20+ Stories About Shopping That Are Full of Drama

Shops, markets, or other retail outlets are the places where both salespeople and customers can get into unusual situations. And these stories can be so fascinating and funny that they’re worth being shared with friends and family.

• I was choosing a washing machine. I checked several models and asked the consultant to tell me about them. He took me to a completely different washing machine and said, “Take this one! First, it looks like a spaceship, and second, when the cat gets in, it looks very funny!” © Zhuja Lapteva / Dzen
• I worked in a home appliance store. A young woman was buying an epilator. She picked an inexpensive model. I’m registering the purchase, and then she suddenly asks, “Can I test it?” I grinned and said, “Yes, please!”
  And then she grabbed the epilator, switched it on and ran it right on my arm. I didn’t know what to say — I stood there bewildered and smiling with tears in my eyes. My coworker had to finish the registration. © Alexander Manichev / Dzen
• I was looking for a beautiful dress for my daughter, and we went to a fancy store. She picked a few dresses, tried on one, twirled in front of the mirror, took a picture. Suddenly a saleswoman ran up, grabbed all the dresses we had put aside and took them away! And another one shouted, “We don’t allow to photograph our dresses to prevent replicas. All our dresses are unique and exclusive!”
  Really? The most expensive dress in this shop costs $120. That’s exclusive? So, we went to another shop and bought a hand-embroidered designer dress. A very beautiful one! © Wall-e-expert Today / Dzen

• When I was buying a laptop, 2 consultants hovered around me, insisting that I buy a list of licensed software. Even though I looked like a preppy girl, I could already call myself an advanced user. The laptop is now 8 years old and works normally. © Ulyana Odintsova / ADME
• I worked in a gift shop. A man came in and brought a round box with a 12-person dinnerware set. Huge and heavy. And he asked me to make an envelope out of wrapping paper to put it in. He wanted it to look like a postal envelope and hold its shape.
  I tried to explain to him that this is impossible because wrapping paper is thin and the shape of the box implies a completely different packaging. He didn’t want to hear anything. He’d seen it somewhere, so he wanted it. I asked him what was in that envelope that he’d seen, and he said it was a bed set. End of story. © Olga Ivanova / ADME

• I got conjunctivitis. I went to the pharmacy and asked to show me the cheapest drops for this sickness. The pharmacist replied rudely, “Why showing if you are not going to buy it?” I turned round and left.
  I didn’t go to that pharmacy for a long time. I work as a salesperson myself, but I never refuse a request to show a product, even if I know that they won’t buy it. Today a customer asks to see the product, but tomorrow they will come back and buy it and something else in addition. © Uma / Dzen

• I worked in a clothing store. Time after time, a weird lady brought a jacket and panties “to return.” Both items were clearly worn, and the most surprising thing was that they were even not from our store. Every time, this lady made a fuss for about 20 minutes.
  Then my colleagues and I began to warn each other in advance if someone sees her coming. But there was nothing we could do about her. © Elean / ADME
• A man approached a customer care manager in our supermarket. He brought a broken plastic container of cottage cheese to return. He yelled, demanded a new container of cottage cheese, and that someone from the shop came to his house and cleaned the kitchen.
  It turned out that he had broken the container himself at home. He then went back to the shop and demanded “justice.” © Phoebe Mum / ADME
• I stopped at the lingerie shop. The shop assistant, apparently bored, started offering everything. I immediately explained what kind of bra I was looking for. And she shows me a push-up bra, saying that there are no bras of my size without a push-up. I agree to the push-up, but I ask for no lace.
  And here I stand in the fitting room half-naked, as suddenly the woman brings me a bra of the wrong size and with lace. And I’m wearing the very bra, which in her opinion doesn’t exist: my size, without a push-up and lace. In short, I barely got out of there, now I avoid that shop. © Anila / ADME

