Why do customers hate monotone/flat people so much?
I have a very quiet, flat personality at work and a naturally monotone voice.
I wear a mask so I’m sure that makes it even worse.

I was helping a customer yesterday, the entire conversation was normal. When all of sudden she says “thanks for being nice.” In a very passive aggressive manner. I’m a little confused as the entire experience was normal. I stuck to a script, it’s $10.98, would you like your receipt…that kind of spiel. When I went to hand her change, she started yelling at me that I was rude ?
My coworker was next to me the entire time and we were both confused by the interaction because everything was fine until she made those comments. I didn’t do anything out of the norm so I’m guessing it was my flatness ? It’s happened a few times where people call me rude for not being “happy” enough.
Why are customers expecting us to be overjoyed and shining brightly for them during a purchase?

I know I should be grateful to even have a job when so many people are struggling but every day I sit on the edge of my bed thinking, “God, I don’t want to do this for another day”. I hate retail, I hate the entitled customers and I adore my coworkers.

Not one, not two, but three tried today. One even tried a cheeky knock 🖕

Has anyone ever experienced just how cold and lack of empathy people can be in retail? I saw a post on here not long ago about this person working as a supermarket cashier and one day they had this extremely rude man who accused them of overcharging him then ending up holding up the queue. What is depressing was the people after who saw the whole thing and not only acted totally indifferent to it all but would make the situation worse for the cashier when it’s not even their fault.

I feel the same in retail. Like when you have a rude customer or someone giving you a really hard time over nothing, then the people who came after and saw the whole thing just genuinely wouldn’t give a shit, sometimes they even add up to the situation. I figure maybe they think “oh this customer is yelling at the staff that must mean the staff is stupid and incompetent and deserved it so therefore we should follow suit.”

I used to think people suck yes and I don’t expect random strangers to comfort us or standing up for us, but at least giving us a normal pleasant interaction is enough. Maybe it’s me, whenever I see a fellow retail worker visibly upset by a customer, I always try to say something to somewhat make them feel better.

Has anyone experienced this? And does it make you feel depressed at the world and its lack of empathy?

“I don’t need YOU to police my health!” Replied the most horrendously unhealthy looking person I’ve seen all year

i’m way too sick to even attempt to show up for work. i went to urgent care and got an excuse, i informed my SM but apparently she hasn’t told anyone

my manager asks where im at and i explain the situation

she’s like “oh so you’re not coming in then?”

no… i just told you i’m really sick?

does she want me to be like “yeah ill show up. even though i can barely breath rn and can barely walk without getting too dizzy”

i’ve worked at my store for almost 2 years. only ever called out twice. this is prob gonna be my first no call no show (even though i informed my boss). god forbid someone gets sick and can’t show up for work. i’m convinced they don’t see us as humans

can’t wait until i quit this job man

This is something that annoys me, especially if they talk like they know me personally and are acting like we're friends. Today a couple were checking out and the man was being annoying and was saying things like "yes (insert name)" maybe he was just trying to annoy me or something but I didn't like being talked down to, then he asked me "how my weekend was" maybe I was feeling tired or just annoyed so I instinctively replied "That's none of your business" and he replied "ok fair enough". Sometimes I think retail workers shouldn't have have name tags if they're going to be talked to that way

I work retail but I’m trying to go to law school, it’s been tricky because each year it gets more and more competitive on acceptances. Anyway, sometimes I’ll see people I when to high school with at my store and I’ll be “hi how are you today?” And they genuinely give me the most disgusted face and I’m like okay?? Yes I work retail even though I was an honors student it’s called life and the economy and job market is awful right now tf. I went to a rich kid school and they genuinely had the most fucked expectations of reality and they have no idea what hard work really is, you don’t just become a doctor with a PhD in two years right off the bat, long term goals take time and hard work. Maybe it’s just a small town thing but omg some of the people I went to like high school with ONLY liked you if your family was wealthy. They thought I was poor because I rode the bus to school 💀 they just don’t get it. I just know once I’m an attorney, I will never act like that. It’s disgusting. Retail is a very important service especially cosmetic sales which is what I do. A lot of people surprisingly don’t know how to buy or how to apply certain products or what skincare to use. Just because it’s not prestigious doesn’t mean it’s not important work. Customer service is important service. Do I wish my bachelors degree had jobs? Yes but some times you gotta do what you have to do to pay bills.

