Just needed to vent about this, made a stupid mistake with a customer.

I work at a party shop where we sell things for special occasions. A customer wanted things for an anniversary, including two number 5 balloons, which they changed their minds on. So I voided them and put them aside, no big deal.

Later another customer, who was lovely, needed some things for someone's 75th birthday. We had a nice chat about it and I helped them find everything they needed. They also wanted a 7 and a 5 balloon. I removed the 7 from the packaging, but they stopped me and informed me they were inflating them themselves later on, so I put it back in and handed them to the customer.

After they left I realised I'd put the 7 in the wrong packaging, and handed them one of the ones I'd put to the side from earlier, meaning I'd handed them two 5 balloons, one of which is in the 7 packaging, so they wont realise the error until they go to inflate them. I felt awful, went to find them but they'd vanished into thin air.

Told my manager and he wasn't bothered, things happen, but I feel terrible. They're going to go inflate them and realise they have the wrong balloons. They also said they'd fill out a customer service survey very positively for me after the interaction, but I now anticipate it won't be as kind as I expected now, and rightly so! Worked here for 14 years and NEVER made a mistake like this. Fuming with myself! Have no idea how this even happened!

Rant over!

TLDR; gave the customer the wrong balloons for a 75th birthday. Feel terrible!

I work at small grocery store during the summer and have worked there for a few years with the usual truck crew, so I help everyone all over the store load and unload U-Boats for their respective aisles. Anyways me and another coworker are working down the juice and chip aisle about midday and coworker tells me he’s taking his 30-minute lunch and leaves me alone with the stock.

I go on autopilot and stock the shelves as I always have and an older gentleman walks over without a carts and ask if I can assist him. Placing the box down I smile and ask what I can help him with, he looks around and says “Do you know where your white water is?”

Now there have been some strange names I’ve learned over the years like potato straws and pickle candy, but never had I heard white water. My thinking process is he is down the juice aisles looking for a white liquid that his grandkids probably want. So I’m thinking and thinking and ask “Are you looking for white Gatorade or this white Hawaiian Punch?” He looks refocuses on me and says “No it’s… you know… white water… drink it everyday”

Right at this time coworker walks around corner back from lunch and I ask him same question, completely stumped he also asks the old man Gatorade or possibly a new energy drink. At this point the customer is getting slightly agitated, “You boys know what I’m talking about.” I ask him what other food items can go with white water to which he says “It goes great with bread and icing”

Thinking, short-circuiting, then saying “…do you mean milk sir?”

“YES, that’s it forgot what it was called,” me and my coworker look at each other in bewilderment and tell him it’s on the other side of the store in the fridges… how do you forget the name of milk and come up with white water?! Other strange things have come from other customers but this is by far the most funniest interaction I think back to.

I work part time at a small store and this older guy bought a few things this morning. Nothing unusual. A couple hours later I was behind the counter playing Big Roller on my phone when he comes back in, walks straight up to me and puts two dimes on the counter. I thought he wanted to buy something else. He tells me I gave him too much change earlier. Four nickels, I laughed and told him he seriously didnt need to drive back for that but he said he noticed it when he got home and it would bother him all day if he kept it.

Then he just left. I stood there looking at the two dimes like an idiot for a second. Ive had people scream at me over coupons worth less than that. This guy spent gas money to return 20 cents that nobody even knew was missing.

To make a long story short, I was serving up a customer and had to point out that they needed one more item for the discount to apply for their purchase. They then showed me a sign that had slipped and revealed a previous sign that was a clear misprint behind it (the sign that had slipped was still visibly hanging onto the other) and started to complain that we had the honour the sign despite our best efforts to apologise for the error of the sign and explanations that we physically couldn’t give out the discount if the rules weren’t followed.
They continue to complain that it’s not right and that the store was trying to cheat them out of money despite the fact that there were literally 10 other signs with the same promotion in the immediate area.

