Retail Worker Says a Customer Offered to Show Her an Intimate Piercing — Then Her Bosses Only “Made Note” of It
A retail worker says one customer made her so uncomfortable that a coworker came in on his day off to sit with her until closing. A year later, the same man walked into another store in the same company and started making similar comments again.
She explained in a Reddit post that the first incident happened about three years earlier, when she had been at her job for roughly a year. She was working alone in a small store in Utah on a Sunday, and the place was completely empty until the man came in.
At first, she tried to do her job normally. She introduced herself, talked about the products, and offered to help him find what he needed.
But every time she asked a normal sales question, he veered off into strange rants.
He complained about how few places were open on Sundays, ranted about Utah being full of Mormons, and told a confusing story about Walmart ripping up a photo he had tried to print. According to him, he needed that photo to send to his piercer for her portfolio.
That detail already made the worker uneasy.
She had a few ear piercings, and he seemed to notice them. He asked if she knew a lot about piercings. She told him no and tried to leave it there.
Eventually, he left without buying anything and said he would be back later. She did not care about the lost sale. She was relieved he was gone.
Then he called the store about an hour later.
On the phone, he repeated many of the same rants. Then he asked if she knew what a Prince Albert was.
She pretended she did not know because she wanted the conversation to end. Instead of dropping it, he offered to show her a picture the next time he came in.
That sent her into a panic. She quickly found a reason to hang up, then texted a coworker. Even though the coworker was not scheduled to work that day, he came in and sat with her for the rest of the shift in case the customer returned.
That part says a lot about how uncomfortable she was. This was not a customer who was merely chatty or awkward. He had already made an unwanted reference to an intimate piercing and suggested showing her a picture while she was alone at work.
A year later, she was helping at a different store when he came in again.
At first, she did not recognize him because enough time had passed and she said she is not great at remembering faces. But after less than a minute of talking, she realized it was the same man.
She did not know if he recognized her too. Both of them acted like it was their first meeting.
Then the conversation took a familiar turn.
He complimented her piercings and asked if she was into piercings. She brushed it off and tried to steer the conversation back to the products. He ignored that and started talking about his own piercing, saying he was on his way to get it sized up.
She noticed he had no visible piercings, so she assumed he was talking about the same intimate piercing as before.
She wanted him out of the store.
To move things along, she suggested that if he was still considering different products, she could text him links through the company system so he could read more online. He liked the idea and gave her his number.
She texted through a company app, not her personal number. She was not sure how to respond to what he sent back, so another coworker offered to handle the message instead.
After the second incident, she talked to her manager and district manager. According to her, they said they would “make note” of it.
But that was basically all that happened.
There was no company-wide warning to other stores. No message telling employees to be on alert if he came in. No clear plan for what staff should do if he returned. That lack of action bothered her almost as much as the incidents themselves.
She kept thinking about it years later.
Part of her wondered if she had made too much of it. Maybe he was socially awkward. Maybe he did not understand how inappropriate he sounded. Maybe she had assumed the worst because she was alone and scared.
But her fear did not come from nowhere.
A man came into an empty store where she was working alone, steered the conversation toward intimate piercings, later called to bring it up again, and offered to show her a picture. Then, a year later, he appeared at another location and brought the conversation back to piercings again.
Even if he never touched her or threatened her, it was still a workplace safety issue. Employees should not have to wonder whether a customer is going to return and escalate after making sexual or intimate comments.
By the time she posted, the thing that still bothered her was not only what he said. It was that management treated it like something to quietly file away instead of something that might help protect other employees.
Commenters overwhelmingly told her she was not overreacting. Many said the customer sounded like he was trying to involve her in his kink or intimate interests without consent.
Several people were angry that her managers only “made note” of it. They said there should have been a warning to other stores or at least a clear policy for what workers should do if he returned.
A lot of commenters focused on the fact that she had been working alone during the first incident. They said a lone employee should never be left to manage a customer making sexual comments and offering to show intimate photos.
Others said her coworker’s reaction proved she was not being dramatic. He came in on his day off and sat with her because the situation was disturbing enough to take seriously.
Some commenters allowed that the customer might be socially awkward, but most said that did not excuse repeatedly bringing up intimate piercings with a retail worker who was trying to do her job.
The strongest advice was that her fear was valid. A customer does not have to make a direct threat for management to take repeated sexualized behavior seriously.
