hiii how is everyone? i work as a manager at a pet store currently and we always have mega weirdos in, especially saturdays! last saturday i was by myself at the register and a man walks in (on the phone) and comes up to our sample table where we have clearly marked bacon dog treats for sample he grabs the cup and downs it like a shot -does not react at all and i was in the middle of ringing someone up so i didn't have time to react or.......stop him he then asked my associate about a food he was looking for and was sure we had given him a sample of (but we couldn't figure out what he was talking about because we didn't have any beef food that looked like that) and when my associate asked if he was sure if was beef he said "yes it tasted like beef" so thus cementing that he knew it was a dog treat

we have so many weird stories to tell but i want to just hear about the absolute weirdos you guys have at your work!

One of mine favorite experiences from a seasonal job was during a summer packing onions.

The management would not allow workers to use earbuds/headphones during working hours, zo mine had to resort to a one liner from Monty Python to get through the 12 hour days.

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

And tho not on the job, mine does recall a snafu occurring twice during shop... a group spilled fluids, coolant one week, motor oil the nest. Noobs?

Mine can't think of much else, it's only been temporary or seasonal work for mine...

I work at a museum, and one day a visitor came in to get admission. after he was checked in he pulled a bottle of hot sauce out of somewhere and handed it to me and said "this is my liquid. I would like you to hold it for me." odd wording aside, this wasn't the weird part. we do have a policy that no liquids are allowed in the galleries and we do offer to hold items for visitors. a little while later he came back for his liquid. he opened the bottle and took a swig of it before putting it back for us to hold onto again. he was also wearing a shirt with pictures of hot sauce on it this day. he's a regular visitor and super nice guy, but I haven't seen him bring in any hot sauce since.

as a hot sauce enjoyer i think i can see where this man is coming from but i think he should check his iron levels or something

It's not my work story, it's my wifes story, she comes home from work and tells me the stories of the weird ridiculousness that she comes into contact with or has transpired at work.. She's lead groomer in a grooming salon, she's been doing this for quite some time... she told me that a Rhodesian Ridgeback sat on her and wouldn't let her up until her boss had to come physically remove him (stand him up). lol

My oddest and funniest one was from a brief photography job I had. Keeping in mind that I live out in the middle of farm country in Pennsylvania, USA. This happened about May-June too so mid-planting season, things are wrapping up to transition into growing season. You get used to things unless someone from the city (DC, Baltimore, Frederick, etc) comes in and suddenly, it smells worse but that hasn't happened in a few years.

Anyways, my then coworker, the manager (city-slicker too) and I are in the elevator to go up to our floor and the manager leans in close to us. "You two are locals, right?" Yeah? "Can I ask you a question?" As her voice gets more hushed.

"Does it normally smell like this?"

My coworker and I looked at each other, absolutely baffled af. We're both from the area, we're used to the farming stuff and the smells that come with it. My best friend had a farm right across from active fields, I'm essentially nose-blind to it.

"What smell?" I ask.

"The... y'know... smell."

It dawns on me that this woman has never smelled cow manure in her life. My coworker and I exchange a look, she's desperately trying not to start laughing and has hidden her grin behind her hand by then. I'm just obviously baffled and bordering on laughter. "The cow manure? You get used to it."

She, in fact, did not get used to it.

I was on break, but a couple guys offered me some hard drugs knowing full well I was on shift lmao

I have a great work story. I briefly worked for a gift-wrapping booth in a large mall several years ago. One day a guy came up and asked how much it would cost to gift-wrap a human soul. He looked and acted exactly how you'd imagine a benevolent devil in a comedy about devils and angels to look and act, so, not sinister but... Something kinda funny and mysterious, you know? I bantered with him a bit and then he offered to bring me a beverage right there. I was like, okay, how about a Dr. Pepper. Why not. I didn't expect him to actually bring me one. But he came back, put a bottle on the counter, and I offered to pay him back for it but he put his hand up and just... Went out the door of the mall without another word. It was so weird! It was a sealed soda from a machine and everything, nothing bad going on there. I ended up quitting the next day due to hurting my back carrying a giant paper-cutter so maybe he was planning to come say hi again but, eh, I wasn't going to be staying there long anyway since I was moving countries the next month.