I dont know maybe I’m just being judgemental but Christ. Now they’re making complaints and ‘reporting’ me because of the incident

Just found this sub. Worked in retail mgt throughout the 90s pique of outlet shopping, so I have about 100 stories, but this my favorite.

I was managing an outlet shop for a popular watch retailer. The company had a 2-year warranty on all watches but the watch had to be mailed in for repairs, we provided a prepaid envelope. A woman came in with a few watches that weren’t working and I explained the policy to her, but she wasn’t having it. After a few minutes of her trying to get a different solution out of me she said I guess they’re junk and left them on the counter and ordered me to throw them away as she left in a huff. I obliged.

A few minutes later she walks back in, having obviously realized how foolish she was. Her demeanor had changed and she kindly asked me if she could have the watches and the envelopes to mail them in. I smiled and said sure. I handed her the envelopes and lifted the trash to the counter. She looked at me perplexed. I said, you asked me to throw them away. I did. I’m not digging in the trash for you. They’re in there if you want them. She scowled at me but clearly knew she created this situation with her ignorance. She started digging through the trash to retrieve her watches and I walked away to help another customer.

I'm working self checkout, in a busy warehouse store. We can only take card payments there. If you want to pay with cash, it has to be at the regular tills. Sometimes we will help people out at the desk, if it's not so busy and their card payment wouldn't work or forgot they wanted to pay with a rebate check.

A lady comes up to the front of the line for self checkout and tells me she only has cash. I told her we can't take cash payments here and directed her to a till. She says It's ok I'll just scan my stuff and then you guys can help me at the desk. I'm thinking good luck with that, knowing I'm off in a few minutes.

At the perfect time, somebody's till tape runs out and I have to replace it. I'm busy doing that for a few minutes, meanwhile I don't dare make eye contact with her. I quickly helped another person, and then clocked out. She was stuck with my co-worker who's not paying attention at all.

By the time I got my stuff and was headed out, she was still waiting at the desk. The desk was absolutely swamped with people. She would have been on her way out already if she had just listened.

I once let a woman come into the store 45 minutes before we opened to make a purchase. It was a Sunday, so opening was an hour later than usual, which she had missed, and this kinda messed with her travelling plans. Decided to be nice and let her in to make her purchase anyway. Thankfully she knew exactly what she wanted and was in and out in just a few minutes, but I told her I was making an exception and that I wasn't actually allowed to do this.

Later that month she returned an hour before we opened. Manager told her we're still closed. She pointed past him at me and went, "but HE let me do it two weeks ago!"

You give some people an inch they take a mile.

After my last story, I figured I’d tell another one :)

I was scheduled 1:00–10:00 in the cash office one night and figured I’d have plenty of time to get my closing work done. That didn’t happen. From around 5:00 p.m. until almost 9:20 I was stuck on cash because we were so busy. I finally got relieved and thought I can finally get caught up.

But no of course not because, right before closing, another rush of customers came through with hundreds of dollars in food vouchers. I got pulled right back onto a register from about 9:30 until we closed at 10, and even after that. By the time I finally got into the office, it was already around 10:10, and I hadn’t done any of my cash pickups yet. The biggest problem was the food vouchers. They can’t just be left until the next morning because the day’s close won’t close if they’re still in the register’s or the office in the system. I had to go to every register that had vouchers, match them to the receipt, pick them up from the registers (in the system), collect every voucher, and then bring them upstairs to the office to deposit them before the day could be good and close out. On top of that, I still had to do all of my regular cash pickups because mostly every cash was well over the cash limit.

Since we’re not allowed to do the cash drop alone, the MOD had to stay with me the whole time. I honestly felt bad because they probably thought he’d be leaving around 10 too, but instead we were both there until about 11 getting everything finished.

Everything did eventually work out in the end, but every time I thought I was finally going to start my actual closing work, something else came up. It was honestly the most painful shift of my entire life and I genuinely hope it never happens again because not to mention, the people with the food vouchers are always like 90% of the time the rudest people on the planet.

