A pet store employee is sharing how she “broke a Karen” customer in a series of viral TikToks.
TikToker @manakitten starts off her “story time” by explaining that she put in her two weeks’ notice at her current job because she has a better job lined up in a few weeks. Then she says she hopped on the register to ring up customers and reduce the queue. “First person in my line is Karen and her husband” who were buying two small bags of cat food and one large bag of cat food, she says.
She continues to say they asked her to price match a bag of cat food, which is common for her to do. However, they wanted to use a website “that sells pet products like the Amazon of pet supplies and we don’t match to Amazon or this website. We just don’t. It’s policy.”
“This is when Karen made a fatal mistake,” says the TikToker. “Karen tells me that she needs my name so that she can write a complaint to corporate. There are many problems with this. I don’t care, I’m not going to be working here in like less than two weeks—I’m gone. So now I’m just going to have fun.”
So the TikToker made up a name and pretended her “husband threw [my nametag] in the laundry.”
According to the TikToker, the Karen didn’t “know what to do. She starts the very normal Karen tirade we have all heard before if you work in retail.”
The Karen allegedly said that she was “never shopping here anymore” and “wants to work with a company that’s willing to work with her on her problems.
“And I’m like yeah, I completely agree,” says the TikToker. “So she’s not getting the response she wants. She wants me to break down. She’s screaming at me she wants me to have some sort of reaction.”
The TikToker says the Karen threatened to leave the store and do her shopping elsewhere, to which the TikTok said “that’s fair” and offered to void the transaction and put the order away.
In the second TikTok, @manakitten says the couple blocked her with their cart and tried to claim that the smaller bags of cat food they were buying were on clearance. The TikToker checked the aisles to confirm they were not on clearance. “I was still in ‘I want to break Karen mode,’” she says.
When she delivers the news, she says “you could hear a pin drop shattering the reality of these two people.” Karen jumped back into the tirade anyway.
Her first video received 3 million views since being uploaded March 29.
“We need to stop training people that the appropriate way to get what you want is to be abusive because that’s wrong and that translates into so many other areas of life where these people are horrible human beings,” says the TikToker in the third TikTok.
“To be clear it was because she was mean to me right off the bat,” she continues. “You should see what we’re willing to do when guests are polite and kind. We will do so much for you at that point because we want you back in our store.”
The Karen and her husband put up one last fight: They pulled out a coupon that took money off a total of $100 “which they couldn’t have possibly used if they had all the discounts they asked for.”
“I honestly have no idea what is going through these people’s heads,” says the TikToker. “It’s so bizarre what these people try to do and they know they’re not going to get away with it.”
They end up paying full price for two bags of cat food.
The TikToker continues: “Moral of the story: be nice to retail workers. Be nice to waitresses. You never know if the waitress serving your table is a manager covering a shift.”
TikTokers agreed with @manakitten in the comments. “I don’t trust anyone who isn’t kind to retail/waitstaff. It says a lot about their moral failings when they are mean.”
“Thank you for not rewardng them for bad behavior! This should be standard,” wrote another.
“Yes!!! The nice ones and within reason I’d give them the discount…but not rude ones like that. Retail employees don’t get paid enough 2 deal with them,” commented another.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @manakitten via TikTok comment.
