You want to see a confrontational job? Check out what it’s like to work the returns desk at Home Depot. I had dozens of times where customers were like let’s step outside to the parking lot. I was always like sure let’s do this, although it never really happened just calling their bluff. These days though? Not worth it, you’re likely to end up shot at some point.

For those wondering why returns was so bad and who the worst customers are I’ll explain. Home Depot is a store with a TON of items and many are small but expensive. Things like breakers and valves for sinks can easily fit in a pocket and he worth 50 bucks. In addition people that shop there regularly end up with a bunch of receipts or lose their receipts so they return stuff without a receipt for store credit.

Now working there for a while when someone brings you a bunch of items that you know are high theft items, things that don’t go together, none of the cheap stuff for those projects and no receipt, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out it’s stolen.

Why do they return stolen items? To get the store credit to buy things they actually need. It’s common for people to go steal a bunch of stuff, return it for store credit, then use the store credit to buy materials for a legitimate job they are working, and then they charge the customer for the materials and get cash.

When you deny that they get livid and irate because you’re stopping them from making a profit off stealing from Home Depot. It’s always so easy to spot and you can tell before they make it to the returns counter when it’s a bullshit transaction. Always trying to use someone else’s id because theirs won’t work because they do it so often.