Most of us have heard the "Sir, This is a a Wendy's" phrase, said in those moments when someone has said something totally inappropriate given the setting they are in.
And while some of these literally take place in a Wendy's or similar fast-food chain restaurants, these awkward moments can happen... pretty much anywhere.
Redditor deadmoby5 asked:
"What was your, 'Sir, this is a Wendy's,' moment?"
...Actually, This Is a McDonald's.
"I was working at McDonald’s and this lady said, 'Can I get the Wendy’s four-for-four?!'"
"I said, 'Ma’am, this is a McDonald’s.'"
"Without a moment's hesitation, she replied, 'Indeed it is, can I get a Big Mac?'"
- lukemercerrr
Someone Separated from Reality
"I had a guy come into my place of work yesterday p**sed off because he missed his payment date and had to pay extra to turn his phone back on."
"He said something along the lines of, 'It was due at midnight, and y’all aren’t open at midnight, so how was I supposed to pay?'"
"I calmly explained that we are open until 7:00 PM every day except Sunday."
"He screamed, 'Well, unlike you, I actually have a job!'"
"At my job."
"Whilst doing my job."
- lordgabe92again
An Office Mix-Up
"I work for a CPA office that is in an office park with a couple of doctors' offices."
"One day, a guy came in only speaking Spanish, so I grabbed my Spanish-speaking colleague to translate. He talked to the guy in the lobby for a few minutes, and then the guy left, and my coworker came back and asked if that was a joke or if we put someone up to that."
"Apparently, the guy explained that his testicles were extremely swollen and painful, and he was looking for one of the doctors' offices and just walked into the first building in the complex."
"I'll never forget, he said, '...I’m like, sir, we do taxes here, not testicles.'"
- AlternativeAcademia
A Health Advocate
"I worked in a cell phone store that had a veterans support office behind us."
"One day, an older gentleman was waiting in the queue. When it was his turn, I called him up and asked what I could help him with."
"He stepped up to the counter and told me that the veteran's hospital was claiming his vision impairment was only 20% disability, and he felt it was much higher."
"I agreed, and I offered to walk him to the correct building, and told him I would be a witness for him, lol (laughing out loud)."
- fridaycat
The Deck of Entitlement
"I was in Lowes one morning right after they opened. There was a woman at the service desk having a complete meltdown down, yelling and screaming because Lowes didn't have a licensed contractor there at the store for her to hire."
"She apparently woke up that morning and decided she needed a deck, like, that same day, and thought she could just go to Lowes and have someone immediately start building a deck."
"It was dead so I stood with the cashier listening to the show. They ended up having to call the police to get her to leave."
- DasGoat
The Coca-Cola Theorist
"I've told this story tons of times to my friends and family because it's one of my favorite Domino's Stories. This happened somewhere around 2017-2018."
"One day, it was really slow at work at Domino's. I was still a relatively new Insider (only a few months into what would be about four years) and still in school, so I was hoping that it would stay slow so I could go home early, so I could cheat on my math homework, play some League of Legends, and get some sleep since my school started an hour earlier than other schools in the area."
"A woman, probably mid-40s, came in to order a pizza. She was pretty chill, and we were just chatting while she was ordering because there really wasn't much to do otherwise since we already cleaned the store and oven and all that."
"After she got her pizza all done up, I asked her if she would like any drinks."
"She was like, 'Oh, what do you guys have?'"
"I was running down the drink options and she noticed Coca-Cola and looked at me wide-eyed like she just saw someone get hit by a car."
"She said, 'DON'T YOU KNOW THEY PUT HUMAN EMBRYOS IN COKE?!'"
"...I'm sorry??'"
"She then spent the next SEVEN. MINUTES. Running down pretty much every major conspiracy, from human embryos in Coca-Cola to Flat Earth to the moon landing being faked, etc. If you think of a pre-pandemic conspiracy, she hit it."
"I was stunned. The only words that could come out of my mouth were, '...So no on the drink, then?'"
"She said brightly, 'Coke Zero, please.'"
"I guess the Zero means 'Zero Embryos.'"
- noblemile
Work That Connection
"I work in radio, and got a call on the contest line one time."
"'Yeah, I need a hotel room,' said the caller."
"'OK. How would you like me to help you?'"
"They said, 'Well... book me one!'"
"'You're aware you called a radio station's contest line, right?'"
"'Yeah. Don't you book hotel rooms for rock stars when they do a show in town? Book me one!'"
- originalchaosinabox
I Believe the Store You're Looking For is... Sephora.
"Not one specific moment, since it happened all the time when I worked at Ulta."
"She said, 'I'm looking for this lipstick,' and showed me a Sephora brand lipstick."
"I said, 'We don't sell that, but I can show you something similar!'"
"She was indignant. 'No, I want this specific lipstick, don't you sell it?! Well, where can I buy it?!'"
"I deadpanned, 'At Sephora, ma'am.'"
- Sunshine030209
A Misdirected Call
"I worked in a local cafe/newsstand/convenience store type spot. We also had a Ticketmaster outlet for a bit. Our small town had an annual concert that usually ran two or three nights. It was really popular with the local folks, so it brought in a lot of foot traffic with people buying tickets (my boss was honestly a small-business mastermind)."
"That was the extent of our involvement: we sold and printed gate passes."
"On night one of the event, I was closing the store as usual, at 10:00 PM."
"An irate woman called, wanting to 'file a noise complaint' about the concert."
"I was like, 'Ma’am, you must have the wrong number, this is a local cafe.'"
