Walmart, Target, and Costco employees — as well as workers at all retail stores — sometimes come up against pretty difficult customers.

Business Insider spoke with a number of retail workers about some memorable and negative experiences they've had on the job.

Their stories just go to show that it's always a good idea to be courteous while shopping.



Walmart, Target, and Costco employees have seen some pretty gnarly things on the job. Many retail workers, in fact, can probably think up at least one or two less-than-positive incidents they've experienced while working a shift.

Oftentimes, customers are at the center of these troubling situations. A study from the University of British Columbia found that we tend to treat retail workers worse when we're hunting for bargains.

The website SiteJabber surveyed 1,032 current retail employees with Amazon's Mechanical Turk, to get a better sense of how customers antagonize retail workers. They found that retail workers' biggest pet peeve was watching customers toss "trash on the shelves instead of throwing it away" — a total of 86.6% of respondents said they were irked by that habit. And 27.9% of survey participants said they would ask shoppers to treat them with respect, if there were no consequences to doing so.

Business Insider has also heard from a number of current and former retail employees who had stories to share about particularly gross, bewildering, or nightmarish scenarios that unfolded during their shifts.

The employees we corresponded with have experience working at Walmart, Target, Costco, McDonald's, Macy's, Home Depot, and other retailers. Their stories just go to show that it's always a good idea to be nice, even if you're not having the greatest shopping experience.

Here's what retail employees had to say about the horror stories they've experienced on the job: