Working in retail is often like playing a video game. You have to complete tasks, collect coins, and deal with all sorts of NPCs. Eventually, you end up facing the boss, which in retail is often that one patience-test-of-a-customer.

Redditor u/AlbinoRaven666 met her opponent while working in a pet store. She told the ‘Malicious Compliance‘ community about a woman demanding her to re-count the goods she was buying. The OP did as requested yet the outcome was not in favor of the client.

Working in retail requires dealing with all sorts of customers, some of whom tend to test one’s patience

Image credits: Alt4ri0 (not the actual photo)

A retail employee share how she used malicious compliance to deal with a customer’s specific requests, which didn’t end in her favor

Image credits: Robert Couse-Baker (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Jack Sparrow (not the actual photo)

Image credits: AlbinoRaven666

Pet stores employ a comparatively small number of retail employees, but they are the ones who ensure pet owners find everything their critters might need

Working in retail can sometimes be a headache, but it’s a way to earn bread for roughly 20 million people in the US, according to 2023 data. Grocery stores are the ones that employ most of such workers, followed by general merchandise, clothing, and department stores respectively.

According to IBIS, roughly 136 thousand Americans work in pet stores. They ensure that our beloved critters have everything they might need from toys to food, including feeder animals, in some cases. People in the US have spent a growing amount of money on their pets over the years, which reached 123.6 billions of dollars in 2021. Roughly 40% of it was used on food alone.

The customer in the OP’s story was buying crickets, a common feeder animal, which implies she might have an exotic pet. This type of food, which also includes mice, rats, worms, and other little creatures, is consumed by certain species of birds, reptiles, and fish. According to Northstar Research Partners, back in 2020, nearly 9 million households in the US were home to exotic pets, adding up to over 17 million of them in total.

Image credits: Organikjenny (not the actual photo)

A lot of people, including the OP, enjoy the company of some sort of a pet in their homes

Even though the global market for the exotic ones is growing, there is one type of pet that’s known as man’s best friend. You guessed it right. Dogs are the winners when it comes to popularity, both in the US and the entire world. Health For Animals revealed that roughly one in three homes have a furry four-legged friend of such a type. Cats, which can be found in around 25% of pet owners’ homes, come at a close second. Overall, in 2021, as much as 70% of American households owned a pet of one sort or another.

The OP opened up about having a few pets of her own; that is why she didn’t mind an employee discount at the pet store. However, it wasn’t her only job, as she mentioned working as a full-time teacher as well. Sadly, as per her case, an educator’s pay alone is often not enough to fully support oneself.

A retail job is often an additional one, as some careers, such as teaching, are commonly underpaid

Teachers are some of the most important people in our society, considering that they’re responsible for educating the children. Yet they are often severely underpaid and undervalued. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the weekly wage of a public school educator is roughly 20% lower than a non-teacher college graduate.

The OP herself admitted in the comments that if it was about money, she would have chosen a different career path. She switched from being a graphic designer and a digital media artist to being a teacher, because she loves helping children develop different skills. Caring for students this much often leads to better teacher-student relationships, which can positively affect their academic and social development.

The redditor seems to have a good heart when it comes to both teaching and working in the pet store. She was completely fine with giving away the extra crickets to the customer until the latter insisted that the employee count the live, moving creatures in front of her. The act of malicious compliance could have been avoided, but that just goes to show that it’s important to appreciate the time and effort of everyone at their jobs, whether it’s a retail worker, a teacher, or someone else completely.

Image credits: Jonathan Kington (not the actual photo)

People reacted not only to the act of malicious compliance itself but to other circumstances in the OP’s story

Some community members shared similar experiences

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