Woman Gets Fired From A Walgreens She Was Shopping At And Never Actually Worked For

Getting confused with someone you’re not can be entertaining. It does require quite a bit of balancing on that thin line between it becoming an even bigger misunderstanding without the element of fun whatsoever and getting into a fist-fight with the person whose confusion has led them into a spiral of rage.

None of this, luckily, happened in today’s story as today’s story was one where the thin line was walked flawlessly. So flawlessly, in fact, that it led to confusion so deep, even truths felt like lies and lies felt like the truth. That’s the best kind of chaos.

More Info: Reddit

A woman by the nickname of u/mavynn_blacke on Reddit, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for an interview, was recently watching one of those videos with random visuals of someone playing a game and a narrator voice booming a viral Reddit story when her husband approached and suggested that she tell a tale of misunderstanding and confusion that happened to her right about a decade ago.

The story goes that OP used to work night shifts at a casino in Reno and would often pop by a Walgreens that’s just across her house after work. The place used to put a lot of things out for clearance, and so why not take advantage of a good deal, right?

Well, it starts off as early morning bargain shopping in a post-work, pre-sleep kind of state where only parts of your cortex are still available to provide service to your decision-making faculties. Very appropriate, OP needed a coffee maker. And a stick blender. Well, all right, needed could have also meant wanted because c’mon it’s $5, but you get the point.

But as the browsing proceeded, another store patron appeared next to OP. Remember how OP came here straight from work? Yeah, that meant she was still sporting her work uniform and name tag. Incidentally, that was what made the other shopper immediately assume her inner NPC status and register OP as a store employee and nobody else.

Without going into detail as to the specifics of the exchange between them—seriously, read the original, I can’t do it justice—it took a while for OP to catch on to the fact that the Filipino shopper next to her genuinely thought she was a Walgreens employee who, as the conversation progressed, flat-out refused to help her and was somehow keeping something secret from her. Or whatever. Confusion turned into rage which subsequently turned into chaos.

Furious, the woman stormed off to find a manager. The manager, and most of the staff there, knew who OP was as she was a regular. So picture the level of confusion on his face when he was brought in by the now-Karen customer demanding he fire her. A few instances of confused draconic shrieking later, the demanding store patron heard the manager tell OP she was fired and walked away with him all smug. If only she knew…

Moments later, once the crazy lazy was well on her way out the door, OP explained the situation to Tom the Manager and the two had a good laugh. And hey, besides early morning shenanigans, she got a coffee maker and stick blender. In our interview, OP explained that the stick blender went to some lucky coworker via Secret Santa, while the coffee maker provided many years of service at home. “It was just a regular drip coffee maker. Mr. Coffee if I remember correctly!” added OP.

“Tom did the right thing. He got the lady out with very little fuss. Others have said it will encourage her to do this again, but I doubt she needed further encouragement to act the exact same way. It is just in some people’s nature,” elaborated OP. “Others believe she will go on to get real employees fired. If they do get fired based on her antics alone then they were working for terrible bosses. I am glad they escaped and wish them well in hunting for a job that doesn’t bow to insanity.”

Speaking of the troublesome storewrecker, we asked OP for her thoughts as to why the woman acted out the way she did. OP was confident it was just her personality, and not, say the fact that it was an early morning. She also speculated that it might have been a negotiation tactic—since the woman was Filipino, it might have been her channeling a different culture for bargaining and mayhaps being frustrated with how Western business culture makes prices non-negotiable.

And while this could have been the perfect space and time for even more trolling to commence—face it, the lady was lowkey asking for it—OP considered the greater ramifications of this, i.e. the aftermath that the employees would have to face. “Anything I did would have made things even harder on the actual employees. I worked retail in my youth, I would not purposefully make their job harder.”

Whatever the case, folks online loved the story. Not only did people think it was genuinely funny, others wished they could work for someone like Tom who handled the situation very well. Others found the story relatable and even shared similar experiences. 3,500 upvotes (97% upvoted) and a lonesome Bravo Reddit award later, the story went viral. Speaking of which, you can check it out in context here.

But before you do that, why not share your thoughts or stories on being mistaken for someone else in a Walgreens (or anywhere, really) in the comment section below!