We've all had an encounter with a "Karen." Ya know the look: dyed highlights, sunglasses, capris, shopping bag in one hand and a whiney kid or cellphone in the other. The scrunched up look on her face just screams, "Can I speak to the manager?"
For those working in the service industry who have encountered someone like this, our hearts go out to thee. These stories, from the hilarious to the exhausting, recollect on the great public phenomenon that we all know and abhor as, Karen. Enjoy!
Choking Hazards
“At one of the restaurants I used to manage, we had this really expensive lobster dish. We coated it in corn starch, quartered it up, and fried it. The effect was really cool and tasty.
One night, the kitchen accidentally left the rubber bands on the claws…sucks, but no biggie, no actual harm.
I was called over to the table, Karen asked about the bands, and I apologized. I offered to make a new one, she declined, I mentioned no harm to her, they are food safe, all is well. Not two or three minutes later do I get called over to her table again, this time she’s freaking out.
She tried to eat the rubber bands!
She freaked out on me. Her family told her to calm down, and they just looked at her like she was the biggest idiot in the world.”
What Goes Around Comes Around
“Five minutes before closing, a woman comes in and is so angry that we don’t have any decaf. She demands to speak to the manager. I tell her that’s me because I’m the only one here, and the coffee pots are cleaned for the night because it’s five minutes to close. No, I’m sorry, I can’t make another pot just for her. There’s another place around the corner.
She screams at me, tells me she’s going to ‘find a real manager and get me fired,’ throws half a cup of cappuccino machine sludge at me, and starts to look like she’s gonna jump the counter. I’m holding a hammer under the counter thinking, ‘don’t do it, don’t do it.’
I pick up the phone like I’m going to call the cops. She leaves. I lock the door.
She COMES BACK AND RUNS FACE FIRST INTO THE GLASS DOOR. LIKE A BIRD.”
I Would Like A Refund, This Corn Is Defective
“I worked at a produce store in an upper class neighborhood, and had a woman want to return two ears of corn because when she shucked it, the kernels were not in even lines. Still plump, still awesome, just not in perfectly even lines. She had no receipt or record of purchase, and she wanted our cashier to go through the trash to find the receipt because ‘[the cashier] threw it away on purpose.’
She did not understand why we couldn’t just hand her cash. She made a huge scene, screamed at the cashier, screamed at the produce kid, screamed at me, and demanded to talk to the ‘real’ manager.
I said I couldn’t give her cash without a receipt. I offered to shuck ears of corn until she found two that she approved of, and we would exchange them, but nope. She was having a family cookout and was UTTERLY HUMILIATED by our uneven corn.
I should have just given her the $1 or whatever to get her out of the store, but honestly, I was kind of enjoying her tantrum. I figured she’d have shamed herself enough not to return, but apparently, she was back the next day and the cashier gave her the change in the ‘take a penny’ jar to shut her up.
Again, this was a very well-off neighborhood. No one was starving for corn.”
Never Underestimate The Power Of Stupid People In Large Groups
“At the beginning of service I noticed a table of four were very inquisitive, to say the least. This does not bother me as I like answering any and all questions regarding the menu. I feel as if this is a main part of my overall job as your server. Anyways, they all ordered their meals, received them in a timely fashion and had no initial complaints. I stayed on top of their refills and condiment requests seeing as they were a bit needier than your average table. Again, no qualms from me here as this is the basic function of the job and I do this every time for every table.
Now for the fun part. Time to pay the bill. Lady in the middle tells me it will be three separate checks and hands me one of our ‘buy one entrée get one entrée 50% off’ coupons. She said that it will apply to all three checks. Confused, I informed her that she must have two more coupons if she wished to receive the discount on the other two checks. She then says that the coupon says “one per check” at the bottom and that I am mistaken, and she would like to speak to a manager. I said okay and went to inform our FOH manager of the situation.
Manager arrives at the table and proceeds to tell her the exact same thing I said. She does not look happy. The old man at the table then blurts out that ‘He is a veteran and did not receive his military discount.’ Well our restaurant doesn’t offer that discount, but eager to get them out, my manager gives him a 10% discount on his bill. Now he’s mad that the discount was not applied to the entire table and says ‘I go to Waffle House and get 15% off my whole bill.’ Side note, we are a lot fancier than a Waffle House.
