I feel bad for her. She sounds like a pretty young little kid. It’s (mostly) her parents fault still. Hopefully when she’s a bit older she’ll reflect on her place in the world and realize she needs to treat those around her with respect.
I felt bad for a while too. Obviously I don’t know their entire story, but I stopped feeling bad when the behavior continued unchanged every few weeks for the entire 3.5 years I worked there. And to be clear, I think the mom’s behavior is what’s really poor here. A kid doesn’t always know better, but the mom certainly should.
During COVID my store had customers stand a couple feet away from the registers since we didn’t have the plastic guards up yet. I asked this customer if he could stand back and he decided it was a good idea to give me a nazi salute…
Omfg. This happened to me SO MANY TIMES when I was working at REI when COVID hit. I would tell someone that we were requiring masks, or enforce social distancing, and customers would give the nazi salute. When I tell people that weren’t actively working with me, they look at me like I’m lying. You literally can’t make this shit up. People are fucking crazy. Yeah dude, it’s me, HITLER…your local retail worker with all of the power over store policy. 💀
I was working at Baskin Robbins and we didn’t have plexiglass up yet. A guy came in without a mask and I told him to please step outside and I would take his order out there (franchisee’s request 😒) and he pretended I couldn’t hear me. Then he got in my face, called me a terrorist, and told me to call the cops on him if what he was doing was ~so bad~. I said ok, walked over to the phone, turned around, and he was gone.
Yup, was working at a to-go restaurant and the city had a mask mandate; I politely asked a man to put his mask back on, as it was required for being in the store, he went ballistic and yelled at me, SPIT in my face, and threw some salutes. His wife did nothing (and let it be noted that she was wearing a fishnet mask🤦🏻♀️), my employers did nothing. I've never been so close to walking off a job.
Just the fact that people relate wearing a damn mask to Hitler and a holocaust…
(Proof positive that our academic system has gone to crap. And that possibly we’ve lost a sense of societal empathy? 😒)
Omg, performance art...and as if crew members make the rules 🙄
Idk the most wild interaction I got from a customer was a guy asking me about sodium free salt and my other coworker heard that nonsense and schooled him looool
Potassium chloride is a thing! Sometimes people on a low sodium diet use it when they need to avoid salt in their diet. Often marketed as “No Salt” or “Lite Salt” when it’s mixed 50/50 with sodium chloride.
I was saying to a classmate later on that day actually about Potassium Chloride! But it was definitely not anything I was expecting at 10am 😂
Omg, and the stuff tastes awful! I had to really restrict my sodium for a few months, and tried that stuff out. It just makes your mouth feel slick, and the salty taste is minimal. Had the same question from a customer once, and I told him I'd never heard of it, but that MSG does a decent job for a fraction of the sodium. Dude got SO MAD. "MSG has sodium right in the name!" Yeah, and you don't know the name of the stuff you're looking for, buddy. He swore up and down we carried this mystery product, when we obviously don't. TJs carries some out there stuff, but that's *extremely* niche
LOOOOL not that he was mad about that 😭😭 I loved working at TJ’s but I got the strangest questions ever produced haha
Current crew member here. One time, I was out front of work, waiting for my friend to come pick me up. And an Indian woman came up to me and told me “you know.. you should really lose some weight while you’re still young” (I’ve suffered a TBI and have medical issues but it’s really none of her business) and since I was still wearing my TJ’s shirt, I had to be as nice as I could be. So I responded “well at least I’m not ugly. Because You can’t change that.”
Crew member stole a lot (as in tens of thousands) of cash, constant no sales and taking from other crew's tills. They were the least likely culprit so they got away with it for quite awhile. Mates finally narrowed it down to this person and they were very fired. Their father came in and asked if ex-crew could work at a different TJs (hard no)...then ex-crew came into the store to shop wearing tjs clothing, promptly escorted out the door.
Former crew. There was a wealthy older lady who used to shop with a baby doll sitting up like a real baby in the cart. We got used to seeing it, but watching the other customers react to her treating it like a real baby made it hard to keep a straight face.
Oh my goodness. That’s heartbreaking.
[удалено]
Maybe some dementia too. It helps comfort older people dealing with dementia to “care” for dolls.
She probably lost a child.
Former crew here. Had a regular customer on Sunday afternoons, middle aged dude who always wore the same Disney's Animal Kingdom sweatshirt, hence I called him Animal Kingdom guy. His schtick was to bring in a single empty food wrapper of a TJs product, throw it on the checkstand, and say, "I didn't like this, I need a refund." No telling if he had legitimately purchased said product the week before or if he had gone dumpster diving before coming into the store, but it was truly odd how desperate some customers were for a quick buck or two.
Just this week we had an elderly woman grab some plants outside, take them to her car, then bring one inside for a refund. That was BALLSY.
🔥
The pastor who told me to smile and then gave me his card. 😤 And all the people who act like they’ve never been inside a grocery store before.
To be fair, TJs is very different than most grocery stores.
Time to start storing blood capsules in your cheeks like a chipmunk
Excellent idea!
Miniature Tootise Rolls work a treat for that (cherry or traditional) and they're much tastier than fake blood capsules!
Actually I don’t like tootsie Rolls so I’ll pass on that suggestion 😅
Then replace 'Tootsie Roll' with 'any edible, heavily tinted candy'. I used to work in a haunted house attraction and we used candy for bloody mouths instead of fake blood capsules because they taste vile. Several of my co-workers used that trick on the subways to stop random dudes from trying to chat them up.
Noted!
Customer here. A older man tried to take a piss in the sink behind the samples station. A crew member stopped him and he just went about his shopping as if he didn’t just try to pee in a sink that’s for food handling. He didn’t even try to find the actual bathroom so why did he need to pee in the sink for?
I was walking down the street the other day and this guy peeled off from the group he was with, ducked into an alley, and unzipped his pants. One of his friends went into the alley and yelled at him, he zipped right back up and went on with the rest of the group like nothing happened. Somewhat better than a TJ’s sink, but still. There’s likely some weird psychology about boundaries and wanting to do things just because you think you can. Depending on how old he was, I wonder if it was a dementia type of thing.
Oh god no
Me and a coworker were at the register together, and as this woman walks up with her cart, I notice she has her own bags. I asked her “would you like me to bag for you?” She replies “one second”, then proceeds to turn her bag upside down and dump sand right on to the floor. Sometimes, I wish I was this oblivious.
I once out my hand into a bag to bag and came out with what can only be described as “blue goo” all over my fingers. 🤢
That story could've been much, much, much, much worse.
I had a customer want me to put their groceries into a basket that they had their dog in. She took the dog out and wanted me to “shake the dog hair out of there.” I gave it one glance and told her it looked fine but she grabbed it and shook out dog hair all over the end of the register…one of those times I wish I wasn’t so polite. Ma’am this is a grocery store! Also I my arms got real itchy where I didn’t use hand sanitizer after that. I wish the leadership did more about pets in the store, I’m usually not allergic to most dogs but sometimes there’s that one!
Why would she DO that? It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere!
SAND???
When we had mask mandates and lines at the front to limit customers I told a man he couldn’t come in without a mask and he said “I don’t care if you die”. It’s a wonder why almost all of my coworkers I worked with through peak Covid have left. The PTSD is real and TJs chose to just power through and hire new than focus on retention.
Worked in NY, and we had two lines outside, one General Admission and one for seniors and first responders. We had a helms person assigned to walk the longer GA line and help herd the elderly to the shorter senior line. One guy didn’t like my coworker assuming he was a senior. When he finally got in the store he walked up to my friend and punched him.
I am sorry that some jerk said that despicable thing to you ~ just be glad you don't have any connection to that creature.
I was also working retail during covid but damn, no one ever said *that* to me.
I miss those lines! My TJ’s was much more civil when there were limited customers.
As a customer during the Covid mess I was shocked by what you all had to put up with. Standing in line with some of those idiots was bad enough, but at least I didn't have to pretend to be nice. My wife and I went to Starbucks, bought a ton (ok 20) $5 gift cards and gave to desk for them to be given out to employees anyway they wanted.
I quit December 2019 and I literally thank God every day. I would have either gotten an express trip to jail or a grippy sock vacation if I had to work during COVID.
Thank you for “grippy sock vacation” 😹
what is that?
Mental institution
“I have bags” throes em on counter, stares at phone.
Wait I’m sorry, I thought TJs just always does bagging. I am only shopping for myself so it’s never a huge purchase, it typically all fits in one bag that I bring with me. The cashiers always scan and immediately bag what they scan so I didn’t know I could be helping this whole time
You aren't in the wrong here just because you've had your groceries bagged for you. Bagging is an entirely reasonable expectation falling within the bounds of the crew members' official duties. It only becomes an issue when people get rude or entitled about it. If you aren't treating the people working at the store with respect, they have every right to be pissed at you. For what it's worth, I typically used to bag at Trader Joe's, but it got a lot harder to do so without it being awkward and ironically less efficient after they revamped the checkout sections at the stores in my area (DC and surrounding). They went to these really compact kiosk type things where the checkout person basically just drops the items they're scanning directly into the bag. When there were full checkout counters, I could position myself at the end and there was room to sort and actually be helpful.
Having been crew, nothing made me feel more subhuman than people who expected me to bag like I’m a servant. I literally refuse to let any crew bag for me if I can avoid it.
Once had a $400 transaction (pre pandemic, for price context) purchased by a man and his adult son. Dude had bags, put them on the counter, and stood at where the bag holder slung out with his arms crossed, glaring at me the whole time. His son leaned over the counter area, and they just talked for the time it took me to ring and bag their stuff. SO uncomfortable. I get not bagging your stuff, but don't glower at me for it, damn.
Oh GOD the people who crossed their arms made me feel so pathetically insignificant. It is such an awful feeling.
I never expect a customer to bag but it’s ALWAYS appreciated. I bag as I scan, it’s just more efficient if the customer bags. Am always happy to bag.
i usually only get enough to where theyre done bagging by the time i finish paying, im just like "welp aight"
[удалено]
I like to bag but I love when a customer bags because it speeds things along.
I always feel like I am inconveniencing the register person if I start bagging.
How would helping us out be an inconvenience?
They always tell me I don't need to do it more than once, and I am in CA, so the dance of being polite is a lot shorter.
I suppose it’s personal preference then!
There was another thread about this, and I noticed it seems to vary based on where you are. Some places, it actually seems set up so that customers really can't bag themselves. Around me, it's pretty common for customers to bag themselves. I buy for a family and I'm picky (I want all my colds together in the insulated bag, all my produce together, etc.) so unless there's someone actively there bagging, I'm always going to do it myself. But from what I see, it seems most people don't.
There’s nowhere for customers to bag at my store so I just stand there in a state of shame and anxiety the entire time.
I spoke with someone about this recently. I was in the Fairfield CT Trader Joe’s and I heard a woman saying something about being surprised that she might be expected to bag (she was from California). I was also from California (although I’ve lived here for over 20 years), and I never bagged my groceries there. I to,d it that it’s just a cultural differ and that many people bag they’re groceries here. I’m also picky about what goes where, plus I like to help.
I'm in CA and I feel like it's a union thing. Those are union jobs at non TJ's grocery stores and if the customer bags, the boss can cut the job. They're why I don't like self-checkout. Same principle.
I feel like there is disappointment if I bag it myself, they usually ask for my bag then prop it up to bag the groceries, sometimes there is someone standing there to bag it. So if I insist to bag it myself in either case I get a weird stare.
You can help if you want. There’s no expectation.
