“I’ll think about this every night for the rest of my life, God!
Shopping at the Apple Store is simple.
You go in, get what you need and, if you want, you can chat with a staff member while you wait.
But one customer says that sometimes this can lead to an awkward conversation.
In his video, he talks about one time when this happened.
A TikTok user has shared a story about an “uncomfortable” experience in an Apple Store.
Andrew Lafferty (@andrewlaffertyy) shared his story on 28 January and it has been watched more than 236,500 times.
In the video, he explains that he was in an Apple Store in Williamsburg, Virginia, waiting for an employee to bring him his new AirPods.
While he was talking to the employee, the employee asked him if he wanted a case for his new AirPods.
He replied, “No, that’s fine. I’ll take them to the store,” Lafferty joked to the employee. “I’m just trying to have a laugh,” he said.
Then the mood changed a lot.
The serious Apple employee replied, “Can I be honest with you? You’ve been making me uncomfortable since you got here.”
Lafferty was surprised and wondered how his joke could have made him seem so serious.
“I said two things to him,” he says, recounting their brief interaction. The first was when the employee asked him if he wanted AirPods Pro and he said no, he couldn’t afford them. The second was the comment about the raw dog.
“What am I doing wrong?” he asked the audience, confused by the situation.
Why did the employee react that way?
It may seem like an exaggeration, but retail employees do have good reasons to feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
In fact, a recent survey found that “more than a quarter of retail employees say they feel unsafe at work, while about half have been attacked or harassed by customers”. (Via)
In addition, 11% of respondents said they had been victims of “physical violence” at work in the last year.
This doesn’t excuse bad behaviour by employees, but it does show what can happen.
Viewer theories
People online thought it was funny and shared some theories.
One user wrote, “I want to believe he was doing more than you think,” suggesting the Apple employee was joking.
Another user who also worked at Apple in Williamsburg said, “I know exactly who you mean.”
Another user suggested another way Lafferty might get his own back.
He replied, “Some people play rough. I play rough.