Edited original post to remove the insults I was given by customers. If it's still an issue please let me know to edit it better.
Long post May be triggering.
Working at a supermarket as my third job, early 20's… I was cashiering and this woman with a child came to the lane I was serving. Once finished she pulled her son aside and said it loud enough ” see, look at him, I want you to be successful in life and not end up like that”.
I had three jobs to help my parents, family in Venezuela and also saving up to pay for my car & college.
I had a customer who wanted to use an expired coupon from almost a year ago. It's 25 cents off… She held off the lane and called the manager to make sure I get fired. The manager came and did apologize to her and to place the coupon on her order. Had to redo it all and apply the coupon while people waited and looked at me as if I was at fault. Company policy said no matter the amount on a coupon, we can't take expired coupons over a day…
I had another customer that wanted me fired and ridiculed me in front of everyone because I scanned the wrong type of apple out of the 30 different types there were… Yes, fired for overcharging her 15 cents.
I had a customer who scammed the business often by money laundering with gift cards. I called him out after he treated one if the employees badly. He threw a tantrum and came up to me as his wife was throwing things all over the counter. He held his hand on my head as a gun. We called the police and it turned out he was a bigger criminal in child sex trafficking. Two weeks later I was up for a raise… Expecting the most (50 cents raise) I got only 25 cents raise. Why? I was late once for literally one minute and 25 seconds. I gave my two weeks notice.
I worked in restaurant several years ago. We were understaffed of course and it was a very busy time at night. Customers lining outside… I accidentally gave an order to customer that was a head of another one. Once I gave right away the right order to the group one guy asked ” Who was the fg rd who made this?” I said ” I made it and sorry I switched orders, we are…” cut me off , his friends start to laugh and he proceeded ” you fg r*d, learn to do you job”. One if the friends started crying from laughter… The managers were not present and I was so pissed. I didn't know what else to do. Few weeks later I quit. Yes, I told the managers but with the low pay of almost $8 …. no thank you.
By the way, I have been going to therapy over a tear and have gotten better over my depression. These types of customers don't realize or care what others are going through. They see us as disposable. The worst part is that Large supermarkets and other food restaurants don't have unions.
I worked at a storage facility and some customers are scary. There was one veteran who said he enjoyed killing the people in Vietnam. He was upset that there were kids running around at Walmart and wanted to shoot them all to have more peace. But couldn't because there are laws in place. I called the police and of course they said they can't do anything because it was not a formal threat and a figure of speech… Depressing & bizarre.
I really dislike working in retail.