At this point they are standing up in the middle of the dining room, being loud and obnoxious at both me and my manager and causing a scene in front of other patrons and employees. Then this lady. Oh, this stupid, ignorant lady comes up right to my face, puffs her chest out and says, ‘What are you, some kind of idiot?’ all while pointing her finger an inch from my face. ‘There’s no discount on my bill at all now!’ she yells. Thing is, the discount was on the bill, but at this point, they were just more concerned with making a scene.
To avoid the stream of obscenities itching to escape my mouth, I turned around and walked away to deescalate the situation. I get to the back and am visually upset. My general manager saw I was upset and got loud with me telling me to calm down. Horrible timing. I tossed my drink tray and walked out the back door because I swear to god I was being tested. After my other manager explained the situation to the GM as well as the actions of the hellish table, nothing ever came of the confrontation.
After everything was said and done the house manager hands me their credit slip after they paid the bill. Stiffed on $120.”
The Most Important Meal Of The Day
“Once, when I was working at this insanely popular breakfast joint, my first table of the morning was a seemingly adorable old couple. After going through our specials, at their request, she ordered the duck hash special, and he ordered two boring poached eggs on toast. All good.
I bring them their food and the guy starts freaking out. You see, I didn’t bring him a tablespoon for his eggs. Granted, he didn’t ask for one, but according to him, everyone knows that poached eggs are supposed to be served with a tablespoon. I’ve been a waitress for nearly a decade, and I’ve served a LOT of poached eggs, and I’ve never heard this rule. Nonetheless, I apologize profusely and tell him I’ll go grab him a spoon. ‘No!’ he yells. ‘My breakfast is ruined now!’ and then, this grown adult throws his plate of food at me and storms out. His wife gives me a sympathetic smile as she slinks out behind him, and I work the next eight hours with egg yolk stains all over me.”
Never Ending Pasta… A Never Ending Nightmare
“Typical busy night at Olive Garden. Never ending pasta bowl time of year. It was one of my first tables of the evening. Family of five — mom, dad, two sons, and a little girl. They were all exceedingly overweight, and the daughter had on a dirty shirt and no pants, just a diaper. Well on a check back I noticed an overwhelming scent of poop lingering around the table. I don’t judge, I have no idea what’s going on in their life. I just tell myself someone probably farted and I just walked up at the exact wrong moment.
Well, I return with some refills (the smell is just as intense as before), and on my way around the table to pass out beverages I pass the high chair I notice the little girl has her hand in her diaper. I proceed to watch her pull out a turd and throw it on the floor to join an even larger turd that was already there, slightly covered by a napkin. I could not hide the disgust on my face. I don’t remember exactly the words I used but I turned to the parents and said, ‘Umm, your daughter has a situation going on over here.’ The woman replies, ‘Uh, yeah I know, I threw that napkin over it’ then continues to devour her third refill on never ending pasta. I was in disbelief. Not only is there two pieces of fresh honey boo boo style doody on the floor, but the girl’s hands are obviously covered in it and not one family member seems to care in the slightest!
One of the brothers even asked me for another Dr. Pepper while I was standing there still in shock. So I immediately told the manager on duty, and she didn’t believe me. I said, ‘Amanda, I kid you not. Go see for yourself.’ She ended up politely asking the mother to clean it up and even gave her disinfectant wipes. The mom became irate and claimed it’s not her job and that she feels discriminated that we would ask her to do such a thing. The mom demanded everything be free. She picked it up, but she didn’t even wash her hands, didn’t clean up her daughter, continued to finish her meal. I thought it was over, and they’d pay and get the heck out to never return… but no.
As I’m dropping the check, the mom says, ‘It’s my sons birthday, don’t y’all sing and give us dessert?'”
A Barista Reaches Her Boiling Point
“I work at a Barnes and Noble cafe. An hour or so before closing, a Karen comes in and I take her order. She isn’t a regular, yet she was snooty as I took her order. She tells me in the most condescending way she wants an iced mocha and I make it for her. I finish the order, tell her to have a nice day, and turn to talk to my coworkers at the counter. As we’re talking she shouts at us that it’s wrong and demands we make another drink.