• An old woman at the market asks to weigh 7 ounces of sweets. The saleswoman throws 7 sweets on the scale. The scale shows 7 ounces. The old woman says, “I have been buying these sweets for many years and I know that there should be 8 pieces.”
  The saleswoman claims that the scales can’t lie. The old lady calmly repeats, “7 ounces is 8 sweets.” And she won and got 8. © Sergei Gritsenko / Dzen
• My husband and I went to a shop where only upholstered furniture is sold and nothing else, not even related products. A sales assistant comes up and asks, “How can I help you?” I politely replied that we will look ourselves and will call her if we need something. So, she followed us at a distance of one step.
  After 5 minutes of this convoying, I silently turned around, took my husband by the hand and we left. We came to make a purchase, and we would have bought it if not for the sales assistant’s intrusiveness. © Elena Korotkikh / Dzen
• I worked in a grocery shop. A few days before New Year, we got Pomelo fruit for the first time. Every day an old man came to us, looked at it dreamily, and asked questions. Apparently, he couldn’t afford it.
  And then on the 30th of December, this old man walks in, takes this fruit and gives us the money, smiling from ear to ear. At that moment, I was as happy as he was. © Leila / ADME

• A woman in her fifties bought an electric meat grinder from us. She even brought a piece of meat to check how the device would grind it. © Vitaly Soroka / ADME
• My husband was buying a jacket. He tried on a lot of them. I was already tired of waiting. I got lost in my thought, stumbled and fell on a mannequin. I started apologizing, and only then realized it wasn’t a person.
  But it didn’t end there. I decided to sit down, but all the sofas were taken. I thought I’d sit on the sitting mannequin, as many people had done it. I sat down.
  Then someone put their hand on my knee. I turn round and see a guy who’s looking at me and laughing. And I’m sitting on his lap. It was really embarrassing. © Girl with a paddle / ADME
• After trying on just one wedding dress, the sales assistant stated that seemingly I didn’t intend to buy anything, and it was unclear what I wanted. Naturally, I bought the dress in another salon, where they treat customers more politely. © Victoria / ADME

• On the way to the daycare, there was a flea market. We noticed old toys from Kinder Eggs in a box at one stall. We dug in it and picked up 30 different figures. The seller, a man in his fifties, exclaimed, looking at our choice, “Oh, the crocodile! I won’t sell the crocodile!” © Vera / ADME
• I worked in a pet shop. A customer came in. She bought food for parrots. A few hours later, she brought an opened box which wasn’t full and said that the grains were too big, and she wanted to return the box. I refused.
  Then she came back with her husband, without the box this time, and started asking for another product. While she was distracting me, her husband opened several packages. I noticed this when they left. It was so funny, I couldn’t even be mad at them. Grown-up people made a scheme to get back at me. © Lady E / ADME
• I went into a houseplant shop to choose a plant for a friend. The saleswoman immediately blocked the way and said she would be watering the plants now. I asked about certain plants. Then we started talking about windows, mine look to the northeast. The saleswoman said, “No way, they won’t survive there.”
  I explained that my plants were doing just fine on my north window, but she continued to be rude. When I showed her a Ficus I wanted to buy, she said it wouldn’t survive. I left the shop and the Ficus is still alive. © Svetlana S. / Dzen

• I’m buying food for the workers so that they can have a quick snack and go on with their work. It’s December, evening, freezing, and our water heater is broken. I put the groceries on the checkout line, and the cashier is indignant: my hands are not clean enough. “You could have washed them,” she says.
  And I reply, “Let’s do it this way, I’ll sit at the cash register in a warm shop, and you’ll go out in the cold to fix the boiler! Because of its breakdown, there is no hot or cold water.” She shut her mouth and punched all the groceries. © TheTavrist / ADME

• I worked in a large clothing shop in a shopping mall. The standard working hours were until 10 p.m. One day I had to stay late. All the salespeople had already left.
  I see clothes moving on the rack. I got a little scared. I approached, and there was a lady busy with her phone, walking around, talking with a friend, looking at clothes and generally not realizing that she was alone in the shop.
  It’s quiet. The entrance is closed. If I hadn’t noticed her, they would have locked her up for the night. © Anna Vasilieva / ADME
• A customer asked if we had a belt like the one Victoria Beckham wore at the last reception at Buckingham Palace. Without a second thought, I replied, “I have a better one!” The girl left happy and with a new belt. © tatiana ustimenko / Dzen

And here are some examples of shopping disasters. Check them out.