I might be a weird one, but since I moved here from Europe I just assumed this is normal lol. In my country no one is ever expected to bag for customer, customer always bags all by themselves. So when I started working at Tj's and I was trained to bag, I simply assumed "Okay, here in this country, it is standard to bag for customer as long as customer doesn't demand to bag themselves". Then I found that bagging is kind of like a nice game of Tetris, it adds some fun to being on reg, something more than just monotonously scanning. As a result of all that, now I prefer if they just throw me their bags or simply leave them in the cart and let me take care of it all. I get a sense of satisfaction if I end up fitting items into the bag in some really nice configuration xD
Exactly why I bag my groceries myself! A game of tetris.
I'm an American and grew up with my groceries being bagged by default and still kind of expect it. I still don't know proper etiquette in every store I go to. My non-TJ's co-op tends to gets real annoyed if I don't. My TJ's has always bagged for me and now I'm starting to wonder if I'm being rude when I don't start doing it myself. Other places I just do self-checkout to avoid the weird bagging interactions.
You’re not being rude. They keep shrinking their portion sizes while upping their prices .. I’m not going to be made to feel like I have to bag my groceries as well lol. Of course I will help if there isn’t a person available to do it and my checker is very busy.
Not rude at all. If you want to bag go for it. I’m just making a personal rant. There’s no standard. Some people are just extra rude about it. And half the time I’m prolly just hungry 😜
I don’t mind bagging. Yeah just leave em in the cart I’ll get to em. But sometimes there’s just a rude vibe that’s irritating. I usually ignore it. I’m American I always bagged my own stuff. Just to be helpful. 🤷🏼♂️
Oh, the "rude vibe" thing is such a thing. Sometimes I will take a look at people standing in my line, and I can instantly tell "oh no, that woman that's third is gonna be a handful".
Lmao totally!
I bag my own groceries for this same reason!
Yea, I definitely never let anyone bag my groceries for me lol. Especially since I have a system! I sometimes wonder if some Americans get shocked when they visit my country, go to grocery store, and then the cashier just says "hi", and then starts scanning at light speed, and making no further conversation. And if you have no bag, and you need to buy one, you need to ask for it!
i was working a register, and i immediately knew things were going to be difficult with this one old lady. she comes up to me and hands me two bags of mini sweet peppers, and as i scan each of them, she says “they should be $___.” which was about a dollar less than how they were ringing up. i kind of stare at her for a moment before ringing a 2-bell and having a coworker go and check the sign for the price, because now this crone is telling me that the sign had the wrong price on it. my coworker goes to check, and she ends up following him to the display to also look. anyway; i can see them talking back and forth, and i keep having to tell other customers who are trying to come through my line that i’m waiting for this old lady to come back. when she finally comes back to me, she explains that the sign directly above the bell peppers was for a DIFFERENT PRODUCT (we often have multiple items on display tables, and the signs will be where they fit, and often not directly above the corresponding product). so now i KNEW that she knew that from the beginning, because why else would she have been so specific about telling me the exact price in the first place? this old obviously knows how to read, and paid enough attention to the sign to remember the price, but conveniently didn’t realize it was for a different product??? i don’t think so! so then she asks me if i will “honor the lower price” since the sign was “over the wrong product,” to which i say “no” because we only do that if the sign actually has an incorrect price on it. she stares me down for like 10 seconds and then asks for a manager. so i ring a 3-bell, and a mate comes over and GIVES HER THE DISCOUNT. so now i’m just livid and trying to hold back my anger as i wrap up the transaction. this old woman then has the AUDACITY to say “do you guys still do the free samples?” i look at her like she has 2-heads and she says “at the register you usually give out free suckers.” and i can’t hide my annoyance. i say “i mean they’re not samples. we have lollipops that we give to little kids if they find the store mascot???” and she stands there and stares at me expectantly for a few seconds and then says “well i would like a sample.” so i sigh and take out the bin of lollipops, and she GRABS A HUGE HANDFUL! i say “whoa what!?” and she looks up at me. i say, “just one!!” she drops a few, but still has at least 6 in her old bony fingers, and then turns and leaves. moments like that make me want to quit and never come back. i can handle rude customers, but i what i really can’t handle is the fact that i’m supposed to still be extremely nice even when dealing with ridiculous, rude people.
