There’s nothing quite as horrific as experiencing the trenches of working in retail in peak periods, and often, there are no greater tales to tell your mates than the absolutely cooked customer interactions you’ve had. While no matter what retail store you work at, there’s bound to be a customer doing something ridiculous (or hilarious), there’s just something about working in a brick-and-mortar video games store that really brings out the most cursed customer behaviour.
I’ve got my fair share of weird and wonderful stories to tell from my time in retail. After watching Rostered On, the Aussie comedy show about the staff at the fictional chain Electroworld, I realised just how common my tales of serving old men who somehow thought a fifteen-year-old on minimum wage wanted to give them her number or wading through fraught interactions with Karens, actually were.
You may have heard about Rostered On. It’s been around a few years now, and shines a spotlight on some of the things retail workers have to deal with. Despite being a comedy show and, for all intents and purposes, a parody of real life, some of the scenarios it poses hit pretty horrifyingly close to reality. Customer service jobs are often a daily exercise in wondering just how humans became the dominant species on Earth (if it wasn’t for the opposable thumbs, I’m not sure we would be).
Video game retail stores bring with them a whole new flavour of wild customer interactions that are both horrific and addictive to read about, though. Thus, we’re keen to hear from you, dear Kotaku Australia readers: what’s your most cooked (or cursed) customer story from working in video game retail?
Whether it’s a tale about children who may or may not be the Antichrist wreaking havoc, hearing the ironic “are you guys having a sale?” joke for the fortieth time in a day, or just a very interesting customer interaction that you continue to think about to this day, we want to know about it. Does Rostered On come even close to your horror stories or amusing tales from your days in games retail? Let us know, and we’ll share the best stories with you in a roundup for your viewing pleasure.
And if you’re fiending a fix of more retail horror stories to either drown your own experiences out or to get a closer look at art imitating life (life in this case being Aussie customers acting up while staff file this memory away to tell their mates about later over drinks), Rostered On is airing over the next couple of weeks on PEDESTRIAN TELEVISION, which is streaming on 9Now (channels which, it must be said, our parent company, and our parent company’s parent company, own – try saying that multiple times on repeat).
We look forward to hearing all of your cursed tales, readers. Share away.
Image: Rostered On
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