A bakery worker says a customer bought a styrofoam display cake because it was the only cake left at her bakery. Then, she got upset that she didn’t have a real cake.
The employee, Robin (@robinrambles), shared the story in a TikTok video Tuesday. She says she was working at the bakery one day when a customer said, “Excuse me, you sold me styrofoam.”
Throughout the video, Robin uses a sarcastic tone to recount the conversation between herself and the customer. She says she told the customer she did not sell her Styrofoam—she works at a bakery. In response, the customer held up a foam cake, which the worker says was her missing display case, with the message “Happy Birthday John” on it.
@robinrambles #retail #retailbakery #retailstories ♬ original sound – Rovin Rambles
The customer claimed that she had visited the bakery the previous night, and Robin’s manager had sold her the Styrofoam cake because it was “the only half sheet available” at the time. So the customer bought the cake and took it home.
“And I said ‘well, you shouldn’t have done that because this is styrofoam,’” Robin says, explaining what she told the customer. “That’s why there’s a big sign on it that says ‘display only.’”
The customer claimed she had pointed out the “display only” sign to the bakery manager, but he told her it would be fine and that they would make a new display cake.
“I guess my manager doesn’t realize that ‘display only’ means display only, and he thought he could sell it so he did,” the TikToker says.
She adds that the customer wanted her money back. So the TikToker told her to “go to the front counter, that’s where they give the refunds.” The customer snapped back that she didn’t need the attitude and claimed that the worker ruined her son’s birthday.
Robin apologized to the customer about her son’s ruined birthday but advised her to order a cake ahead of time next year. The customer insisted that she did place an order ahead of time at the bakery, but the worker didn’t make it.
“That’s my bad,” Robin says.
Some viewers were skeptical of whether the customer actually placed the order or if she was just a “Karen.”
“But did she actually place the order? [laughing emoji],” one viewer asked. Robin wrote in reply, “yes….yes she did. I took it down to make it and promptly forgot about it [stressed emoji].”
In other comments, Robin seemed more than willing to take the blame for forgetting to make the customer’s order.
“I mean the attitude is almost unwarranted on your end,” one viewer said in defense of the TikToker. In reply, she wrote, “[laughing emoji] it was 100% unwarranted. I messed up and then gave Her attitude [laughing emoji].”
Another viewer wrote, “I meaaaaan….I guess I’d be irritated too, but I certainly would not take it out on the person that wasn’t responsible…” Again, Robin acknowledged her mistake, “except…I was kinda responsible [laughing emoji].”
In reply to a comment questioning how the customer didn’t realize the cake she bought was made of styrofoam, Robin said, “Who knows. we used real icing so maybe that added to the weight? nah she was just in a hurry and didn’t take note [laughing emoji].”
The Daily Dot reached out to Robin via TikTok comment.