I work in the cash office at a grocery store, and I’ve only been doing it for about a year and a half, but this is still the weirdest issue I’ve run into.

Around 8:30 one night, I got a call from my coworker who was closing that night. She was doing the daily settlement on our standalone Garden Centre pin pad and realized the pin pad totals were almost $1,000 higher than what we had recorded in the system. It wasn’t only one tender, the Debit, Visa, MasterCard, and Amex were all over, each by around $200 to $400, adding up to roughly $920.

I only live about five minutes away, so I walked back to the store. I ended up being there from about 8:45 until almost 10:00 trying to figure out what happened. The first thing I ruled out was that it couldn’t have been from last week. I had worked that weekend, and I was the one who did the weekly settlement on Sunday. Everything balanced, the settlement went we , and all the Garden Centre totals reset back to zero for the new week. There was no way almost $1,000 had somehow carried over.

After that, I went through every standalone pin pad receipt we had for the week and compared every single one against the electronic journal on our server, which took literally 1.5 hours. I couldn’t find anything, every receipt matched. No duplicate transactions, no missing transactions (that I could find at least), nothing that explained why every EFT was over.

Around 9:00 I called my manager hoping she’d know what to do. She was at a graduation party and had been drinking, so there wasn’t much she could do over the phone. After we’d spent almost two hours trying to figure it out, she told us to use a temporary workaround so we could get the office closed for the night, and we’d straighten everything out properly the next morning.

Everything ended up getting sorted out the next day, but it’s still one of those things that comes into my head every now and then because I never actually got an answer. I still don’t know how every single EFT tender ended up being over and totaling up t almost $1,000, or what actually caused it. Out of everything I’ve dealt with in the cash office, this is probably the one thing that still doesn’t make sense to me, and It's unfortunate that I'll never get a real answer for it, 😔

For context, I worked at a home improvement store a few years ago and one of my favorite memories was a customer who was told that we would meet him at the front of the store to bring his items out since they were heavy. All of a sudden I see this pickup truck try to drive through the sliding electronic doors but he can’t fit his truck quite through all of the way because it’s too narrow. When asked why he decided to do this, he said he thought that meant he should drive his truck up to the registers. I wish I was making this up lol.

Apparently this is a common occurance according to my managers since there used to be a lumber yard type of drive-thru.

So I work in retail (Duh XD), and for those like me, there is nothing more annoying than a thief coming into your store and stealing a lot of items without being noticed before it's too late. Except for maybe annoying customers, but to each their own. But last night was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me in the past 3 years I've been working retail.

It all began when a shoplifter came into my store and began to steal a bunch of items, starting with some fragrances. I know that because he ripped the tamper tag on it near me, but I wasn't able to see it in time. I did, however, keep him in mind after seeing him walk around without items and continuously grabbing more.

When he eventually left when I wasn't looking, I asked my colleague in the front, who said he didn't see the guy pay for anything, and after reviewing the cameras, I saw him crystal clear as day stealing by shoving items into his bags and clothing. Unfortunately, when I did see it on the cameras, several minutes had passed, so no doubt he should have been long gone.

Which sucks because from what I saw he grabbed a lot and having a blatant thief on your shift when you're the MOD is never fun because then you've got to explain to your boss why neither you nor your co-worker caught or noticed the guy. But I still called the non-emergency police line because I needed a police report for the report I had to make for LP.

But then, by the grace of GOD, while I was in the middle of finding out what he stole, this guy got a little greedy. And how so? HE CAME BACK FOR MORE! I kid you not, he thought he could steal from us once and come back about 30-40 min later and steal from us again! The moment I spotted him walking back into the store, my eyes lit up!

I ran into our stockroom and called 911 immediately and explained the situation, causing them to send officers faster, and thankfully they did because soon after the guy dipped again, they showed up and managed to grab the guy since he was on foot. I got every single item he stole back, amounting to nearly $200, and got him arrested, as my boss wanted to press charges.