Whatever, I apologize and make another one.
All the while, she’s talking about how young people don’t respect anyone, berating us for talking while working, making fun of personal stuff like the movie we were discussing, how we dressed, our accents (this is in Alabama, and she’s obviously not a local), and even starts to make borderline racial slurs towards the black barista I was working with.
After about two minutes of this, I’m fed up. I finish the drink, go to hand it to her but as she’s taking it she says, ‘I bet you stupid disrespectful kids don’t even know how to spell mocha, especially him’ and points at black barista. I’ve had enough. I yank the drink back out of her hand, throw it in the trash can like a baseball, rip my apron off, come out from behind the counter, get right in her face, and I really lay into her.
I tell her that racial slurs and verbal abuse aren’t something we tolerate, tell her there’s a camera above us with sound recording everything, tell her that because she bought a five dollar drink doesn’t give her the right to talk to any of us that way. I get even closer and tell her that the store might want her business, but I sure don’t, and she can take her refund, and get out.
I don’t even go to the register, I take five dollars and some cents of my pocket, throw it at her feet, point at the door, and tell her to get out of. I’m not even a manager but it felt right at the time. The whole time Karen’s eyes are as wide as dinner plates. She sheepishly picks the money off the floor, gains her voice, and starts screaming at the top of her lungs. She says that we won’t get away with this, she’s gonna call corporate and get us fired. Then she’d find out where we lived, burn our houses down, and kill every last one of our pets and family members. I start to walk towards her like I’m going to throw her out myself. She stumbles a little, breaks off what she’s saying, and scrambles towards the door. Once in the doorway she throws her shoes, hits a display stand of chips, and books it, nearly hitting two people in the parking lot.
I pick up the shoes, throw them in the trash, clean up, and finish what I was saying about the new Lupin the Third trailer. The other two baristas didn’t know what to say and kept warning me about how I’m gonna get fired. Nothing ever came of it, no one ever talked to me about it, and I never heard from her again. I felt bad about it, I’d never been that angry and have never gotten that angry since.
It wasn’t even what she said to me that set me off, but how she talked to the two that did literally nothing wrong. I realize now I’m not sorry for it and she really deserved to be thrown out of the store. Most of the time it’s not worth it to react that way, but man sometimes you just have to stand up to Karens.”
All This…For A Glass Of Water?
“I’m not a manager, but I work as a server part time. About a month ago I had a table consisting of a mother, a father, and their son (around 10). They seemed like a normal family at first, but the whole experience turned sour very quickly.
After I put their order in and got them drinks I had to visit my three other tables that were sat a couple minutes before. I take about 5 minutes introducing myself to a party of 10 and getting their orders and walk over to Karen because she was waving at me. She told me that they needed more water, the cup was still halfway full, but I told her I would bring it as soon as I could. I then go to my other two tables and get their orders…
All of a sudden I hear Karen screaming at a boy who works in carry out so I go over and see what’s wrong. She was upset because I didn’t get her the water immediately and starts screaming at me. I then run back and get her a whole pitcher of water, because she’s clearly a thirsty thot. She proceeds to scream at me because I didn’t get her a son a refill of sprite, when they didn’t ask and his cup was 3/4 of the way full. I apologized and went to get the sprite while alerting my manager of the issue.
While I was getting another Sprite her husband gets up and starts screaming and cursing in my manager’s face, about 3 inches from her. They didn’t stop yelling and complaining, so my other manager gave them their meal for free and a gift card. Mind you, this was all over WATER. It took about 3 minutes after I told them I’d get them water for them to start going insane.
I ended up apologizing to my other tables for the disturbance, but they were very understanding and apologized of behalf of the psychotic family.
I couldn’t help but wonder what happens to their son when he doesn’t do exactly what they want.”
This Lady Had A Death Wish Or Just A Bogus Lie
“A lady and her husband came in and before sitting down told us that she was deathly allergic to white vino saying, verbatim, ‘If you feed me white vino I will die.’ So I ran around double and triple checking recipes and ingredients and making sure the kitchen is ready so when she orders I know her food will be safe.
Her husband orders the special and I make sure to tell her not to eat any of his meal as it is dressed with a beurre blanc made with white vino and I’d like her to survive her dining experience.
