Dollar Tree Customer Receives Job Offer After Picking Fight With Manager

A Dollar Tree customer in Malden, Massachusetts, received an on-the-spot job offer over the weekend after picking a fight with the store's manager.

A video of the interaction was posted to TikTok by a woman named Kensha (@mixedbeautty), who wrote: "[If you know, you know] Dollar Tree never has registers open." It has amassed over 460,000 views and thousands of comments from viewers venting about how "short-staffed" Dollar Trees are. You can watch the full video here.

Dollar Tree Staffing Shortages

Dollar Tree stores across the country have struggled with staffing shortages for various reasons. According to the Harvard Gazette, dollar stores typically offer the worst pay in the retail industry and keep staffing low, so employees leave for other jobs. These stores also face labor competition from larger companies such as Amazon and Walmart.

Some claim that dollar stores are "resisting the changing labor/wage environment" by not offering higher pay, hence the staffing issues. In response, Willy Shih, the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, told the Harvard Gazette that "in some sense, that's their business model.

"They cater to a lower-income group, so having low prices is very important, and that means keeping costs under control," Shih continued. "Their business model requires a low-cost operation, so they're going to feel that inflationary pressure."

But as evidenced by Kensha's video, some customers are frustrated by the staffing shortages incurred by dollar stores' "low-cost" business model.

'I'll Hire You'

Kensha's 33-second TikTok opens with a customer yelling for the manager while standing in a long checkout line. When the store's manager appears, the customer tells him: "Yeah, we need another register open... ."

In response, the manager claps his hands together and asks the customer if he wants a job.

"I'll hire you on the spot," he said. "Can you ring?"

The two go back and forth, but the customer doesn't accept the "job offer."

"We're hiring! I need help," the manager concluded.

Kensha told Newsweek that the customer was frustrated because only one of the store's registers was open, something she says is common.

"I go to that Dollar Tree a lot," Kensha said. "Every time I go in, the same two people [are working]—the woman on the register and that manager. It's definitely understaffed because the line is ridiculous every time I walk in."

With that said, the customer ultimately chose not to jump behind a cash register. Instead, he "waited, checked out and left," Kensha said.

Viewers React

Many viewers claimed most retail stores are short-staffed and reminded their fellow commenters to be nice to the stores' employees.

"As an ex-Dollar Tree worker, we were always short-staffed, [but] I always tried my best. Don't yell at the associates because we know," samiii said.

"Y'all need to be patient !! A lot of retail stores are short-staffed!!! You either wait or leave!! Y'all [should be] glad someone showed up and it's open," i.am_kat23 wrote.

"Way to go, manager. People nowadays don't understand everywhere [is] short-staffed, so be patient [people] or just leave," H8tr added.

More Viral Posts

The Dollar Tree manager isn't the first retail worker to interact with an angry customer.

In July, a Subway customer berated an employee over a chocolate chip cookie.

And last December, a pet store customer "shushed" an employee after venting about the store's empty shelves.