Retail workers are often very overworked, underappreciated, and underpaid. Additionally, many are abused by their bosses or belligerent customers.
We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community who have worked in retail to tell us about a breaking point they endured that pushed them to quit their job. Here are the most shocking and upsetting stories we received:
Content warning: Some stories contain violence and mention of firearms.
1. "I was helping a customer (in a clothing store where I was the department lead) when I began to lose consciousness due to undiagnosed anemia. I had to immediately sit on the floor to keep from falling, and my awful manager ran over and began to scream at me to 'get up this minute.' I wasn’t able to, so she proceeded to physically drag me behind the cash registers by my arm, all while berating me for embarrassing her in front of the customers. After I was able to stand again, I gathered my belongings and walked out."
—Anonymous
2. "I was working as a cashier in my early 20s when I reached my breaking point. I've had lifelong digestive issues and need to use the restroom more often than others do. Well, this company was so awful to work for that I was one of only two full-time cashiers they had — the rest had quit. I was the only cashier to show up for work that day, and the store was swamped. My stomach started to hurt, so I called the front desk and asked if one of the managers (who were trained to run the registers) could relieve me for a few minutes so I could get to a toilet. I was told no. I called again a few minutes later, and was told someone would come help out soon, but my body couldn't wait that long, and I had diarrhea in my pants."
3. "The boss was buddies with one of the guys on staff. They would mess around while working, and if I was working with them, I'd have to do everything. One day, I was reprimanded for 'stealing from the register.' Turns out it was the boss's buddy. It was on camera, and the boss said we would let it slide when he realized it was his friend. But, he said that I should be doing better register math to be safe. I was so mad, I quit on the spot. He threatened to fire me if the $200 didn’t get back to the register, but then when his friend was found guilty, it was no big deal."
4. "I was hired on the spot and then became assistant manager a week later. I thought it was fast and told my manager so, but she said she would train me. I was about 19 at the time. She would put me on the schedule at the same time as her, but instead of training me, she would block off a section of dressing rooms, lock herself inside, and cry about her recent divorce. I had no idea what to do most of the time. People would yell at me about coupon codes. I wasn’t familiar with our products. It was a mess. The next time she put us on the schedule together, I didn’t show up. She called me and I told her I quit. She told me I was selfish."
5. "I worked for a popular pizza chain restaurant. They transferred me to a store that had been robbed five times already. They never told me this. I had no clue going in. Sure enough, I got robbed. The robbers actually fired a gun at my head, which missed by a few inches. The store had absolutely no security procedures or plans in place. I turned in my two weeks notice. Two days later, I was robbed at gun point again. I refused to go back. There were three more robberies. The last time, they shot the manager. That’s when they finally decided to shut the store down. To this day, I have PTSD from it."
6. "I was at the same place for 10 years and maybe called in sick five times. I went to work not feeling well one day and ended up leaving and going to the doctor. I had a 103-degree fever and a sinus and respiratory tract infection. I wanted to get meds right away, so I took the prescriptions to the pharmacy and waited on them. My boss apparently followed me to the doctor, pharmacy, and my home. I went back in to work three days later, mostly better with a doctor's note, and ended up getting suspended. I was told if I could wait 17 minutes and 22 seconds (the exact amount of time I was at the pharmacy) for medicine, then I could have been working."
7. "I had been working in customer service at a large retail chain for about six months (one of the few jobs they would give someone in a wheelchair) when someone tried to return an obviously worn and damaged article of clothing, which, according to company policy, could not be returned for any reason. Once the customer ripped into me, they demanded to talk to a manager. The manager quickly pulled me aside and said we didn't need to lose a customer over this and told me to just return it. As I was processing the damaged clothes, he told the customer I was 'slow' and 'didn't understand the policy.'"
"I don't remember much outside of, 'Fuck you!', 'I quit!', and throwing my vest at his face as hard as humanly possible, but I felt vindicated. That customer and manager were two of the worst people I'd ever met in my life, but I can't help but thank them for helping me realize how much I was worth as a human being."
8. "I was six-months pregnant and my doctor had given specific limitations to follow because it was a high-risk pregnancy. I wasn't supposed to lift, push, or pull over a certain weight limit. My district manager did not believe me, even with a doctor's note. His reasoning was that 'most women work all the way up until they give birth.' What he failed to realize or comprehend was that I was at risk for going into preterm labor on any given day, and working outside of my doctor's restrictions could push my body too far. He suggested that he could temporarily demote me from assistant manager to a door greeter since I couldn't perform my job duties to the full extent."
9. "In college, I worked as a cashier at a Texas-based grocery store chain in a passionate college town. The manager was a micro-managing, corporate type who would watch us through the window of his balcony office. We could get written up for not smiling enough, ringing things up too slowly, etc. When I did the graveyard shift, he'd sometimes come in at 3:00 a.m. to oversee the overnight duties, which was entirely unnecessary because we all took our jobs seriously. Anyway, on a particularly stressful and busy game day Sunday, I had a customer present several coupons and a gift card after I'd finished ringing up their items. This wasn't a huge deal — just mildly tedious — so I began to enter the proper codes into the computer. The customer was in a hurry and volunteered to bag their own items. It was less than 10 things, but customers bagging their own stuff was a huge no-no."
