Imagine working for a grocery store where customers are not allowed to sample products before buying them. What would you do if you saw a customer sampling a non-food product like spraying a spray or opening a bottle of lotion?

In this story, one cashier was in this situation, and it really bothered her when customers would ignore the “no sampling” signs and ignore the rules. She didn’t feel right letting them get away with it.

So, she had a plan about how to teach the customers a lesson that would be so annoying that they’d never want to sample a product again.

Let’s read all about it.

We offered 100% money back on all returned products and I made sure you received it

A little background:

From 2017-2020 I worked at a particular West Coast grocery store.

We offered low prices to customers because we bought overstocked goods and items that were rejected by major chains because they had funny labels such as entire production line of a frosting can that had black and white labels.

It was owned by a local couple where the husband had come from a grocery department background and the wife was head of Non-foods (vitamins, health & beauty, toys and office supplies) from the respective store they originated from.

It sounds like an incredible work environment.

For retail work, this was an incredible store to work for.

The employees were treated as humans and pizza parties were not the moral booster.

Problem customers were asked to not return and creeps were reported to the police.

It was a safe place.

They had a very generous return policy.

For customers it was a place where you could get items you never thought you needed and food products that would beyond the average man’s paycheck had they bought it at the store that usually carried it.

Think delicious cheeses, expensive wines, and organic health foods.

One of our selling points was that we had 100% money back on anything you returned so long as we had sold it to you in the past 30 days. It meant you could eat 80% of container of ice cream, claim you didn’t like it, and return it.

This never bothered me as most people didn’t take advantage of the situation and those who did- it wasn’t me losing any money and I couldn’t get in trouble for their silly returns.

But sampling the products is not allowed.

To the story:

After three months of being there they put me on the non-foods department.

I loved working the aisles but with it came one stress: people sampling our products.

There were notices posted by the lotions, hairsprays/gels, and deodorants that you could not sample a product but if you didn’t like a product you could return it no questions asked.

OP is a rule follower.

If these hadn’t been posted when I started working or had it not been a rule, I would have never been mad about it.

I think you should get to sample creams you’re going to purchase prior to buying in case you don’t like the smell, but the rule was in place and my OCD made me internally irrate when people would sample.

At work I’m a strict rule follower but could give two rusty nickles about what my coworkers do. It’s their dime and the company’s time- not mine.

Furthermore, spraying scented products to sample was seen as incredibly rude because it made people with bad allergies avoid the aisle. Don’t spray fragrances at the store, you could be making someone very sick.

OP had a plan.

So after a fashion of wrestling with my OCD and internal screams I decided to enact malicious compliance and petty revenge with the rule, especially when it was a long time customer who knew about the rule.

Whenever someone would sample a product I would walk up very quietly and greet them with doe eyes and say, “I’m very sorry, but we don’t offer samples on any of our products.”

To which they would almost always reply “Oh I am sorry, I didn’t know,” and then proceed to leave said product on the shelf and walk further down the aisle.

I would snag said bottle and walk with them for a minute with the product displayed in my hand like a Deal or No Deal showcase model and say, “I’m sorry but since you technically opened and used the product you’re going to have to purchase it- but don’t worry, if you didn’t like it you can always return it!”

Customers didn’t really like OP’s tactic.

They would grimace and reluctantly place it in their basket and walk away.

If they tried to pull a fast one and leave it in another aisle or flat out ignore what I said it would magically appear at the register they checked out on. They would then be forced to purchase it at checkout.

And of course if they truly didn’t want it they were allowed to return it right then and there which was a whole separate process from their original purchase. They would have to complete their transaction first and then open a return ticket following payment.

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Returns were time consuming.

Mind you we had no customer service desk, our registers were full survice.

We had to write out the reason for return on a return ledger and they had to sign it with their full legal name and phone number as well as electronically process the return where a manager would come and punch in their code to accept the return.

This could take anywhere from three to ten minutes depending on lunch breaks, what time of day it was, and how busy we were.

Returns annoyed more than just the person returning the product.

It never failed to tick off the people behind them, but not at me because the whole time I was communicating with the line that formed what was going on and why and calling backup cashier as needed (three is a crowd rule).

By the time the customer was done they were either defeated or fuming but silent because they knew they messed up and were the ones causing a disruption of customer flow and eating their own time and because I was a chatty, upbeat cashier most of the time people stayed in my line so they could be checked by me and would glare at the person returning something the entire time.

We didn’t have many repeat offenders of the “no samples” rule.

That was a creative and effective way to get the customers to stop sampling the products.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This is funny.

Another person liked the story.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who alerted their manager after seeing a customer sign the wrong name on a credit card slip.

One person shares a story about sampling a product.

That was a creative way to get the customers to decide on their own to never sample a product again.

The return policy was generous, but the return process was just annoying enough to turn anyone off from actually wanting to return something.