Customer Is Denied Wine Purchase By Power-Tripping Staff, Gets Sweet Revenge By Using Their Own Policy Against Them

Revenge is not always the answer, but it sure can be sweet if it’s well-deserved. For instance, when someone purposefully chooses to be a pain in the neck.

Redditor u/Ia_ja told the 'Petty Revenge' community about the time they chose to teach such a person a lesson. The OP drove 60 miles to a liquor store for a specific wine, but the staff refused to sell it because of a certain ID policy. Yet it was the way the manager handled the situation rather than the policy itself that made the customer seek retribution.

Bored Panda has reached out to the author of the Reddit post. You will find their thoughts in the text below.

The need for revenge comes from within us when we feel mistreated. It becomes a way to even out the scale of morality by harming the person who harmed us. An eye for an eye, as they say. And for most—the sooner the better. A study carried out by Virginia Commonwealth University discovered that people prefer to get back at their wrongdoer immediately.

Some people claim that revenge is sweet, and according to the Association For Psychological Science, it is indeed. Even if only for a brief moment. Research shows that it activates the part of the brain called the caudate nucleus, which is responsible for the feeling of reward. This correlation shows that the thought of retribution alone can induce a rush to the brain that feels nice.

When people feel rejected or hurt in any other way, they tend to try and regain a more positive stance. One of the methods to do that, as the psychiatrist Grant Hilary Brenner points out, is to retaliate. “When we feel emotional injury, it causes negative emotions. When we feel negative emotions, we look for a way to restore a positive emotional state,” he wrote in Psychology Today. The rush in the caudate nucleus evoked by revenge allows us to reach that state.

What follows the vengeful act might not be as pleasant, though. Causing harm, even if it’s payback, can lead to creating a vicious circle of mistreating people—the wrongdoer might feel like the victim and pursue retaliation. Research shows that revenge is a common motivator for interpersonal assaults among the youth. Moreover, it’s not always physical—in the digital age, vengeful acts are often carried out online. (Revenge can also be sought after at work, after being laid off, for instance. As much as 88% of IT specialists say they would take sensitive information with them if they were fired, which can then be used for all the wrong reasons.)

When it comes to payback, it’s important to distinguish if it’s better to take action or to leave it be. (Karma is there for a reason.) In cases you feel it’s important to show someone that their actions have consequences, the punishment should fit the crime—it has to be proportionate. Also, it has to be aimed at the exact person that caused harm.

In the redditor’s case, the act of revenge was mainly aimed at the managerial personnel of the store. The way they handled the situation and their attitude during the call afterwards made the customer want to teach them a lesson. “The situation was infuriating but I got over it, but then the manager calling days later just to fight with me was what really got me mad. If you weren’t calling to fix it, at least just say “hey, I’m sorry this happened but that is our policy, sorry for the inconvenience,” the OP told Bored Panda.

“Instead, to call me and have a really bad attitude, and tell me how you don’t care and no one can leave your store—it doesn’t matter if you’re with someone or not, if you walk in the door at the same time you’re a party—and not even to apologize about the other manager telling me I look young even after I present valid ID, that got me really mad,” they added.

The OP said the conflict could have been avoided if the person in charge chose a slightly more pleasant approach when dealing with the situation. Certain managers can be quite a headache, and not only for the clients.  Statistics show that nearly 60% of workers in the US have left a job because of their superior.

A manager should help put out fires, not add fuel to the flames. In this story, it was her approach to the conflict, not the store policy, that resulted in hours of pointless work for her team. Asking for a valid piece of identification is required by law, so there was no harm in that. As a matter of fact, it is crucial to ensure a thorough documentation check because of the prevalence of fake IDs. Research revealed that as much as 51% of people under the legal drinking age said it was easy to purchase alcohol, and 18% admitted they did so with the help of a counterfeit document.

The OP didn’t mind showing their document. It was the way the manager handled the situation, though, that they weren’t going to let slide. By using the store’s ID regulations as an argument, she encouraged the customer to delve deeper into their policies. Little did she know, it would become the basis for a case of petty revenge.

If reprisal stories are something you find interesting, don’t miss the chance to read about these 35 Petty Things People Actually Did To Take Revenge On Someone Who Wronged Them or browse the Times Petty Revenge Was Executed Perfectly At The Workplace.