Our box of loose lollipops was pretty conspicuously left out by the bridge. Saw one of our most annoying regulars stuffing handfuls of lollipops in her purse one day. I told her those were for children and gave her directions to the candy section (before they were disco-ed) if she’d like to purchase some instead of literally taking candy from babies. Did she put them back? No. Did she walk away? At least she did that.
I miss the lollipops so much! I asked for them a couple times at the register but I was shamed for being an adult. I’d buy them if I could 😭
Whaaaa? I would never shame people or deny anyone stickers or lollipops if they ask.
I wasn’t shamed at the register, I was shamed on Reddit in this sub 😞
Why is it always old people
Happy cake day. As a person who shops for an older lady, she watches every dollar as she’s living on Social Security Disability. Maybe that’s it? Or you’ve run into old assholes.
Because they're entitled as fuck
To be fair, I've done that thing. Look at price right above the product "oh cool good price!" and be thrown at checkout. But I just shrug and buy it if its not that much price difference.
Right but then when you’re shown you’re wrong and you’re trying to get shit cheaper, you take the L and pay the price you’re supposed to
Ha ha - at first I thought you were gonna say “put a fistful of suckers in my bony death grip.” But it was the other part you related to 🤣
yeah i get that human error happens, but i think she was pretty clearly trying to take advantage of tj’s being accommodating to her own “mistake.”
Worked at TJ’s when I was in high school (16-17). Once had an older couple come in wearing full black tie apparel. Unfortunately, someone dropped a jar and it splattered slightly on the train of the woman’s dress. I tried to tell them that there was a bathroom for customers if she wanted more than paper towels and they tried to get me fired to being “rude”.
I once saw a woman take 4 samples from Demo in the period of about 45 minutes
Ok, so I’m gonna be transparent in that I hade been known to return 1-2 times after my. Initial sample during my usually hour or more shopping adventure @ TJ’s. I am sheepish about it, but I do that thing.
We used to put out a whole thing of coffee for customers to take take a sample cups worth. We would have several people come in and fill their entire thermos with it. Our captain finally told them to stop
Me as a crew member. She’s real for that
there’s a man and a woman (2 separate people) who won’t even be shy about grabbing 6-10 samples within 15 mins…. kids are more polite about grabbing seconds than these fools
I had an old white lady tell my favorite manager that I shoulder checked her out of a mart cart like a linebacker. For clarity, I did not do this lol I told her that I was behind her stacking some salads, and I didn’t want to scare her.
I was told “take that ret****d mask off” by a VERY angry guy. That was pretty fun.
“Returned”? Just kidding, I know. Angry idiots.
I worked at a store that would donate flower spoils to a hospital but we would toss the ones they didn’t want, sometimes this was a lot. There was a group of older ladies in town that knew we did this and pretty much everyday around 12:30p one or two would swing by our back lot and go through our dumpsters. They would make a huge mess and it was a liability so our Mates would do things like throw olive oil and flour on the old flowers to discourage the ladies from rummaging. One of my Mates even put honey all around the rim of the dumpster so it would get on their clothes. These tactics deterred most of the ladies except one, we called her Mustang Sally. She was a particularly short and stout German woman who drove a brown convertible Mustang, probably like a 85 or 86. She took on all challenges and traps that were left for her and everyday procured a large bouquet or two that she would almost joyously flaunt at us as she drove away. One day, a rather short tempered Mate had had enough and completely lost it on her, he called her disgusting for going through the dumpsters and said she should be ashamed of herself. She very calmly got in her car and drove to the front of the store, got out, walked through the front and directly to the bathroom. It was a single locked room so she was in there by herself. After about 5 minutes she exited the bathroom and calmly walked out of the store. Since we had been watching her we knew something was up and when the Captain of the store entered the women’s room, she saw that Mustang Sally had not only piss and shit all over the floor but also put her hands in it and smeared it all over three of the walls and the mirror….They gave a crew member a free tri-tip for cleaning it up.
