You Break it, You Bought it - NOT!

[Kristev]

Sugar was the bane of my existance at the Little shop of horrors. People would just grab a bag, not check it, and track it all over the store. One time, it took three of us an hour to get it all cleaned up.

Milk was hardly any better.

[raudf]

Oooh, as a cashier for just a year, I hated anything in glass containers! As soon as someone would reach into their buggy to put it on the belt, *smash* and that ties up the lane until I can get it cleaned up.

Here is what I was told by management. No, do not let the customer help. It's great if they offer, but it's a health (read lawsuit) risk for them. And most places like the Mall of Wart I worked at, they wrote off the breakage as "shrinkage." A fellow cashier got chewed for letting the customer help!

Now, all I do is offer lots of apologies when I find a worker to clean it up when in the Mall of Warts. I don't want them to get into trouble and I prefer to not let it surprise them.

[laborcat]

Someone broke a spray can of Raid. Did you know that in addition to it being smelly, it is incredibly hard to clean up?

LOL one time at the old store, I was doing something with topstock in the garden chemical aisle and knocked over a spray can of some sort of bug spray. Somehow it managed to fall to the floor and started spiraling all the way down the length of the aisle...my co-workers and I were laughing so hard we totally forgot to clean it up! I guess it dented a hole in the can when it landed or something. It was hilarious, and fortunately the doors were open so it didn't smell bad for long.

[blas]

People at the grocery store would think it was cute to let little Susie and Johnny help mommy load the conveyer belt or help her lift the stuff. Too bad, Mumsy never really considered Johnny can't lift a gallon of milk without her doing most of the work, and without fail..........you know how the story goes. All too well.

It only happened a couple of times at the Deb shop, but we had a few ripped shirts/pants. I'm usually pretty good about picking out a size and not being in denial, and if I do try something on and it's not going on, I stop before I get stuck.

[Teefies2]

The other day I had a customer ask me if we had Pepsi in a six-pack of bottles. I guess my mistake was grabbing a six-pack of cans and saying "no we have cans, but not bottles". Wouldn't you know, somehow one of the cans caught on the display edge and punctured, spraying Pepsi all OVER me. I mean a huge spew all down my clothes, on my glasses, etc. I quickly put a finger over the hole, but that isn't working. Meanwhile the customer is berating me about that we don't have bottles!!!

I'm thinking, but did not say, "Dude, can't you see I'm getting soaked here? Leave off the complaining and let me take care of this!!!!!!!!!" But he just kept on. Sheez!

[Lace Neil Singer]

LOL one time at the old store, I was doing something with topstock in the garden chemical aisle and knocked over a spray can of some sort of bug spray. Somehow it managed to fall to the floor and started spiraling all the way down the length of the aisle...my co-workers and I were laughing so hard we totally forgot to clean it up! I guess it dented a hole in the can when it landed or something. It was hilarious, and fortunately the doors were open so it didn't smell bad for long.

Lol, we had a similar thing happen in the petrol station. We sell these cans of foam which you can use to emergency patch your tires, if need be. A customer knocked one off a shelf and it must have gotten a hole as it landed. The petrol station looked like one of those foam parties; we were laughing so hard, the customer too, that it was a few minutes before we could clean it up. XD And no, we didn't charge the customer for the broken can; it was clearly an accident and anyway, we just wrote the can off. Plus he'd given us all a good laugh.

[blas]

I broke a bottle of nail polish at Vicky's once, when they first started having beauty products. I got most of it on my shoe, so I don't think the associates were that upset about it.

[Ironclad Alibi]

It only happened a couple of times at the Deb shop, but we had a few ripped shirts/pants. I'm usually pretty good about picking out a size and not being in denial, and if I do try something on and it's not going on, I stop before I get stuck.

That reminded me of this scene in Tarzan's New York Adventure.

[Syriilord]

Reading these stories is slowly convincing me that my old "vending machine grocery store" idea is actually worth attempting, if only to remove the possibility of customers breaking stuff.

[Seshat]

Similar story here. I remember breaking a relatively small item in a gift shop quite a few years back - I didn't realize it was two pieces (the lid was not connected to the base) and when I picked it up part of it fell on the floor. I did my best to get them to take my money but they said it was OK...probably because IIRC they are a national chain so they can afford the occasional small loss.

I've done it at tiny, Mom-and-Pop stores with the same 'don't worry, it's insured' response!

[BeenThereDoneThat]

I've done it at tiny, Mom-and-Pop stores with the same 'don't worry, it's insured' response!

That's pretty cool

[MoonCat]

I dropped a bottle of pop once at a bag-your-own type grocery store. It hit the floor top first, the top broke and the bottle shot off across the floor like a rocket, spewing ginger ale everywhere. I think it spun around a few times.

They gave me a free replacement, possibly due to the entertainment factor...and the fact that I kept apologizing for the mess.

[MadMike]

I've seen some pretty difficult messes in my retail days. Probably the worst was when someone knocked a jar of honey on the floor. It was a sticky mess full of broken glass. The only way to clean it up was to get the water as hot as possible and mop it up quickly. As soon as the water would start to cool off, the mess would get hard again.

Another one was a bottle of black fabric dye. We used a lot of bleach trying to get that cleaned up, but I think we eventually got it.

One time, when I was working at a DQ for the summer, I was mopping up before the place opened, and the mop handle snagged a coffee pot that was setting on the counter. I turned around just in time to see it in mid-air, right before it shattered all over the floor. I was so afraid the manager was going to yell at me, but he was cool about it. However, when I was mopping up the next time, I noticed he had the handle facing away from where I was mopping.

[Syriilord]

Oooh. I've had to deal with the honey puddle too. They're a bo**ocks to clean up.

Worst one I've seen though was the <Deep Booming Voice>OCEAN! OF! WINE! (Wine..wine..wine...) </Deep Booming Voice>. The top shelf of an end display of wine once collapsed, knocking down every other shelf on its way down and breaking literally dozens of bottles unleashing a veritable tsunami of cheap plonk across the aisles.

Reasonably easy to clean up, but not pleasant in any form

[Dreamstalker]

Yesterday I was blocking the jelly aisle when I discovered a broken jar of strawberry jam hidden behind some others. The jam spillage was limited to that shelf around the jar and if you didn't look at it too closely it looked perfectly intact; initially I thought a lid had come off, was I surprised when a hunk of glass (luckily it landed curved edge down) bounced off my shoe.

I'm still trying to figure out how the bottom of the jar broke sitting on the shelf.