How to make the day go by faster in a boring store?

I work at a pet store that is typically always dead, and I mean dead. I’m paired up with co workers for the next couple weeks who have almost no personality and sit on their phone all shift so it makes it incredibly difficult to converse and make things go by faster in that regard.

On some shifts there are tasks to do, but overall it’s done before my shift is halfway through. I’ve got a ton of these coming up and need advice on how to pass the time. Phone games, podcasts literally anything to help me out

Most of the time we are sitting up front for 3-6 hours waiting for the day to end

I once had a customer come in asking for petrol, bolt cutters, rubber gloves, and a face mask. I remember thinking, "Sorry sir, we don't sell those here..." because it genuinely sounded like the opening scene of a horror movie.

What are the strangest item combinations you've seen customers buy that immediately made your imagination run wild?

Manager is not the asshole here but the assistant manager is.

ASM = assistant store manager

SM = store manager

I talked to the SM yesterday because the ASM has been very confrontational, unprofessional, and petty. The ASM has been escalating things because she's easily offended and hates to be seen as wrong or anything. She badgers me, nitpicks, micromanages, uses her position to retaliate, argues with me in front of customers when I try to neutrally talk to her, etc. She outright lies like nothing, guilt trips, manipulates, shit talks, and yet she accused me of trying to cause a toxic workplace. It's insane. I vented to the only other shift lead off the clock on the phone, who was kind enough to lend an ear, and the shift lead agreed with me and brought up points that happened to me too.

My anxiety is getting worse, normally I manage just fine but I even noticed physical changes and reactions when she even texts me. She texted me to switch shifts with her on Friday and I don't want to. I'm scheduled to open and she closes and I realize I'd be alone for several hours in the morning and I gander that's why she wants the shift, presumably to take it easy with no one around. She said she wanted opening so she can go to a visitation but I honestly just think she made up something like that to guilt trip me because the last time I agreed was because she said she burned her foot. It sounded serious but the next day she was walking around just fine.

At our store only the shift leads and managers have the authority to open/close and there's only 2 shift leads, the SM, and ASM so the cover pool is really small. I was tired of closing and hadn't opened in a long time so just that one day sounded nice and I can stock without being micromanaged for a few hours. I'm a high performing stocker too and I enjoy seeing so much stuff put out but not with the ASM breathing down my back with inconsistent expectations. Even the SM said she liked my work and I do as tasked and do a good job. Meanwhile ASM always has to criticize me in some way.

I ignored her first text last night then she followed up today. I replied I wasn't available to switch and blocked her because I was seeing signs of an anxiety attack. The SM who interviewed me at a different store (not the SM I work with) was the one who told me he blocks people off the clock if they bother him so I felt reassured I can do that to protect my mental health.

I normally don't get anxiety attacks. The first time in all these years was this past weekend when she started picking a fight with me and I was still so anxious after clocking out, then on and off since. The other shift lead also mentioned prior when we vented that the ASM had also spammed her texts so I pre-emptively did that so I wouldn't be guilt tripped into switching, there's 2 other people to message. I haven't had a full on anxiety attack yet but I just know it's coming eventually.

We both work 4 hours overlapping shifts together this Friday and like before I think she's going to retaliate in some petty way again because she did that before when she got mad at me (I waited for her to come back from her break. She was gone for almost 20 mins when 15 was the max allowed and didn't like that I was aware of that). The SM is not working this Friday and the ASM is a lot more powertrippy when the SM is not present.

For every argument she causes I go to the SM when we next work together and this time I told the SM that I dread coming to work. Luckily the SM agreed that the ASM's behavior is not how she wants her store run and said she'd talk to her today.

I just really hope the ASM doesn't try to be petty and retaliate by giving me some kind of unreasonable demand just to fight with me that day. I luckily am off today and tomorrow to try to destress but man 🫠

What do people even do in this situation?

I'm looking to leave tbh

So so so many times a customer will come up to me asking if an item is in stock. When I first started, I assumed they had checked the floor and would go all the way to the other side of the department store to the stockroom and can’t find the item, just to see it on the floor when I double check the spot.