"She INSISTED that she was filing 'an official noise complaint' and demanded to speak to the owner RIGHT NOW."
"I said, 'At 10:00 PM on a Friday? Yeah, he’s not here.'"
"He also isn’t the police and doesn’t deal with noise complaints. Also, it’s only 10:00 PM, and this concert has been widely advertised for months."
"She then went on a wild rant that we needed to do… something?… about the noise, since we sold tickets. She wouldn’t let me off the call and was going berserk."
"I told her I was going to disconnect since we had nothing to do with the event or the noise."
"She called back multiple times, and finally I just let the phone ring… It was still ringing when we locked up. Like, MA’AM, ARE YOU OKAY?"
- Swimming-trifle-899
In Search of the Mystical Dairy King
"I worked at Dairy Queen about ten years ago, and a customer pulled up to our very busy drive-thru."
"Customer: 'Yeah, can I have the 10 nuggets for $1.49?'"
"Me: 'I’m sorry, sir, we don’t carry nuggets, but I can get you a chicken strip basket?'"
"Customer: 'No, I want nuggets! On your commercial! You don’t even know your own food?!'"
"Me: 'Sir, I’m sorry but we don’t carry nuggets. We have chicken strips and steak fingers?'"
"Customer: 'NUGGETS FOR $1.49!'"
"Me: 'Sir, this is Dairy Queen, you are referring to Burger King.'"
"Customer: 'Dairy King?!'"
"Me: 'You are at Dairy Queen, asking for a Burger King menu item.'"
"Customer: 'Oh. (proceeds to wait in line for another five minutes while I watch)"
- avianeyb
Deer in Headlights
"I worked at Wendy's throughout high school and some lady ordered a burger meal at the drive-thru. Over an hour later, she comes back to the front counter, slamming the burger on it, saying it was cold."
"I checked our receipts and told her she ordered over an hour ago and that burgers aren't meant to stay hot for that long."
"She said that was absolutely unacceptable and how dare we serve her a burger that gets cold."
"She then proceeded to ask me for my full name and details so she could sue me, at the same time freaking out when I didn't have a pen to give her to write down my info."
"Another customer walking by said, 'Holy s**t, lady, relax,' and she yelled at him to mind his business."
"He said, 'Well, I just feel bad for this poor employee you're yelling at. If you don't wanna eat here, go somewhere else.'"
"Bless his soul, I was only 17 and was so shocked."
- hayleexh
Not a Medical Professional
"I work as a cashier at a home goods store. I’m very friendly and honestly treasure my customer interactions."
"I was doing my usual patter, like, 'Hi there, how’re you doing, did you find everything all right?' and this lady tells me that it’s the first time she’s been out of the house in a while."
"I thanked her for choosing our store and went to move on with the transaction. She raised her shirt, showed me a HUGE angry red incision on her stomach, and started telling me about her recent hysterectomy. The stitches hadn’t even been removed yet."
"I sort of nodded and smiled and tried to pivot to her total so I could move on with the MASSIVE line that’s building, and she wouldn’t stop talking."
"I had to call for a back-up cashier while getting a very detailed description of surgery, uterine cancer, and the recovery process. She didn’t drop her shirt the entire time."
- souryoungthing
Depending on the Pet Supply Department
"I used to work for Kmart. Someone came into the store and wanted to know where the pet department was located. We only had one aisle of pet items and it was mostly items for dogs/cats (food, litter, toys, etc)."
"I took the customer to the aisle, and they said, 'This is it? This is all you have for pet supplies? You don’t have an actual department like other stores?'"
"'Yes sir, we just carry the basics. If you need a bigger selection, there is a Pet Supplies Plus located at the other end of the plaza.'"
"The customer got upset and said, 'But if I wanted to go to Pet Supplies Plus, I would have gone there. But I wanted to go to Kmart. So I’m guessing you don’t have fish food or anything like that?'"
"I showed him the same selection of fish food, and he got upset. He then started asking advice for fish tanks and again, I directed him to the Pet Supplies Plus that was located just a couple storefronts down from Kmart. When he insisted on not going to that store, I gave him directions to 2 other pet stores in the area."
"Eventually he left, but not before saying, 'This is why Kmart is going out of business!'"
"Sure buddy, the lack of a pet department is the sole reason Kmart is going out of business."
- DannyC990
...Oops.
"Found the product I needed online. I drove to the store and spent 20 minutes failing to find said product on the aisle it was supposed to be on."
"I showed the picture to multiple staff, none of whom recognized it."
"I finally went to the customer services desk and after 10 minutes of waiting in line got told the website I was looking at was one of their competitors."
- SarcasmWedding
Uno Reverse Card
"I went to the drive-thru at a Wendy’s and the person taking the order said, 'Welcome to Walmart.'"
"I was really confused and I heard laughing and he said, 'I’m so sorry,' he works there too and was on autopilot."
- SpecificLook7215
"You missed the opportunity for the uno reverse card. Imagine saying, 'Sir, this is a Wendy’s,' as the CUSTOMER."
- Avenntus
"A few months ago, I drove up to the Wendy's drive-through and heard through the speaker: 'Welcome to McDonald's, can I take your order?' (There was laughing in the background)."
"I did reply in a serious tone, 'Sir, this is a Wendy's!'"
"Cue uproarious laughter by all... I think they were stoned."
"10/10. Always going to that Wendy's."
- codeprimate
From hilarious to jaw-dropping to utterly shocking, it's fascinating to see how awkward things can get when someone does something completely inappropriate for a setting. At least in most of these cases, they made for funny and memorable stories.