Impatient woman complains of less employees at store. Worker says they have openings if she wants to apply

Retail workers are facing the brunt of the pandemic with many not willing to risk their lives for a barely liveable wage. Those that are turning up for work at great personal risk are often being pushed around and having to deal with entitled customers who can sometimes be incredibly rude. An employee at JOANN Fabric and Craft Store captured an interaction with an entitled White woman and it just highlights the kind of treatment employees have to put up with. The employee, without being rude, gave it back as good as he got. The video of the interaction between TikTok user @porcelainplatinum and the customer went viral and was viewed more than 2.3 million times and liked by more than 300,000 times. 

Initially, it seems like a normal conversation between a customer and TikTok user @porcelainplatinum, but it gradually escalates. The customer is not seen in the video but is apparently a White woman. She can be heard asking if there's another salesman around. The worker at the counter, @porcelainplatinum, lets her know that no one is available but tells her he can help her in a short time, according to God.Dailydot. You can then hear the woman ask, "So nobody can help?" despite the employee having just made it clear that there are no spare hands to help her. 

Without waiting for a response, she continues complaining about not being able to access a set of scissors from a cabinet that's locked. She starts to complain about having to wait for someone to unlock it. “I’m not standing in the line for this,” she can be heard saying. Customer complaints have risen during the pandemic as many businesses worked at half-strength during the lockdowns. Since the reopening, retail and service workers have been hesitant to return to work. The barely-liveable wages combined with the risk of contracting Coronavirus at work saw a huge shortage of workers across the industries. This resulted in fewer employees to tend to customers and saw a rise in customer complaints. 

Many have been compassionate and empathetic to workers who are risking their health to serve customers at various businesses, but there have been too many instances of customers being rude. The customer at JOANN Fabric and Craft Store appeared to be one of them and was impatient with the staff. As the woman continued to needle away at the employee about not having enough employees, he responded by saying, "I mean, we have applications online if you want to apply.” She replied, "No I don’t want to. I just needed scissors from the sales floor,” said the entitled customer, before adding, "But you need more employees.”

“Well, tell the world and tell Coronavirus, but I can’t help you with that. I’m sorry,” he replied. The video was widely shared, and many lauded the employee for being not taking the slights from the customer without standing his ground. “Normalize putting customers in their place,” wrote @amabearbear. Brandy Alan commented, "Why can't customers wait in line!? Literally, customers will be in line for a MINUTE... A MINUTE...  and start huffing." Kylee added, “As a customer service rep I love that our world is shifting away from ‘the customer is always right’ to ‘here’s your own energy back how’s it feel?’”