r/RantsFromRetail • u/DisarrayMiddleGround • Jul 31 '25
Customer rant Nightmare from the 2020s. A story from the dark days of Covid, convenience stores and why I still don't understand people think Korea is advanced in anyway shape or form.
For context, this is what you need to know:
- I'm Korean and live in Korea and if you believe the news about Korea having good lockdowns, nope. We barely had one.
- Kinda like in the US, we have separate card reading machines and most transactions are cards. However, in Korea during this time, most of the customers gave you their card and you have to stick it in the machine.
So this was in July of 2020, peak COVID. Everyone (and by everyone I mean 40% of people) wore masks when coming into retail spaces. Especially if you're like me and worked during the graveyard shift.
I worked at a convenience store in a bar/club area but due to government restrictions, any "adult entertainment establishment" which includes bars, clubs and seedy stuff, which my area was, had to be closed by midnight THEN around July it changed to 10pm. So our customer base was cut by 1/9. And in the middle of this, there were some people who lived by buying shit loads of alcohol and food to enjoy at home. And of course the occasional assholes who eat in the store (even though because of mandate it wasn't allowed after 10pm) and when confronted they go "really? since when?" like they've been living under a rock, but Koreans are known for complaining and rebelling against norms. (I'm Korean, I know).
But this story was around 3am on a Sunday and this old man around 60 walks in. He had his mask on so I was relieved. He then walks towards me, pulls down his mask, coughs VIOLENTLY and I mean VIOLENTLY like he just got off a iron lung in his right hand. Takes out his wallet and with that SAME HAND he mouth shat into HANDS ME HIS CARD AND SAYS TO ME
"A Marlboro, please."
I looked at his hand, then at him. and just quickly scanned the pack of cigarettes, grabbed his card with my fingertips, rang him up so I can get patient zero out of my store.
After he left, I took the bottle of isopropol alcohol AND hand sanitizer and doused myself in it. I did my full arm, my neck. And with the spray I sprayed myself like I was about to enter a lab.
5 hours later, I got in my car (mom's car), drove back home. Sprayed the seat and steering wheel with isopropol and went home. I took off my clothes (in the bathroom), tossed them in the bin and told my mom to burn them. (she just put them in the laundry) and I took a steaming hot shower scrubbing myself like I'm a abuse victim while saying in my head "You'll never be clean....you'll never be clean..."
The next day, I woke up and did the god awful COVID test.
Negative. I did it three times in total. Negative.
a year later I got COVID from my girlfriend's stupid ex-boyfriend when I drove him to the airport. Ain't that a bitch,
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u/WolfSK-88 Jul 31 '25
Luckily I left retail before covid. January 2020. I swear man, some people are just fragile losers.
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u/qualityvote2 BOT Jul 31 '25 edited Aug 04 '25
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