Rude and Don’t Tip? Pay Extra For Bags

I’m a Shift Supervisor for a retail drug store chain. Like a lot of retailers we have our daily couponers and we have a lot of personal shoppers ( Door Dash, InstaCart etc.). Some of our couponers are the worst Karen’s. They’ve been told repeatedly of the coupon rules, yet they still break them. They hold up the line with their multiple transactions. Pretend they can’t speak English when we just saw them speaking it a minute ago. Especially when we’re explaining the rules.

We’ve also seen the same personal shoppers over and over again. We know some of the frequent ones by a first name basis and have educated them on the layout of the store so they can get their job done faster.

Like a lot of stores post pandemic, most of the store’s coupons are online and has a curbside and delivery service. You place your order online and when it’s ready you come and we deliver it to your car in the parking lot. The company has a contract with one of the personal shopping companies to deliver as well.

One of our coupon Karen’s has decided to use the delivery service. At least once a week she’ll order 10 to 12 12pk of soda along with several shopping bags of coupon items.

One day Karen places an order and a personal shopper comes to pick it up. It’s one we know quite well. The personal shopper gives out a loud sigh and says “her again.” We ask what’s wrong. The personal shopper explains that Karen lives on the second floor of an apartment, is incredibly rude, and never tips. Just to deliver all her stuff we’re talking about 10 trips back and forth from the car to apartment. She becomes irate when the delivery isn’t fast enough. She’s been reported for her rudeness but nothing has been done. Given that she has multiple rewards card accounts at the store, she will probably start another account should she get banned. Fast forward a few weeks and we get the same story from 2 other shoppers. They all wish they could just pass over her delivery.

One day Karen puts in a delivery order and my colleague sighs that she’s sorry for whichever shopper gets her. Then I see an evil grin coming on my colleagues face. I live in a state where businesses are required to charge for plastic bags. It’s only 10 cents a bag. Some people cringe, with others don’t care. We try to fill the bags as full as possible without being too heavy. My colleague grabs 2 additional bags. She grabs 1 item from each bag and places it in one of the empties. She does it again with the second bag. All the bags look reasonably filled. But with 2 extras that’s an extra 20 cent charge.

We inform the personal shoppers of our deed. Most give a small giggle.

Since then whenever Karen orders we try to put Karen’s items in as many bags as possible, while still looking reasonable. We’ve been doing this for about 3 months and we don’t think Karen has noticed the extra charges.

Moral of the story. Be nice and be considerate to your personal shoppers and retail staff or we’ll find a way to make you pay for your rudeness.

Edit: we’ve been doing this to her for about 3 months. It’s not always 2 bags. Sometimes it’s 3 or 4. The delivery drivers have told us they’ve delivered stuff to her house not just from our store but other local stores as well. I do not know if other stores have done something similar.