‘What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen working retail in the UK?’ – 22 people who were quite literally all over the shop

As much as we like to tell ourselves we’re a nation of polite, sensible queue-obsessives, there is some evidence to the contrary that British people can flip out and demand to speak to the manager as much as any other nationality.

They have been gathering evidence of this over on the AskUK subreddit after user PixxelGirly asked ‘What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen while working retail in the UK?’ and followed it up with their own bizarre experience:

‘I’ll go first, I had a woman full on scream at me once because we’d run out of a specific flavour of Pringles, like proper red in the face meltdown over sour cream and onion. She even said ‘This is why the country’s going downhill’, like girl it’s crisps not Brexit.’

And people formed a rowdy, disorderly line to add examples of their own.

1.

‘I had a customer back in the day absolutely flip her shit because she didn’t want a packet of cigarettes with a picture, like it was my fault they were on there.’
–ThatAd790

2.

‘I once had an old lady get really angry at me for not having potatoes. I worked the night shift, it was 3am, at a petrol station.’
–violetfirez

3.

‘I had a mother chat across the checkout to a ‘friend’, boast long that their son got into Oxford, while she was unloading her shopping. While I was waiting for her to finish her conversation she turned to me and condescension in her voice and says ‘Well get on with it.. your supposed to pack my shopping’.

‘Oh yes I did pack her shopping. Eggs under the fabric softener, bread with the tins etc… I just smiled and waved as she left me, always polite that’s the trick.’
–Working_Document_541

4.

‘Someone tried to climb over the counter to kill me when I refused to refund him his money for Resident Evil on the PS1. I initially refused the sale because he had a kid about 8 with him and I said that even if it wasn’t rated 15, he wouldn’t like it and he swore blind it was for him.

‘When he returned it he said it was because the kid didn’t get on with it. So I refused it and he went ballistic. I pressed the panic button, which the management said was silent, and all hell broke loose, red lights flashing, sirens, the works. He realised what I’d done, threw something at me and scarpered. Never saw him again.

‘I’m not cut out for retail.’
–karlware

5.

‘A middle aged woman had a full blown tantrum/meltdown when she found out we’d upped the price of her fag papers by 10p. Literally red in the face, screaming, thrashing about around the shop, the full works.

‘Shout out to Bargain Booze for making my 19 year old self work alone at night with no panic buttons or access to a phone to call the police. Nice one.’
–oliviaxlow

6.

‘A man who had clearly shat himself, browsing for a new pair of trousers.’
–NoSpag

7.

‘I worked at Waitrose where you get a free coffee with your shopping with your Waitrose card. I had a man come in, slam his fist on the desk and shout ‘I have just come from another Waitrose and their coffee machine is broken. YOU BETTER GIVE ME MY FREE COFFEE NOW’. Our coffee machine was also broken.’
–Majestic_Egg204863

8.

‘Once my colleague told me she took legal highs before our shift, she then was aggressive all day and I told her to go home but she didn’t listen and eventually punched a different colleague and was fired. We watched it back on the CCTV many times, lol.’
–TurboAssRipper

9.

‘I was working in the health and beauty aisle, when a well dressed older lady sauntered past. A little way up, she paused, shook her right leg and a turd rolled out onto the floor. And on she went, like nothing had happened.’
–Atoz_Bumble

10.

‘Not necessarily wild, but made me piss myself when it happened. Used to work in Urban Outfitters when I was at uni about 10 years ago. Lady came in and asked for the sleep eye masks we sold.

‘I showed her to them, told her she could take it out of the plastic box if she wanted. She did, and then strolled up to the mirror, stood in front of it and tried it on. Quickly realised what she’d done and that she was an idiot, bought it and left.’
–OkDragonfly7003

11.

‘A man once screamed at me because he had to wait an extra week for his WiiU. He said I’ve ruined his son’s Christmas. Then turned to the man (about 30 years old) next to him and said ‘Sorry son, we might have to get your WiiU next week’.’
–Ill-Appointment6494