One of retail and service workers’ biggest pet peeves is customers who do not clean up after themselves.
For example, numerous internet users have called out grocery shoppers who do not return their carts to the designated areas. In other cases, customers have documented their own experiences of simply leaving items behind in the store, either because they refuse to use self-checkout or because the store does not have Apple Pay.
No matter the reason, leaving items behind in stores can be an annoyance for staff and customers alike, as a recent video from TikTok user @bigmac21z recently shared.
In a video with over 36,000 views, the TikToker shows an empty Starbucks cup left by someone named Sherifa.
“Ms. Sherifa, please come and collect your sh*t from Willowbrook, Langley Winners,” the TikToker says, referencing the fact that the video was filmed at the Winners department store at the Willowbrook Shopping Centre in Langley, BC, Canada.
@bigmac21z #winners #foryoupage #fyp #customerservice #viralvideo #spreadtheword #langley #vancouver ♬ Deli – Ice Spice
Many viewers shared their own stories of customers leaving items behind.
“I work in a bookstore with a coffee shop and we find half full ones on the bookshelves all the time,” claimed a user.
“Ya this happens all the time at work, as well as tim Hortons cups just left on random shelves,” offered another.
“That happens at the small shop I work at all the time. Except people try to like hide their garbage so it sometimes takes a while to find,” stated a third.
“As an ex-winners employee. i would find this everywhere,” detailed a further TikToker. “Once i found 4 STACKED on the ground?????”
Many users simply chided those who left their trash behind for employees to collect.
“I always get so mad!” exclaimed a commenter. “have some f*cking decorum d*mn.”
“People have no class,” echoed a second.
In a TikTok direct message exchange with the Daily Dot, the TikToker said that, though he’s never caught someone in the act of leaving garbage, the phenomenon is, in his opinion, widespread. He estimated that he sees customer trash in store “80% of the time when I go retail shopping.”
“Retail workers barely get paid, and this just gives them more work to do,” he noted. “Additionally, the trash could make the shelves or merchants dirty.”
Overall, he said that customers who do this should think more about their actions.
“[People] should have the common sense and not be irresponsible,” he concluded.