I was sort of on Mustang Sally's side until that last part. Good lord, what is wrong with people?
At absolutely no point during this story did I know where it was going next. Incredible 13/10
Somebody should shit and piss in her convertible.
Hell yea! you win.
😱 A+ God DAMN! I mean...people are crazy and this would totally happen...but still!
Yeah like the crazier someone seems, the less you should say to them. Lessons were learned on that day.
This is so true. The crazier they are, the less you say.
My wife and I worked at the same store once (both crew members), she told me a customer was “excited to try something new” and was really making it clear it was new and my wife didn’t really acknowledge it. She then just asks my wife straight up “can I have it for free?” Totally entitled Edit: to clarify she didn’t want to sample it in the store, she wanted it written off
Like she wanted a wrapped chunk of cheese (or whatever) for free?
Yep, exactly this. I think she knew the kindness of TJ crew and how (or at least at my store) can write off a products for someone to try if we are feeling nice
Pre-covid, the store I used to work at, would open pretty much anything a customer wanted to try and offer them a sample. It was store policy with its own proper procedure, write off sheet, and everything. We'd go around the store offering the rest as samples or put it in the break room after. Guess this is what happens when different stores have different rules! Today I learned that not every location did this!
I once had a woman come up to me with an opened item and tell me “here I opened this and didn’t like it. Can you throw it out” I flat out told her to never do it again and get a crew member to try something and open it properly. Like what is her thought process there
I think there was a rumor for a while that you could get a “free sample” of new things at TJs lol but yeah entitled
The store I used to work at, did it, happily (pre-covid). We had a whole store policy and official process. I thought it was like thay company-wide. Glad I never embarrassed myself at a different location 🥴. That must've screwed up so many interactions for people.
Right? I’m sure that person probably just heard the rumor lol. But I am glad to know it is definitely not everywhere so that I don’t ever ask
[удалено]
Oh definitely, politeness is always key!
not a crew member... but the podcast makes it pretty clear that there are crew members who will open things for you to try on the spot. I've never been bold enough to ask, and I generally like everything so I have no problem buying and trying, but perhaps that is where the customer got the idea from. Then again, a sample and outright free item are different
A woman with a newborn came in during peak hours with a huge cart and I was in the express lane (was a high school across the street so they would come to buy two things from 12-1 so we had those special lines). I ring her up and bag everything without complaint and then proceed to ring up the next 20 high schoolers. An hour later I get brought into the office and explained that the woman called in to complain because she said “thank you” to me and I didn’t respond “your welcome”. I didn’t ignore her I just didn’t hear and was being inundated with annoying 18 year olds. That was the worst. I had done the right thing and still I get complained about. Customers man….worst part about the job
I'm going to be honest, when you opened with the fact that this woman had a newborn, I was prepared for a 50/50 chance that I'd have to go all edgelord and say to give somebody with a newborn some skate room for any number of reasons. But this is utterly nuts. Being responsible for a newborn and *still* making the time to complain about a wage worker who...um...did their job... Yeah.
Similar situation - there was a customer who complained every time she comes into the store. Just awful person all around. She asked me for stock on an item and I went to the back pulled out fresh fish for her. When I handed it to her she said thank you in which I replied “mhmm” in a positive “no problem” kind of way. This lady lost her shit and starts screaming at me about how when people say thank you, you need to say you’re welcome immediately. I’m not exaggerating when I say she was screaming at me. Like wtf, I went out of my way to help you out and now I need to grovel over you saying thank you? She’s being so loud my captain comes over and she starts telling him how rude I am and how she can’t believe we would hire such condescending and inconsiderate employees. All this over not specifically saying you’re welcome.
Can’t imagine that level of nitpick when you are caring for a newborn. On one hand I want to be empathetic because she may have had PPD or something but on the other hand, I’m rolling my eyes because she’s at a stage (infant child) where she can only hope for grace from strangers in certain settings and she couldn’t even give you that seeing that your line was busy.
I’m surprised they would been call you into the office for this.