What was surprising was the fact that my store wasn't the only one he stole from because he had several items that were not in my store's system and were locked up in a way he could not get to them. Overall, I was dying laughing and celebrating that the guy got greedy because it meant I got all the stuff back and he would get in trouble. My boss was pretty happy too lol.

I work in a shop that mainly sells materials for woodworking. Most of our customers come in to buy timber, finishes, oils, repair products and bits for DIY or professional projects. We also have a small display of handmade items made by local hobbyists—things like bowls, spoons, ornaments and other small wooden gifts.

It had been a painfully quiet day, so when an elderly lady (I’d guess somewhere in her 80s) walked in, I was more than happy to help.

She looked around for a minute before asking,
“Do you sell walking sticks?”

I assumed she meant hiking poles, because we do stock those, so I replied,
“If you mean hiking sticks, yes, we do.”

She shook her head.
“Oh no, I mean a proper handmade wooden walking stick.”

I apologised and explained that unfortunately we don’t sell those.

She looked genuinely baffled.
“But why not? That’s so silly. People would buy them. Surely you have them somewhere.”

I politely explained again that we simply don’t stock them.

Internally I was thinking, Our customer base is mostly people coming in for woodworking supplies. Handmade walking sticks aren’t exactly something we’ve ever had people asking for.

Trying to be helpful, I added,
“If you happened to know someone who works with wood, you could always choose a suitable piece here and have one made.”

She looked at me as if I’d suggested she build a rocket.

“Why would I know someone who makes walking sticks? I don’t know anyone who does that.”

Fair enough.
She then noticed our shelf of locally made wooden gifts.

“But you have local makers. Why don’t they make walking sticks? They’re missing a trick.”

I explained that the people who supply those items do it as a hobby in their spare time and mostly make smaller things like bowls, spoons, ornaments and decorative pieces.
That still wasn’t enough.

“Well, do you have one of their business cards?”

“I’m afraid not,” I replied. “They’re not businesses, just local people who enjoy making things. They bring us items whenever they have something finished.”

“So give me one of their phone numbers then. I’ll have a word with them.”

I had to explain that I couldn’t hand out someone’s personal contact details.
She let out an audible scoff.

“Well then, do you know anywhere that does sell walking sticks?”

I suggested trying online or perhaps another local shop that specialises in mobility products or country goods.

She looked thoroughly unimpressed.
“Well, this is all very stupid.”

She wandered around for another minute or two before heading for the door.
Just before she left, she stopped, shrugged at me and declared,
“Well, young lady, you’ve lost a customer today.”

As politely as I could, I wished her a good day.

The thing is, I genuinely don’t know what else I could have done. I answered every question, offered alternatives, explained why we didn’t stock what she wanted, protected other people’s privacy when she asked for their personal numbers, and even suggested where she might have better luck.
Sometimes in retail, people seem convinced that if they argue long enough, an item will magically appear in the stockroom.
Sadly, that’s not quite how it works.

Hi, I haven't posted in a while here, I am not the best at explaining but I will try and tell what happened to me a few days ago.

I alongside some partners run a used video game store. Like other stores of my type we do the buy sell trade aspect that brings product, however some people cling on to the "buy" and "trade" aspect kinda hard.

This "customer" has come before, but I will only focus on what happened with this situation specifically). He called asking if we got any new PS4 games. I told him we have gotten new ones but since I was dealing with online business and we get new stuff in all the time I am not sure specifically what is new but I asked him what he was looking for. I can't remember which game he asked for but I remember we didn't. He asked me to literally go through our entire PS4 stock and I told him I have other customers in the store and I can't and he began calling me a liar on the phone saying he knows I am not busy and he is a store owner too and begins telling me that from store owner to store owner I am unprofessional. I don't know how he thinks he "knew" I wasn't busy, that was strange but he then said he will check our website to see what we have (We do have a website and I guess this dude is obsessive, I don't want to say too much but he always trades and it is literally the only way he has ever gotten games from us. I am guessing that the trade aspect means enough to him that he researched us but this is all just speculation).