"I assured the customer that I'd bag the items for them, I just needed a few more seconds to finish entering the codes. The customer said it wasn't a problem and quickly tossed their items into a bag. A couple of minutes later, while I was with another customer, my register phone rang and I hear the manager shout, 'WHY DID THAT CUSTOMER BAG THEIR OWN ITEMS?' Confused, as I was bagging for my current customer, all I could say was, '...what?' He then proceeded to berate me with a non-sensical, rambling tirade about expectations. As I was busy with my current customer, I flatly said, 'Look, I'm busy right now,' and hung up on him. I ended up resigning at the end of the shift, as finals were approaching and I wasn't in the mood for any additional stress."
—Anonymous
10. "I worked at a large, popular retail chain for a little under a year. I was told I was being transferred to a new store in a leadership role. I went in on my first day and found out my previous store 'didn't have room for me anymore,' so they made up a fake promotion to cut labor down and ship me somewhere else. HR tried to pay me off and get me to stay, but instead I took a two-hour paid lunch and then immediately quit."
11. "The minimum wage in my city went up, but my pay was unchanged. I had worked at this bookstore for three years, so my current wage now matched the new minimum wage. When I asked my boss for a pay raise, he said it wasn't possible because corporate wouldn't allow it. I said to him, 'So, you're telling me that if someone with my same experience came in and applied for a job, you would not only hire them, but you would pay them more than you're paying me?' and he replied, 'Yes.' I quit right then and there."
—Anonymous
12. "I worked at a big box store for eight years and was definitely doing work above and beyond my pay grade. One day, I was training a new hire and found out they were getting paid a dollar an hour more than me. When I confronted my manager about it, he proceeded to list all the things I could improve on to be at 'new hire status'...after eight years. I immediately cleaned out my locker and left."
13. "I worked for a retail company that prided itself on encouraging their team members to further their path by going to college. When I got into nursing school I was thrilled, and asked my boss for some weekend shifts only while I was in school, which was standard for everyone else. They refused because I was in a manager position and 'wasn't that good enough?' I handed over my keys and my badge that moment and never went back. I went to another retail store that not only gave me weekend shifts, but also a manager that would help me study on breaks."
14. "I worked at Sears for about two years. I found out I was pregnant, and because it was high-risk, I needed some more help with the job, like a stool for when it was slower. My boss, a white male in his 50s, told me that if I required those modifications, then that made me a horrible employee and an even worse mother. My name tag went flying and may have accidentally hit him in the face before I stormed out. In a happy turn of events, I recorded this conversation, sought out the GM in Albany, showed the recording, and stood outside the office door smiling while he packed his things."
15. "I was having debilitating mental health issues, which I shared with my supervisor. I was a beverage lead for the store, and the general manager was always riding me to keep my area perfect. I had to miss days because, you know, depression can be crippling. I came into work one day, and my direct supervisor, who had actually shared her own mental health struggles with me, had written a note that said, 'Syd is unreliable. I called in someone else in case she decides not to show up again.' I trusted this woman, and I felt betrayed. I know it seems small, but she wrote that in the notebook that all the leads and supervisors shared. She knew I was going to see it, and it was embarrassing."
"I filled out a resignation form, scanned and printed the note she left, put it on the desk, and walked out. She called me and begged me to come back, but I ignored it and moved on with my life. My mental health rebounded shortly after."
16. "My boss at my very first job in high school refused to give me time off for a choir concert that I'd fail if I missed. I had given her a list of the days I needed off at the beginning of the year, and she had approved it then. I quit as soon as I saw she had scheduled me. She had also wanted me to work prom night."
17. "I worked at a large retail chain. I had a supervisor that I reported for constantly body-shaming our coworkers and for ignoring me when I said I was really dizzy and not feeling great. I passed out and ended up in the hospital for a pulmonary embolism (which can be fatal). I stayed on at the job, but I started looking for new work. Then, a coworker held me against my will and threatened to beat me up. I told the assistant manager, who then told me that 'stuff like that could happen at any job' and then asked me not to go to the police. I noped the fuck out of that."
18. "I worked for a clothing boutique where the owner would make sure we had cigarettes for her at all times. She used to push us and throw things if they weren't where she wanted them. She once made me polish a copper table for my entire shift and wouldn't let me talk to any customers. I used to cry every day on my way to work. One day, I decided I had been abused enough by this woman. I finished my shift, left my key in the register, and sent my resignation via email in the parking lot. By the end of that week, every other employee had also quit and she was left running the store herself."
19. "A man told me he was going to shoot me because I told him he couldn’t return an item without a tag or receipt, as per policy. When I walked off, he attempted to follow after me. I called security and a manager, and the manager came and apologized to the man for any inconvenience I may have caused him. Security didn’t show up. I left and never went back."
—Anonymous
20. Finally: "I was going through a custody battle involving my son, so for a while, I only got to see him every other weekend during the year. My employer knew this and was willing to accommodate those weekends for me. Once or twice, she absolutely needed someone to cover for her on my visitation weekends, so I would step up and sacrifice my time with my kid. Eventually, these weekends went from being few and far between to every single weekend I was supposed to be with my son. One weekend, I just didn't show up. I had gone three months in a row without seeing my kid with no reason for why I was being scheduled."
What. The. Hell. Have you ever worked in retail and experienced a breaking point like one mentioned above? Did you have an entirely different, yet equally as traumatizing, experience? Tell us your story in the comments below.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.