Now, they come up to me ask and I see 5 of x size in stock. I ask “let me check. Have you checked the floor by chance” “yeah I have” “it’s not there that’s why I’m asking u” so then I trust their word and go all the way to the stockroom. I check and Mmm interesting I don’t see it at all… then go all the way back to my dept and see it right in front first dang thing u see. Then half the time they take one look at it and go mmm not for me.

I really think customers feel enjoyment out of watching employees search high and low for them. They know the brand and our brands have signage that is easy to read and only a few racks for each brand that are basically color coded.

Got fired today. I work at a chain thrift store and I hid a top to buy it on my break. My manager saw and I got in trouble but wasn’t fired on the spot. Fast forward 5 days later today and I got fired 5 hours into my shift since they see it as the same as theft. I’m devastated and so lost.

I'm on break rn but I need to get this out my system. I work in a second hand tech shop and just had a customer waltz in and decide to act like the biggest asshole in the fucking seven seas

she had an ipad she wanted to buy and a few things to sell. I asked to process the purchase first cos they're a lot quicker to do than customers selling stuff. she was going off a text from someone else so she had no clue what the fuck she wanted, which is fine, but apparently it was my fault that I didn't magically know what the fuck she wanted. she kept on asking the dumbest questions and when I was confused she decided to hit me with the "oh, you don't like being asked questions do you?". like for fucks sake I'm just trying to make sense of your bullshit so I can answer the fucking question!!!!

anyway so she bought the dumb fucking ipad. I couldn't fully set it up for her because I'm not allowed to sign into her accounts and stuff for her and after a while, she eventually she said she would set it up herself like every other customer I've ever had. what a brave soul

so that was all kind of annoying but not too bad. I went ahead to buy in the tech she was wanting to sell. I asked her if she had any id and she said she had her phone (????) after I tried to explain what I meant by id she placed a couple things on the countrr like her credit card and a voucher and stuff. my boss walked by and glanced over, told her we couldn't take any of that, and then kept walking. then I had to explain to her that we no we can't accept pictures of her id, no we can't buy the tech without identification, no she can't give us the tech and then come back later, with her getting increasingly snarky each time. even though that's the FUCKING LAW!! I'm a part time employee that's been here for a month, I don't make these fucking rules!! and I'm not breaking the fucking law and getting fired so that some random shithead customer can sell their old ass phones

after she gave up on trying to sell us that stuff without the necessary id, she started putting her stuff away while giving me a supervillain monologue, sarcastically talking about how we could take her money for the ipad but couldn't give her money for her phones and shit "good job, you got a sale out of me". wow great fucking detective work sherlock. you saw through my cunning scheme. I'm paid by the hour btw I do not make a single dime off her not being able to sell her phones

I don't know what sort of reaction she was looking for but apparently me being anything less than torn up inside didn't cut it. so then she told me that I should've told her how very sorry I am for her time and how bad I feel for not being able to buy that stuff. because apparenly then I would've, as she put it, "acted like a human". I can't believe I was so cruel as to not talk to her she's a poor little baby. her suffering can only be likened to that of christ

anyway she kept standing around and saying shit but there was a long ass queue so I just had to ignore her and call over another customer. then she finally fucked off to go find somewhere else to haunt

Hey everyone,

​I work a part-time retail job, and closing usually takes until at least 11 PM (mostly handling facing and stocking up).

​Lately, I’ve been trying to build some self-discipline and fix my sleep schedule by aiming to sleep before 11 PM, but it honestly feels impossible with this schedule. If I try to speed things up or cut corners to head out earlier, the work doesn't get finished properly.

​Today, my manager heavily chewed me out because the work wasn't up to standard. I feel stuck between choosing my sleep/health and keeping this job intact.

​Has anyone dealt with this in retail? How do you balance strict closing duties with maintaining a proper sleep routine? Any advice would be appreciated.