Well I bring out their food and the first thing she does is scoop a big ol’ forkful of hubby’s special and I cry out in dismay as she shoves in her dumb mouth and says while chewing, ‘Oh, one bite won’t hurt.’ She also weeded every server on the floor by forcing them into inane, inappropriate conversations while they were trying to take care of their busy sections, AND cornered another guest in the tiny corridor leading to the bathrooms to tell him, aggressively, he was being to loud.”
“Sorry To Hear That Have A Nice Night”
“Eating at a cheap, greasy-spoon kind of a diner that has been around since the 50s. All the meat is frozen, pretty much nothing but the coffee/eggs made fresh. You know what you’re getting when you come to this place.
A couple comes in with their two young boys, I’d estimate 6 or 7 years-old. Mom makes a minor scene about not wanting a booth, wanting a table. There’s an entire wall of booths and multiple tables, but she specifically wants the one in the middle of the room that needs to be bussed since the people that were using it JUST just left. She makes a minor scene about having to wait for the one busboy handling the entire FOH to come take care of it, when the manager went and got him to take care of it immediately. At this point I’m not paying too much attention, but they’re sitting literally right next to us.
They order appetizers, steak, shakes for the kids, etc. Their waitress is handling several other tables at the same time – like a third of the floor – and serves some coffee and sliced pie to an elderly couple that came in after the family. Karen throws an absolute hissy fit because “WE WERE HERE FIRST, HOW COME THEY’RE GETTING THEIR ORDERS FIRST?!?!” Manager comes back out and explains in the most placid tones possible that multiple fried goods and a steak take time to cook, but hot coffee is available all day, and sliced pie is in a display up front so there’s no prep time. Karen calms down, but fumes. Doesn’t allow the boys to get their food (buffet option) until her/dad’s food comes to the table.
Once the adult food arrives, Karen just starts tucking in; both boys are just tall enough to see over the edge of the buffet, but not nearly enough to reach tongs or reasonably serve themselves. A waitress from another section sees them struggling, and comes over to help, asking what they want on their plates. Karen FLIES to her feet, and makes a BIG scene this time about ‘How dare you tell my kids what they can and cannot eat! Who do you think you are handling their food?!’
Cue manager coming out again following demands to complain directly. Waitress is an older woman, we’re talking white hair, and is nearly in tears thinking that she has done something terrible. Manager asks her to go chill in the back a bit while she smooths things over with Karen; Karen demands balloons (they had them as a special birthday thing) for the kids. They get balloons, Karen calms down. Husband and kids are pretty quiet – kids seem visibly embarrassed, husband is acting like this is pretty normal.
Husband’s steak comes out last. He’s unenthusiastic about it, and Karen calls for the manager A FOURTH TIME to chew her out over the steak being overdone, dry, and etc. They send it back and demand another. Then a third. Let me reiterate; this is a place you for like, greasy burgers and fries, fish and chips, etc. Steak is on the menu, but realistic expectations and reason means you’re not expecting high quality – you’re getting what you pay for.
Manager just kept calm and kept apologizing for their ‘sub-optimal experience’, but beyond filling minor low-cost demands (eg, the balloons) didn’t offer up much. When Karen basically shouted that they would never be coming back, the manager was just like ‘sorry to hear that, have a nice night.'”
The Crazy Bacon Lady Of Subway
“I used to work at Subway. There was one legendary customer that we only refer to as ‘Crazy Bacon Lady.’
She was an older woman. She came in and asked how much a 6-inch BLT cost. We told her it was $3.50 plus tax. She then proceeded to yell at us saying it was $2 when she came in the day before. She barked out her order the whole way up the line saying such gems as:
‘I am a good Christian woman, I don’t deserve to be treated this way.’
‘For $3.50 that bacon better be fresh!’
‘The service here is terrible! I’M NEVER COMING BACK, YOU HEAR ME!’
And the best one of them all, when she gets to my co-worker who is manning the cash register, and he tells her the total of $3.68 (tax and all) she says:
‘You people are workers of the DEVIL!’
She plops down exact change, snatches up her bag, and storms out the door.
Whenever I see my old co-workers, we still have a good laugh about it.”