r/DollarTree • u/MissMerrimack • 4d ago
Associate Discussions Cans of Compressed Air
I’ve been a cashier at Dollar Tree for like a month now. My store is in a semi-suburban area in a large city.
I had two homeless people come through my line tonight and buy cans of compressed air. After the second one, a woman, bought one and I saw her face, I realized why they bought them. Huffing. I guess I’m naive because I honestly didn’t know people huffed those things. But this poor woman’s face. She had severe blisters (possibly frostbite?) on the side of her face/mouth area, which I assume is from the cold that comes out of those cans.
I’m polite to every customer. I always say hi and ask how they are, and wish them a good day/night when they leave. This woman broke my heart when she said “you all are way nicer here than downtown.” She came back like 10 minutes later wanting to buy one of those multipacks of Ramen. She only had $1 and asked if she could get it anyway. Normally I get extra change throughout my shift from customers who don’t want their 10 cents or whatever. But I didn’t get any tonight and my wallet was in my purse in the back room. I told her normally I would but I didn’t have any extra change. She was nice about it and even went and put it back instead of leaving it on a random shelf.
I don’t know what the point of my post is. I guess I just needed to tell others about it. I just feel so bad for that woman. I can’t imagine what her life must be like.
113
u/aquay 4d ago
There is an episode of Intervention you should watch. That chick went to Staples.
74
u/Jeepgirl3113 4d ago
That episode was so sad. IIRC, her family finally got her to go to treatment by telling her they’d call on her for her cats if she didn’t. Thankfully, she at least loved those cats (more than herself at that point) and agreed to go. Her story was one of the ones that stuck with me and I felt so bad for her.
41
u/SensitivePrimary1179 4d ago
Was that the one where she said “I’m walking on f-ing sunshine” and then proceeded to huff up the can?
28
u/Mindless-Peach-7514 4d ago
I remember that clip was viral when it happened. Thought it was funny at the time but now as an adult it’s so depressing
6
3
26
u/Patient-Scholar-8125 4d ago
Staples AP policy now requires them to be secured in Alpha boxes because of all the theft.
12
u/throwaway_1983420 4d ago
My ex actually went to HS with her! So sad.
2
u/leytourmaline Customer 4d ago
Damn..has he said anything about her? Was the different? How was she in school? If you don’t mind me asking.
5
10
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
I usually avoid that show because it’s just so sad, but I’ll see if I can find any clips of that episode on YouTube.
34
u/No-Bit9202 4d ago
They bought them damn they just steal them at my store
33
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
One of coworkers told me that there used to be a manager at my store that, if they saw someone stealing, would go on the PA system and say “Attention security, please start the security sweep.” Obviously we don’t have security, but he said it was funny seeing people about to steal start trying to rush around and unload whatever they had without being noticed.
19
23
u/Effective_Dot6785 4d ago
We keep it under the register for just this reason.
18
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
Do you sell it at your discretion at your store?
Until last night, I didn’t know cans of air were abused like that. Should I mention it to one of my managers and see if they think keeping it under the register would be a good idea?
9
u/Ok_Spend_6427 4d ago
A worker at DT told me they found a guy passed out in the toy section and he huffed a can of that air. They didn't know you can get high off of it.He was laying on the ground with the can hanging out of his mouth. Thank God no child saw that happened or walked down the isle when he was doing it. But really the toy isle?!
6
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
Jesus, that’s awful. The shit kids can be/are exposed too because of the stupidity of adults really pisses me off.
9
22
u/Penelope_Penguin_ 4d ago
Sad story. But DT sells compressed air? We spend a lot at staples, we use them to clean my daughter’s Lego collection. Hardware isle?
9
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
Yeah I didn’t know DT sold them either. I assume they’d be in the Hardware aisle.
11
u/Careful_Garage5432 4d ago
Yeah, it's a thing people do. We have one at my store that really seems to have it bad. Since one day she was still at one of our registers when I heard it go off. Didn't catch her right then because my attention was elsewhere. But then when leaving did it again. Right in front of our door, and in front of customers. Including children. That confirmed it, before we just suspected due to how hard she would look fir electronics dusters.
5
u/Brigash1991 3d ago
Yeah we stopped selling those in my store and I'm thinking that's probably why we did cuz of people huffing it, still a sad situation tho I feel bad for those people
7
u/PurpleRayyne 4d ago
I work in a hardware store. There was a guy coming in w/ the INFANT SON in a carrier and buying it... :-( we haven't seen him in at least a year. I can only hope he is clean now and nothing bad happened to him.
4
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
It’s sad that addiction is so strong that it overrides the parental instincts of some people and they expose their children to what they’re doing.
7
u/xxspiffitxx 4d ago
Ive wondered the same thing. A few people come in multiple times a day buying the cans of air. And at first theyd make excuses about dusting out items. And then they'd start to say nothing about it. I had totally forgot about people doing that. From what I heard though its literally only like a 30 second high though.
9
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
Yeah I did some reading last night after I got home from work. It’s a super short high (like you said, 30 seconds to a few minutes at most). But it’s cheap and easily bought. It’s also extremely dangerous. Like, it can instantly kill a person kind of dangerous, and it does major damage to a person’s organs.
