In a viral video posted July 6, TikToker Jill Gibson Carts (@just.chill.jill) shared her “Karen” experience at Lowe’s when a woman thought she was an employee and demanded to speak to her manager.
“I got to have my own Karen experience today,” the overlay text on the video reads.
@just.chill.jill A Karen story 🤦🙊🤷😘 #karensgoingwild #karenstrikesagain #karenstory ♬ original sound – Jillian Gibbons Cart
A ‘Karen’ is a trending slang term, often used on social media, to categorize and critique women who treat service workers poorly and don’t adhere to “normal” public behavior.
Carts recounts the events in a storytime video which has quickly gone viral, accruing over 400,000 views.
Carts revealed what she was wearing to emphasize the fact that she was not dressed as an employee: a bright blue tank top and leggings. As she was perusing the flowers and plants, a woman approached her and asked how to properly pick a plant.
“Gardening has never been my forte so I was kind of excited to be able to share my knowledge of these plants,” Carts said. She continued, “This other woman walked up and kinda stood ten feet from us and I figured she was just listening.”
After the first lady left, the other woman approached Carts, said she had been waiting, and proceeded to ask her to get her a cart. The TikToker pointed out where the woman could find one and laughed off her questions as Carts thought she was joking.
“Um excuse me, your customer service is awful. I asked you to do something and you just walked away,” the woman reportedly said to Carts.
Carts told the woman she didn’t work there, however, the Karen didn’t believe her. She then asked to speak to Carts’ boss about the issue, to which the TikToker said “lucky for her, I had nothing better to do.”
The two women found the manager. As the Karen started to complain about Carts’ customer service, the manager was confused and told her that Carts is not an employee.
“I know she works here. I heard her talking to another customer about different plants and what flowers are best for her soil,” the Karen reportedly said.
The now irritated manager responded, saying, “Ma’am, do you think that the only people that know about flowers and plants are employees here?”
As the woman was “dinged back into reality,” Carts said she just smiled at the woman and chastised her on her treatment of employees. The Karen reportedly stormed off, swearing to never shop at Lowe’s again.
Carts then said, “But then the manager turned to me and said ‘Hey, you looking for a job? I hear your knowledge is out of this world.’ It was great.”
In the comments section, users are baffled by the Karen’s attitude.
“Since when is it a store employees job to fetch a cart? That was audacity at its finest,” one user commented.
“When does a corporate employee wear a baby blue tank top, without a name tag?” another user asked.
“This is awesome. Isn’t Karma wonderful?” a third user said.
The Daily Dot reached out to Carts via TikTok comment.
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