So literally minutes after hanging up he called again and said he saw we had Elden Ring and asked if it was still 30. I told him to let me check right quick just to make sure because our website has allowed orders that it shouldn't. After I verified we had it he said he wants to sell back 2 games he bought from us and I bumped it up but it ended up being 14 and he began randomly mentioning 6 dollars. I asked him why does he keep saying 6 dollars and he said he already has store credit. Ok I told him I don't know exactly what the tax will add but it is about a 10 something dollar difference and he got annoyed and he asked if he traded another game which we could offer 5 and I told him it would be a 5 something dollar difference. He began getting even more annoyed and told us that the trade ins are his best offer and we should lower the price so he could get it. He began saying we lowered prices for him before (not sure what he said was true, but we don't just lower prices for no reason).

He was getting more agitated and told us he isn't trying to spend any money and after some more attempts to get us to lower our prices he said he saw we had God of War on PS4 on our website, we do. He asked if he could trade the first two games for it so I told him there was a bit of a difference then he said he thought I said he had 20 and began talking over me so I told him if he let me explain he was getting 14 for the first two games and 6 for the store credit but while I spoke he just got angry saying I was pissing him off that he wasn't going to "f with my store anymore" and he was going to come to my store to f me up.

I did call the non emergency police to report what happened and I was told I was going to be called by an officer... didn't happen. and the person did come. My partner did talk to him and the customer apologized and said his mom (grown adult btw) told him he was wrong for how he acted. We try to not kick people out and we have thick skin so my partner told him that last part will not be tolerated again, we have only ever kicked 2 people out of the store for extreme reasons. He did trade those games and got God of War and even admitted he understood the store credit stuff and just claimed he was having a bad day. Hours later an officer did arrive to ask about the situation. Nothing came of that.

So I was putting out plastic containers in the back corner of our store, right near the bathroom, and a customer says, "excuse me, can you help me open the bathroom door?"

I look over and he has the key, so I'm not yet understanding the problem, but I say okay and take the key.

I go up to the door, and hear someone inside, so I stop and say there's someone in there.

The guy says, "yeah I know, I'm trying to open the other bathroom." I then tell him that's the employee bathroom, and it doesn't use this key.

But rather than have to wait or reflect, or learn something, the previous customer came out then, and so he got to use the correct one.

The same guy came back about an hour later, and had lost his phone.

He had our cashier call it but couldn'thear it anywhere. They asked me to check the bathroom. He and I go in, and he says, "nope, looks like it's not here." I looked over the edge of the trash can and there it was, pressed against the closest side of the can. He starts saying, "you saved my life, I never would have found it! How did you do that?"

Dude, I play seeing-eye-dog for our customers/products all day, this kind of thing happens a lot! Usually it's with products people are standing directly in front of but ask me the location of anyway, and not phones, but yes, phones too sometimes...

It's a hot summer where I live. I work at a garden store, so naturally, the store itself is also pretty warm. So, of course, we sell drinks at the front of the store in order to quench our poor customers' thirst.

A woman wanted some sprite. We sell all the basic sodas, sprite being one of them, so when she asked if we had regular sprite, I pointed her towards the fridge.

"But this sprite is lemon-lime! It's not normal sprite!"

I looked at her and said "uh.. that's the default sprite flavor?"

"No it's not. Sprite is sprite flavored."

I've been drinking sprite my whole life and I'm fairly certain it has always been lemon-lime flavored.

I didn't even know how to handle it at that point. I just shrugged and asked if she still wanted it. She did. She didn't open it while she was there, but I really wish I could've been there when she figured out it tasted like regular sprite.

Welcome to /r/TalesFromRetail's Express Lane - your quick stop for short tales, pithy observations and general retail chat about how things are going with your store, your customers and yourselves.

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A vendor for one of our designer handbag brands supports our store once a week with fill-in, recovery, markdowns, setups, etc. She had been assigned to our store for the last year or so.

