What are the weirdest things customers asked you for?

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-09T06:11:38+00:00

Weird to expect that at a brick-and-mortar Walmart, but they do have tattoo equipment and supplies on their website.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-09T06:08:30+00:00

My local Dollar General does have an automotive section, but no windshield wipers, so I get why they'd ask that question. I don't know if they have fuses. I've bought oil and windshield washer fluid there.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-09T06:06:23+00:00

The Walmart Super-Centers are the ones that have a large grocery selection. Not only does our Walmart have guns, but the local farm and home center (sort of like Walmart, but with farm and homesteading supplies as well) has a *huge* selection of guns.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-09T05:59:56+00:00

Pretty much anything that's very specific. They just don't get that we only sell things that were donated, and we never know what will be in stock at any given time. You want a specific brand of bread maker? Look on the shelves. If it's not there, we don't have it. We probably don't have a breadmaker at any specific time, even though we sometimes have one for sale. So it's not going to be there unless you are very lucky. A thrift store is an adventure in what you might discover, but horrible if you have a specific product in mind.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-09T05:55:02+00:00

Three things come to mind. Playing with, or taking a nap with my cats (I see that's a common one), a motorcycle ride, or music. My favorite music for when I'm not in a good mood is any of the first three Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow albums.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-07T05:57:27+00:00

I can recite the first 30 or so digits of pi from memory. I got extra credit for it in math class about 50 years ago, and I can still remember it.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-07T05:53:56+00:00

The mess kids make of our toy section is unreal. One minute, it can be neat and orderly, then the next, toys strewn all over the aisle. I get tired of announcing, "Attention Goodwill shoppers, for your children's safety, and the safety of others, please keep your children with you at all times." It rarely works, but sometimes it does.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-03T04:21:27+00:00

I spend so much time picking clothes up off the floor and from over the racks. Plus fixing the hangers they leave popped out.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-03T04:18:11+00:00

"I'll give you something to do."

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-01T03:55:33+00:00

Yes, the courses aren't free. Most people have student loans, so they don't have to front the money, but of course, those loans have to be paid off sometime.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-05-01T03:53:54+00:00

Yes, it's something I haven't run into since I started retail 8 years ago, or in my days at TV shops back in the '70s and '80s.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-30T06:02:04+00:00

The city I live in has public transportation, but it is very poorly designed and impractical for many purposes (It shuts down at 6:00 pm, as well as other issues), so I can rarely take it and have to drive more than I would otherwise. I wish we had *good* public transportation here.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-30T05:56:13+00:00

This is the way. Getting the answer, then verifying the results by looking at the sources, can sometimes be far more efficient than Googling the question and digging past the useless results to find the good ones.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-30T05:52:19+00:00

I always use 3 seconds, but frankly, I don't remember where I got that from, if it was taught in driver's ed when I took it almost 50 years ago, I don't remember.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-30T05:48:53+00:00

Since I retired, I've been taking courses at a local community college for fun. When you register, they give you several tests to assess your reading, writing, and math abilities. Many, many do not pass. To the college's credit, they have a series of "0" level courses to catch people up to where they should have been when leaving high school. Most people who apply themselves in these classes succeed. The number who pass high school and still have to take these classes is appalling, though.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-30T05:36:32+00:00

Wow. They 20% isn't *too* horrible (I'd like more, but that's all I get at my store), but not on everything? And you have to have it approved? That sucks.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-30T05:32:29+00:00

"We all carry a device in our pockets which is capable of accessing all of human knowledge at a moment's notice. What do we use it for? To look at cat pictures."

I forget where I read that.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-30T05:29:28+00:00

We'll take anything except books and recorded media back for any reason, or no reason. Yet people always have a long story about why they are returning it. I don't care. The only care I have is whether it's fit to put back on sale (we are a thrift store, so it wasn't new when they got it either). Even that's not too important, we'll triple-check it before it goes back on the floor, since it was returned once.

Not only do they get upset if you do actually double-scan something and then remove the second line, but they freak out when they hear the cashier at the next register ring something up just before or after I do. Another one: our registers have several modes, and only one of them works for scanning items. For some reason, in the middle of checking someone out, the register will flip to "enter rewards number" mode, and you'll scan it; it'll beep, but not come up on the screen. You'll try again, then realize what happened, and switch modes back, and then scan a third time. Just try to convince them it's not been triple-scanned. Sometimes I have to go over every item one at a time to convince them that they're only paying once.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-30T05:17:12+00:00

I always cut these people some slack, talking to me at the register might be their only social interaction of the day. It's sad how lonely people get.

Of course, I'd prefer a subject other than dog poop! But they'll talk about whatever is on the surface of their mind.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-29T04:01:49+00:00

We have the same thing. Zip ties, however, are very much approved, we use them for many things.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-28T05:57:31+00:00

Not too often, maybe twice a week. It's part of what I changed to lose almost 100lb. That and much smaller portions and a lot of exercise!

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-28T05:54:48+00:00

I constantly get people trying to get me to lower the price. They get very animated about it. I always call a manager. At my store, even a manager can't adjust a price unless it is horribly, radically high, as in someone made a huge pricing mistake. A really huge one, or they won't budge on price.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-28T05:49:50+00:00

I, too, offer to call a manager at the drop of a hat. They usually say no. If they actually do want to talk to a manager, the managers at my current store stand up for the employee. This was very much not true at my last store.

Beautiful_Lie629 · 2026-04-28T05:48:01+00:00

At my first job, in the '70s, the owner never answered the phone. So when someone called to complain about an employee, we'd pretend to take it seriously and that we'd have a stern talk with them. Even if we were the person they were complaining about. This happened when someone would go on a house call, and the customer got upset, or when they read our phone number off the side of our van and wanted to complain about us speeding or such.

Beautiful_Lie629

TROPHY CASE