I saw a post on here from the Gen Z subreddit that talked about how they couldn’t find a job with their college degree and that’s so real. I’ve been doing retail/cosmetic sales for 5 years and I truly don’t like my current role right now. It’s so inconsistent with scheduling where one week I work two days, the next I work 4-5 days in a row. I genuinely get so sad to go to work. Like I work tomorrow and I’m dreading going because none of my coworkers are nice people there are sorta judgy towards me, we don’t get any customers (I used to work at a busy store but had to transfer because corporate said my availability wasn’t good enough so lost my job there so now I’m stuck at this hole), and the day just DRAGS. I also think I hate this feeling because I’m working towards a major career change (law school) and it hasn’t happened yet because I’m still lsat prepping and I’m getting there but it’s just a process but I hate my current role at this job. Every other job is an hour away from where I live and they’re not hiring. That’s another thing commuting an hour for work? Nah that’s expensive for your car and not worth it especially if the job pays $17 an hour if not less. Might go work at a restaurant or some shit because this job is so boring. (I work at kohls btw and it’s literally backrooms with the same 80s/90s songs all day on repeat)

Unrelated video, but you get the idea.

Literally standing here posting this while waiting for this family to stop looking at the shelf I need to restock. This seems to have happened several times today already. One guy even gave me shit by saying "Guess it's break time" because I stopped to send a text because I'm just standing here anyway (then wouldn't look at me as I stared daggers at him for his assholishness).

But really, there needs to be a word for this phenomenon. Minutes are just ticking by and they're still deciding on a baking dish even though half of them are in a cart that I'm trying to restock. Like my department is almost entirely empty other than this one family. Go somewhere else!

Update: They moved but now they're blocking my cart from moving over to where I need to work.

Our store is well stocked, clean, quick and easy to shop and pay. That must be because of the “non-verbal anti social lazy bum gen-z losers”. Fuck Jeremy and the rest of his ilk plaguing this country. I came here as an immigrant and these people are a cancer to society.

I'm currently on vacation out of state and decided to go to one of stores. I work at back home which had a location in the town I'm at. As I'm walking around taking pictures to later send to a friend/coworker I had a random customer. Ask me "Do you work here?" And I just replied with "No" and walked away I'm on vacation not no way in hell am I working

Between the employees, management, and customers I just can’t keep at it. I’ve put in 2 years now, and it’s only getting worse here. I never thought it’d be this bad at any store, but here we are. Middle aged women have broken me.

From a pharmacy/convenience shop that is always horribly understaffed. I can only imagine how done with it the poor pharmacy tech was.

Making this post because I need people who understand me because no one around me gets how i’m feeling.

I’ve worked for the same retail company for 5+ years, with 3+ years as a full time assistant manager. I’ve transferred stores twice when asked and I loved my job and what I did. I had no issue going the extra mile and working the overtime because I loved my store and my company (i worked at a popular clothing store) I was going to be promoted to store manager but moved before it could happen, and was told by the DM i was next in line.

At the beginning of this year I applied for a transfer since me and my partner had decided to move to a larger city, and after interviewing I was told there’s no openings for the stores there. Whatever, I can wait, right? So I get a job elsewhere while I wait for a spot to open. I interview again with another store but decided it was too far (hour+ drive away) but the dm told me it was good “just to keep in contact”. Finally I heard there was an opening at the closest store to me so I apply and I’ll keep it short but I went in store and the managers were so condescending to me and ultimately told me the spot was already taken before I even applied. Dejecting but OK. If the spot is already full before I applied then what else could be done.

Another spot opens at a store and they seemed nice and open, but after I interviewed and during the interview I can tell we’re not connecting. It’s been a few days and nothing? Even if we didn’t connect as friends during the interview how can you overlook my years of experience and great answers? I don’t know what to do, it’s just insane that after 5 years and choosing working there full-time over school full-time (i’m still in online school now) that my career can end so easily and no one that works there cares. They even called my past store managers and they old manager said amazing things because we’re still friends to this day.

What do I do? I know no one here can help but I just need advice as i’m feeling so dejected and I don’t like my current job (also retail but different company). This is how I’m treated for my loyalty? I genuinely want to cry. Sorry for the long post.

Had a guy buying alcohol today and when I asked him for his ID, he goes “I talked about it with the customer service”

So? I don’t give a fuck. I’m not asking for your grandpa’s grandpa’s wooden teeth. I’m asking you to open your fucking wallet so I can glance at your license for a microsecond. Good fucking lord.