I also worked at a pet store, a big chain as their mentor dog trainer. I was on my way out as I was starting my own business so I was doing my job but I was also kinda checked out. Well a chipmunk ran inside the vestibule where the auto doors keep opening and closing. he cant figure it out and is just running back and fourth...Finally he gets IN the store, and as i'm doing laps around it w/ the client and dog i'm training, i see him pop out in front of me. I just paused and something in me said "I can get that sucker." So i looked at my client, handed her the dog back and said,"Give me a sec I'm gonna try to catch him and get him outta here." I ran over to him and we had an older modeled store with 4 registers clustered. They were partially walled in like little squares with computers and a counter. He ducked back and fourth between 2 empty registers as I chased him and finally I cornered him on the floor in one of the register box things..I grabbed him, cupped him to my chest, and ran out the door and tossed him blindly out onto the store front yelling,"Good luck!" and then proceeded to go back in and finish my training class. was pretty crazy. he didnt bite me or anything he squirmed when i cupped him. I had my manager show me the footage on the security cams and I recorded the footage on my phone and still laugh about it as I watch myself catch him. have lots of weird stories about that place. some absolutely horrifying and gross. @

I also have a cookie eating story at the mom and pop pet store im at part time now. Dude came up to the samples, looked me in the eyes and grabbed a handful. Walked away and just was munching on them as he browsed the store. I'm trying not to cackle as I hear him "crunch Crunch" through the shop.

A chicken wandering into the place... when I worked at a cat boarding facility

be me retail pharmacy tech in grocery store guy drops off rx very blatantly On Substances tell him like 20 minutes 20 minutes pass, on register now guy comes back up holding half-eaten burrito with sauce cup places sauce cup on counter and then burrito on sauce cup checking him out him: "hey you want the rest of this?" me: "n-no thank you"

this happened like 5 years ago and still haunts me to this day

I also also work at a pet store, albeit not as a manager anymore!! I have a ton of stories about people coming to me crying because their pets were dying (99% of the time because of improper husbandry), but none of those stories are particularly fun. I'm more of a listener than a talker, so I seem to always attract people who want to tell me their life stories?? Yesterday was really slow at work so I had not one but TWO people trap me for 20+ minutes, one of them telling me about her failed marriage, another casually going through the ENTIRE list of pets she had owned throughout her life. they both weren't particularly "weird", I guess, but the fact that this keeps happening to me on a near-daily basis is like. please stop. 💀

To be fair, the way some dog and cat food are made looks soooo delicious. I have bought a can of wet cat food before just to try though, and it was nasty. Maybe if it hadn't been devoid of salt.

How much experience have you had catching small animals, that you felt confident about doing it, and then actually had the reflexes to do it?? That's so wild, I'm imagining that maybe it understood it had little chance of getting out on its own and trusted you to help.

Not a pet store story but an animal one. I was working in a warehouse with a huge garage door. Everyone had their own workshop station and table to work at. One day in the middle of summer the boss decided to open the garage door because it was hot and stuffy, and a chickadee flew in and landed right on the lamp in front of me. It sat there for a couple seconds, before I could take my phone out to get a picture, it flew away, flitted around the warehouse a bit, then flew back outside. I wonder if it would have hung out longer if I hadn't reached for my phone.

Last weekend, a foaf called for help with their car.

They asked for an oil change on an EV...

Mine suggested they show where the dipstick is before we start.

Became a born again Christian.

I was a door greeter at Sam’s Club. I checked receipts. I practice witchcraft but don’t wear anything showcasing my spiritual beliefs. A woman came up and asked if I was a born again Christian (again, I have nothing on me showcasing my spiritual beliefs. Pretty sure I was just in a plain tshirt and jeans. No jewelry). For some reason I equated born again Christian to Jehovah Witness, so I tell her no. She looks horrified and says “How do you expect to get into heaven?!” Ma’am, it’s 15 minutes til closing. I’m just worried about my paycheck. “Take my chances and be judged on my actions.” I tell her. “Oh, no, no, no! Come, let’s pray together!” I’m pretty non-confrontational. It was slow. I let it happen.