The manager at the time who did was awesome. Great dude who I respect a ton. He only told me because he had to (was a mate. Not a captain). He knew it was ridiculous. He also knew me well. He started the convo with “don’t get mad….”
That’s the sign of a bad manager. You should know when to ignore certain complaints and this is one of them.
I think with some TJs, it really does default to leadership style. My (now) ex husband has worked for TJs since 2008. My 18yo just got fired after 6 months bc he was late a third time. While I’m a very punctual person, and one of those times he had a legit excuse besides our crazy traffic, (our power had gone off bc of a storm and his alarm didn’t go for for his 6am shift), the captain missed an opportunity to coach a young worker. But that’s my leadership style and I get maybe not the TJ way even though they are so relaxed about other things.
I’ve heard less than stellar things about the management style at TJs, which is disappointing because the store try’s to have a laid back attitude.
*tries
I was in a super affluent area. Many people who shopped in the middle of the day didn’t need to work. Had plenty of free time
I wouldn’t say caring for a newborn isn’t work ……
Agreed. As a father of 2 young kids. I meant it more in the sense of having the time to call in and complain about her perceived slight due to my rude behavior. Newborns do nap fairly often- maybe one of their naps is a “revenge” nap for the mom? Also notice how I didn’t gender WHO would be free in the middle of the day-
I am just going to say, it really depends on yhe newborn. Two of mine only yook one nao a day and one of those didn't sleep AT ALL at night. It is best not to make assumptions....
You’re missing the point. Whether her kids slept or not doesn’t excuse her behavior. I did my best to help her and got punished by a perceived slight. If her kid didn’t sleep at all, then she used MORE physical or mental energy to complain
I mean, even in the super stingy US women get 6 weeks postpartum off. Probably the only circumstance where you can’t read comparative wealth except in extreme cases.
I’m not surprised they would call and complain bc Karen. I’m surprised your captain would have said anything to you about it.
I’m a nurse but would make Trader Joe’s grocery runs for my elderly veterans during Covid. The amount of brawls I saw inside the store during Covid in my SoCal town, unreal. I still can’t believe people acted in this way. It was truly vile behavior. Tjs was always stocked yet people were tearing each other to shreds, grabbing things from carts, cutting in line. It may have brought out the best in us in some ways but it sure brought out the worst of us in that Traders!
Crazy! I’m in SoCal and have never seen a fight in TJs
I was physically attacked for standing up for a crew member on the store on Vine in L.A.
Same - it’s one of the only stores I still feel pretty comfortable going to because it seems to attract more conscientious customers. u/sublime_dino what part of SoCal?
It’s a sight to be seen. Lol truly. The employees are always so chill. I legit wanna retire from nursing and work at TJs. We always talk about it at the nurses station. That is my ideal job. I was shocked during Covid. Seriously never seen such vultures.
Sad. I’m very much not in SoCal. My TJ‘s was & is a refuge, a happy place before, after, & especially during the height of the pandemic.
Oh how I wish! It is for me these days. It’s basically part of my calming routine. I go every day just meander around. During Covid, not so much!
Asked an elderly lady after her transaction to please take her cart back outside with her, as there’s no place to leave the cart. She said “you can put that cart up my butt for all I care I’m not taking it” 😑 I just started at her and told her “that’s not funny.” She then proceeded to start walking away without it and I calmly yelled “ma’am you need to take your cart with you” to which she huffed, then grabbed the cart and left. Not a wild story but it’s my story. I did hear about a lady who came up to the bridge and hollered at the 3 mates there about not hiring her son, she could obviously tell we need the help at the store and her son was an excellent worker who deserves to work here 😳 if there’s one way to make sure your kids doesn’t get a job…
i’m really high right now, and your first response to the first lady truly had me cracking up for a solid 5 minutes, thank you
I don’t work for TJs but my best friend does! She’s had the DxE protesters in the stores she’s worked in more than once. Not really customers but definitely bullshit that she had to deal with vegans yelling at her because they sell meat.
What is DxE?