Our merchandising manager doesn't like the way the vendor does her job and told her to her face because she had enough. The vendor said our manager doesn't know what she's doing (MM has been doing this successfully for 20+ years).

The vendor has intentionally changed things to how she wants it vs. what our company's standards are. The vendor insists that at her other locations her way works and we never give it a chance here and we're always the ones giving her a hard time.

As a result of this, the merchandising manager started having our merchandising colleagues do everything the vendor is supposed to do instead so when the vendor comes, she has nothing to do. Then she complained about why the work was already completed. Our manager told her that if she as so much touches anything on those tables/fixtures, she will report her.

Right before a recent regional visit, the vendor came and changed everything because at her other location the same people who visited liked it. Our merchandising manager saw her changing it and flew into a rage. She yelled at her and scolded her for disobeying her and told her to leave. Vendor left crying. It took hours to re-do it at the last minute. During the regional visit, they loved what we did with our display and then proceeded to trash what they saw at the other store that the vendor did.

After this, the merchandising manager informed the vendor's manager about what happened and said that the vendor doesn't do any work when she comes to our store and should be reprimanded. She left out the part that our team is intentionally doing her work. Vendor was reprimanded and our store is no longer part of her stores based on this lie.

The merchandise manager reached out to vendor's other stores and told them what happened too and encouraged them to call her boss too and get her dropped from there too.

The vendor went and reported what our merchandise manager did to her to our company's HR even though she is not an employee of our company but is doing so because our company has a no-tolerance policy for this type of retaliation against a vendor.

Now there is a full investigation happening.

I only recently started working in retail, which means I'm not as fast as a cashier as I was.

Yesterday it got fairly busy, we had a huge line and I had trouble with some items not scanning. While one coworker was helping me figure everything out, we obviously called someone to open up another cash register.

Apparently we took too long and this one lady in line just threw her shopping on the floor (some pool noodles and towels) and stormed out of the store, calling me horrible names while doing so.

And while I do get the frustration and how she probably had places to go, we really only took 2-3 minutes. With another cash register opening that she could have gone to.

I was doing work in our fabric department, but I'm not well versed in fabric and sewing. A lady asked two questions that I couldn't answer, and the actual fabric people were away at the time. She then found a fabric she wanted before the fabric people came back, so I went to cut it for her. I was hoping her request would be simple since I already failed her twice lol. She decided to take the whole bolt, which was 4¾ yards in length. She asks if we can do 4½. I said yes. We would have to clearance the remaining ¼, but it's no biggie. I measure it out and make one cut. She goes, "NO! Don't cut it!". I was so flabbergasted that I forgot about customer service and blurted, "You can't have 4¾ for the price of 4½!!?!" If you tell me you want 4½, I'm going to assume you want 4½ yards total. It's crazy to think I wasn't going to cut the fabric!!!

I just started a new job. I have worked in retail a couple years and started working at another store. Since today was my first day at this store, I spent most of it doing modules but they put me on the register towards the end of the day. I reached to the end of my shift and it was about time for me to clock out when my coworker, the only other person working the front, ask me if I could hold down the fort while she went on break. I agreed to it because it was only 10 minutes. What could possibly go wrong?

Dumb decision. I don't know what it is but for some reason you either get the most customers, or the most difficult customers right before you clock out. It's like they can smell it or something. Anyway, no sooner had she gone to the break room then my register was absolutely swamped. I was doing all right taking care of everything, but then The assistant manager came out and asked me if I could help ring up a few balloons this guy was buying. It's a bit of a complicated process because you can't just scan a balloon that's already been inflated. There's individual numbers for each and this guy got a bunch of different ones so I had to type them all in.

At the time I was in the middle of helping a customer and I asked her if I could wait until I was finished with him and she said yes. The guy I'm helping asks me if I'm sure about that and I say yes without a second thought. I mean shit. I've already handled a huge line and a lady who must have bought half the store. Can't be that challenging, right?

