A TikToker who works at Petco filmed themselves taking on a so-called “Karen” at work who had a track record of being rude to employees. The video garnered 1 million likes, as well as support from commenters who said the TikToker is living out their dreams.
In the video posted three days ago by @nicki20xx, a woman off-camera can be heard attempting to shame them for having empty shelves at Petco.
“I always come here and there’s always empty shelves, at this point… I hate this Petco,” the woman says in the video. “I can’t stand it. You always don’t have stuff and it’s so disappointing.”
However, this is apparently not the first time this customer has been rude to employees at this Petco location.
“Whenever this customer comes in she gaslights my coworkers and I and is super disrespectful,” one of the text overlays on the video reads. “We are always so helpful and nice but I am done with her treating my coworkers like trash.”
As the conversation continues with the woman saying she will take the issue to management and district management, the cashier then tells the woman not to take her anger out on her, at which point text overlays on the video indicate that the customer begins shushing them.
“We are so nice to you every time you come in and you disrespect us,” they cashier says in the video. “I am not going to listen to you shush me. You can listen to us.”
At the end of the exchange, the cashier tells the woman to have a wonderful day and a happy holiday, and that it is not difficult to be nice.
Commenters praised them for standing up to the woman on behalf of themselves and their co-workers.
“As a customer service worker, you did amazing,” one commenter wrote. “I can already tell she makes a big fuss every time. Props to you!”
Other commenters shared their similar experiences with customers who blamed them for supply chain issues in retail.
“I work at PetSmart, and we have the same issues,” one commenter wrote. “Customers constantly yelling at us because we have empty shelves of Fancy Feast. They truly don’t understand that we, at the store level, have no control over supply chain issues and labor shortages. It’s exhausting.”
In a follow-up video, @nicki20xx says the woman was upset because the store had been consistently out of stock of her preferred brand of cat food, possibly because it has been discontinued.
“I always respect my customers, no matter how nasty they are, I usually am able to hold my composure and be super respectful towards them,” they said. “Unfortunately she had just been super rude to my co-worker a moment before I took this video and I had had my own experience with her as well where she had gotten a little bit nasty with me, so it had already become apparent in the conversation that she was being disrespectful.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @nicki20xx regarding the video via TikTok DM, as well as to Petco directly via email.
Source: https://www.dailydot.com/irl/petco-karen-tiktok/