I also thought being asked if I worked there while wearing a uniform and sitting behind a computer were pretty weird til the 20th time it happened. Being asked if we sold glasses, while being an optician, sitting in front of 400 glasses was weird the first 5 times I was asked (resisting urge to say no at this point). Being asked if this was where they got flu shots at, while being an optician, sitting in front of 400 glasses, with a giant sign that said “OPTICAL” above me (we do have a pharmacy in the store. Which is marked by the word “PHARMACY” in good size letters near the ceiling above the department) was a pretty weird one.

So many pet adjacent people! Guess it makes sense given the site we're on. I used to work as a 3D artist at a studio. Once we had to make an advertisement for a new stove of some rather well known high end firm, and for that we required a photorealistic digital 3D Steak. Modeling such a thing is easy, but I asked how the hell we would get the texture for it. In the meeting I jokingly said: "What do you want to do, slap an irl steak on a scanner and scan it?" and they looked at me like "You're a goddamn genius" and... actually ended up trying to scan a steak. They wrapped it in plastic wrap, and the reflections made it unusable as a texture, so I ended up stitching it from photos instead. We also got to eat it afterwards, nothing wasted. I despised working in advertisement and will never go back (working for games now), but the steak was still one of the most fun assignments I've had.

Probably that one guy who came in and shop lifted a bunch of stuff in the most obvious manner- his massive black coat was all sorts of shapes. He had a rectangular belly even (it was a large speaker box tucked in there), and he thought he could genuinely get away with it. Something out of a comedy show

I work in health & safety. You know those customers? The ones where you just look at them, trying to understand how they manage without landing a serious injury? I get to deal with them on a daily basis.

An early case I handled during my first job as a H&S professional. This was a conversation with an 18 year old boy and I call him a child because he was sulking about not being allowed in the workshop until he redid all his training. Me: "Yes, I know you're fine. It's really good that there was no permanent damage. But this is still the second time you've been taken to A&E (ER) for metal in the eye because you weren't wearing the right eye protection. You are not going back in there until you've retrained." Him: "But I can't see through the full face guard! It's all scratched." Me: "Yes, and we bought at least 2 brand new spares which are in the stock cupboard in the break room NEXT TO WHERE YOU SIT! Just change it!" The floor manager enforced the training.

How about last year's idiot award winner from 2024 next? This was a colleague of mine but this incident did end up changing things for the whole of H&S at the company. A site called and reported that the 2nd and 1st floor ceilings had fell in due to water damage. No one was hurt but all the computers, equipment and furnishings were wrecked. My colleague goes to site to see what's happened. The manager is showing him around, my colleague glances out of a window on the 2nd floor to see part of the roof of the 1st floor. (It was an old building with only part of a 2nd floor, a 1st floor and a ground floor.) This is what my colleague said: "So... can you tell me when the roof was stolen?" Manager: "What? The roof hasn't-" My colleague points out of the window. The manager looks out the window he has access to daily and sees that the lead roof is missing, leaving the site open to the elements. He hadn't noticed before my colleague pointed it out. Results: My colleague closed the site on safety grounds (I suspect because he wasn't sure if the onsite team could be trusted not to loose and hand when opening a can of beans), then came the police report explaining that somehow no one had noticed the theft of a lead roof 28 meters long before the H&S professional looked out of the window, property blamed H&S for the problem for checking the roof when it's not our job but theirs (trying, unsuccessfully, to save face) and I now have to ask every time I find water damage or damp in a site if they are sure they still have a roof.

I used to work at a thrift store sorting through donated clothing. One time a bundle of clothes fell on the floor, so I knelt to pick them up. As in, my knees made contact with the floor. This is important because a few minutes later, a co-worker noticed that my jeans were ripped at the knee and my knee was bleeding. In and of itself that isn't weird, except that I had no idea it happened until someone told me. I didn't feel any pain when my knee got cut, although I certainly did when the managers cleaned it up and put wound sealant on the cut. We mopped and swept the area and couldn't find anything that would have caused such a large cut in my jeans. Can you say "weird?"

I worked a retail store, and one day we had a homeless guy come in to use our bathroom. When he left, one of the employees walked in and saw he had drawn weird symbols on the walls with his poo. That was a weird day.