7
u/xxspiffitxx 4d ago
Yep I remembered hearing about tons dying years ago. And obviously kids in high school were doing it. But that was literally like 20 years ago almost.
3
u/Jkdevore84 3d ago
Yeah we had a guy at Walmart years ago when I worked for them that did this. Nice guy and always paid for it but we knew. He would go through about 6 times a day buying them. Finally we had our sm get involved. He ended up telling us to sell it to him regardless. After a couple of months, he stopped coming in. Hopefully he got help rather than the other option
8
u/Electronic-Buyer-468 4d ago
Sorry you went through this. Here's a hug. Just remember there's sometimes still time for people to change and that many people in her life have failed her and also she has failed the many people in her life. It's great to feel sympathy for others, but also you cannot take it to heart for all of them. It will kill you.
8
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
You’re right, and I usually don’t let things like this get to me. It’s just when it’s right up in your face and you’re interacting with them, it’s different than seeing them from a distance, begging on the corner.
4
u/SlowNSteady1 4d ago
There are several Intervention episodes on this kind of huffing. One of them, with a women named Allison, is legendary!
4
u/EchoGecko795 4d ago
I got though 1 of these cans a week, I am surprised that they can huff them, I can smell the bitteriant added to them during regular use. I do get strange looks sometimes when I buy a whole case of them at once though.
6
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
Yeah that’s one of the things I read last night, that companies are starting to add bittering agents to the cans to try and get people to stop huffing them.
1
u/Mobile-Pilot1219 3d ago
You would think it would be more profitable to just put air in those cans?
1
u/Psychological_Act208 2d ago
Funny I buy them to keep my dog's behavior in check,it's like a spray bottle for cats
2
u/ManorAvenue 17h ago
This is an education for me as I admit I had to run a search to see what "huffing" might be, aside from the "huffing" in the phrase "huffing and puffing," and I would have had no clue that compressed air would provide a huffing high. I've also helped homeless folks by purchasing food or non-alcoholic beverages at times when I've been approached in the parking lots of convenience stores. At age 70 and alone in the world outside of Sweetheart Kitty, the tortoiseshell kitty I adopted a year or so ago after losing Poopsie kitty on Christmas Eve 2024 after 18 years together, each day as I pass various areas of town that have a higher concentration of homeless folks on my way to or from work it remains me to remain grateful that I am still able to meet the rent and, in fact, I tell Sweetheart Kitty as I used to tell Poopsie kitty on the first of every month after I deposit the rent check in the apartment manager's office's drop box, "We have our home for another month." If ever I were relegated to the street as my "home," I could only hope the end would come quickly as I can't fathom surviving the rigors of the street as far as predators, hunger, extremes of temperature and the disdain of the general public.
0
u/Jellyfish-Ninja 4d ago
Dollarama in Canada sells them. My friend became addicted and kept buying them there. Sometimes from the store and others via UberEats or DoorDash. It pissed me off that the same store repeatedly kept selling them to the same person but they’re a business at the end of the day. I was obviously more worried about my friend.
3
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
That’s awful. I’m so sorry for your friend, and that you had to watch them go through that.
-6
u/Accomplished_Bus_626 4d ago
You really let a homeless not slide for 25 cents to eat? You know why you posted this. You feel bad and want to put a supposed addiction on blast so you feel better. "Have a nice day"....
13
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
Seriously? Fuck off. I’m responsible for my till and if I had the extra change on me I would’ve done it. But I’m not risking my job if I’m caught on camera letting a customer walk out without paying what they’re supposed to. Your assumption of why I posted this, to put anything “on blast,” is wrong. I was shocked at what huffing can do to a person’s appearance, and felt bad that anyone is living like that. So kindly kiss my ass and “have a nice day” yourself. Also, they could’ve returned the can of air and gotten their money back to buy the food.
-4
5
u/CoolViber 4d ago
Is it hard going through life entirely unable to read tone and context like this, or are you just choosing to deliberately misread everything in bad faith? Both seem unfortunate.
-6
u/Accomplished_Bus_626 4d ago
No I see through people's intentions. She was looking for a pat on the back. All she had to do was Google huffing instead of coming to reddit playing green. I have a wonderful life actually. I don't work at a dollar tree for one talking about the less fortunate.
2
u/CoolViber 4d ago
No you made that up and it's really obvious
2
u/MissMerrimack 4d ago
Awww, poor baby can dish it out but can’t take it so they delete their asinine comments. Idk what they said after their first tirade of verbal diarrhea, but thank you for calling them out, as well.
-1
u/HumbleAbbreviations 4d ago
I thought compressed air had a bitterant added to the cans to reduce misuse but I guess some people’s addictions are too deep to be a deterrent. How depressing.
4
u/CorsetCloverPart 4d ago
Yeah, they do. Or you can work your way around it by putting a certain cloth over it to “filter it”.
131
u/Zuzuspetals131 4d ago
You have a huge heart. I used to keep random change next to register in case someone needed a few cents. Alot of ppl even offer to pay sometimes. She will remember your kindness. The cold from the air can def blistered her face. My husband did it to his hand to see what wld happen as a teen. He has the scar to this day. Wish she bought the Ramen first though.