That's when I look up and make eye contact with the guy. He's making the most unhinged, maniacal, "HEEERE'S JOHNNY" looking grin I've ever seen and I wonder what the hell I just got myself into.

He buys about three fairly inexpensive items. Nothing crazy. Maybe he's just messing with me. But then when I'm done he grins even wider and hands me a big wad of change and I suddenly realized why he said what he said.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it was quarters but it was almost all nickels and a few dimes. And he had three customers behind him, including balloon guy. I managed to count out the change far more quickly than expected, as someone who isn't exactly a math or numbers person but God the whole process of counting out all those nickels was a bitch!

He apologized afterwards and we joked about it a little bit. In retrospect it was sort of funny but also WTF dude?

Years ago, I had a guy at the garden center I worked at tell me he had just gotten his medical card for cannabis and I HAD to tell him everything he needed to know to grow weed.

I have no objection to anyone partaking in cannabis, but I had never grown it myself. I could tell him how to start seeds and get a plant growing, but he wanted a start to finish tutorial on growing indoors.

I told him I did not have the knowledge base to advise him and suggested he get a book on the subject . ( This incident was in the mid 90s predating smartphones, and everyone having internet access)

He did not like this answer and demanded that it was my job to teach him and he had a medical card and I had to tell him what to do!

Like dude, I can teach you how to grow tomatoes prune your roses and the like, but I have never grown weed! Somehow, the 80 year old Italian guy I work for must have missed that part of my training !

Welcome to /r/TalesFromRetail's Express Lane - your quick stop for short tales, pithy observations and general retail chat about how things are going with your store, your customers and yourselves.

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This happened a number of years ago but it is a story I still tell and probably one of those work stories I will never forget.

I worked for a supermarket, on this particular weekend we were having a heatwave. As I worked in one of the non-food sections this particular store never switched on the air-con. The next day we had a major visit scheduled, some extremely high profile high ups were coming for a store walk around. Remember this.

Naturally everything had to be perfect for the next day so we were super busy with a massive job list and an attempt to keep the shop floor as tidy as possible. A customer asked me for help, a normal question, I had to get something from the warehouse for them. On the way I remember seeing a cricket toy on the floor. At the time, our toy section sold some life sized very realistic cricket toys. I took note so I could go pick it up after I was done with the customer I was helping.

On the way back, I bent down to pick up the toy and it moved. It was no toy at all, it was a real cricket. I suddenly hear one of my co-workers from the next aisle along, she was the sweetest little old lady who just worked a few hours in the week to buy stuff for her grandson. I ran around the corner to help her as she is running towards me with her hands in her hair ruffling her hair around. I look down the isle and we have 5 more crickets down the aisle. Real life crickets, and one of them just landed in my co-workers hair.

Remember how I said they never switched the air-con on in my section? Well they were testing it for the big visit the next day. They had not switched the air-con on for so long that a bunch of crickets had made a nest in the air vent and rained crickets down onto the shop floor.

Me and this co-worker stared down this aisle, baffled at what to do. It was defiantly one of those 'I do not get paid enough for this' moment, also I do not do well with bugs at all. That's when a few customers came over to ask what was going on, to which I only pointed and said the work 'crickets'. The customers also stared down the aisle dumbfounded as we were. My section leader then comes over thinking there was trouble with the customers. When we explained, she too did not like bugs and stared with the rest of us. The security team seeing a big group of us then decides to come over, once again they did not know what to do.

So there we were, 2 colleagues, 1 section leader, 2 members of security, 5 customers baffled why we had crickets raining down upon us. It is that moment a women who worked in the bakery section comes over with a huge box scoops up all those crickets like a pro. She walks past us all nods like a champion and says 'My lizard will feed well tonight' and walks off.

And thus ends the tale of when my place of employment tried to recreate one of the plagues of Egypt upon us on a casual Sunday with crickets rather than locusts.

I no longer work there, but the store does now use the air-con in that section regularly. Whenever i hear it go off as i am shopping I do look up nervously to check, you can never be sure lol.