Some people don’t understand polite requests, but they won’t listen to you even if you match their aggression and rudeness. The options you have are to give up or try to outsmart them. Although, they will definitely make you look like the bad guy.
This man was very annoyed at a couple of women who were rude to a Walmart worker and instead of saying something to them, he thought he would make a distraction and help out the worker. Some people thought he went too far, but this story has an update where the man met the worker and she disagreed with the internet’s judgment.
More info: Reddit
Man doesn't tolerate entitled people and when he got a chance to teach one a lesson, he took that opportunity
Image credits: Ben Schumin (not the actual photo)
The first time this story was posted was a bit less than a year ago in the AITA subreddit. The Original Poster (OP) wanted to know if he went too far and if he should stop teaching people lessons in the way he did.
What happened was that the man came to Walmart and saw how two women with carts had blocked the way for a worker to go through. The worker politely asked them to excuse her but the women looked at her like she was inconveniencing them.
This kind of attitude always irritates the OP, but he showed his support to the worker by smiling at her and thought he would stand up for her. You would expect him just to say something to the women and he was planning to, but he was in a mood for messing around.
The OP saw that in one of the carts, the woman had her purse, but the other cart had just groceries, so he took it and walked away. That meant the worker could go through and continue her job, but the man didn’t think it was enough, so he started putting the items from the cart back on the shelves as long as he could because the rude woman was trying to get her cart back.
He did the same thing with the other woman’s cart and actually took some of the groceries to buy for himself as he needed them. He managed to stay out of the two women’s way and left the store as if nothing had happened.
The author of the post was shopping in Walmart when he saw an employee asking two women blocking her way to allow her to pass
Image credits: u/ABearSniffedMyHead
When the OP told the story for the first time, people deemed him to be the jerk in the situation, that he went too far and that the employee had to clean up the mess he left because when he was reshelving the woman’s groceries, he wasn’t too precise with what went where.
However, quite a few people justified him being a jerk because the women deserved it and no actual harm was done except for a little mess in the shelves.
It wasn’t an event the OP thought about much, but he was reminded of it not too long ago when he went to a restaurant and thought that his server seemed familiar. He asked if she had worked at Walmart and it turns out she was the same employee he took revenge for. The server also recognized the man and was pretty excited to see him.
She wanted to tell him what happened after he left and how he became store folklore. The two women were pretty angry. They complained to the manager that a man was stealing their stuff, which wasn’t true because they hadn’t paid for it yet, but they wanted the OP arrested.
So all the people who called the OP a jerk for causing trouble to the employee in the AITA comments were wrong as the man mentioned it to her, to which she could only call him a legend.
The women ignored the request and that made the man annoyed, so instead of saying something, he decided to do something
Image credits: u/ABearSniffedMyHead
Responding to the story with an update in the Petty Revenge subreddit, people were praising the man for defending the employee who is usually not protected by the employer and can’t really do anything against an entitled customer. They reassured him that reshelving a few extra items after seeing a couple of Karens put in their place would be worth it, especially because reshelving never ends anyway. Readers found the situation pretty funny and were satisfied that there was such a happy update.
He grabbed one of the women's cart and walked off, starting to put her things back onto the shelves, which not only cleared the way for the employee but irritated the customer
Image credits: Jack Sparrow (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/ABearSniffedMyHead
The situation the OP saw is pretty common and retail workers deal with entitled customers every day. There are entitled people everywhere, but the problem when working in retail is that theoretically, you can’t say anything back at them.
Retail and service workers are taught that the customer is always right even if their requests and behavior would be unacceptable in different circumstances. Customers know what the workers are taught and will abuse their position.
When the man shared the story for the first time, people thought he was having a bit too much fun, but he posted it again as he had met the employee
Image credits: u/ABearSniffedMyHead
Business Insider says that this mantra is dangerous as “It's created a sense of entitlement among shoppers that has led to aggression and even violence toward retail workers.”
It was especially evident during the pandemic when customers were required to follow certain safety protocols. Actually, according to a public survey conducted by One Fair Wage, 80 percent of respondents who worked in the restaurant industry reported experiencing or witnessing “hostile behavior on a weekly basis from customers in response to staff enforcing COVID-19 safety protocols.”
Mark Cohen, an adjunct professor and director of retail studies at Columbia University told Insider that he thinks that in the future “retailers are going to be a lot more careful about portraying themselves as wide-open opportunities for customers."
He hadn't seen her almost for a year and she now worked at a restaurant, but recognized him and called him a legend
Image credits: u/ABearSniffedMyHead
Image credits: Christian Naccarato (not the actual photo)
Do you think the OP went too far and he would have helped the employee enough just by moving the carts? Do you think the entitled customers needed to be taught a bigger lesson? Do you think the women even realized why the man was taking their carts? Also, do you agree that customers aren’t necessarily always right and retailers shouldn’t bend over backwards just to make them happy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Readers of the updated version of the post also agreed that the women deserved to be punished like that for their entitlement
