The video was posted to TikTok by the employee, swaggy emo, who wrote: “[I] don’t get paid enough for this.” It has amassed over 2.2 million views and thousands of comments while highlighting a common phenomenon in the fast-food industry—customer aggression. You can view the post here.
The video opens with the customer demanding a refund from one of the employees standing off-camera.
“I would like a full refund,” she said. “I won’t even bring the f**king food back—I want a refund.”
The customer walks off camera to talk with one of the employees, and swaggy emo greets another customer named Tanner. But when she hears the first customer yell, “that’s fking bullst,” swaggy emo steps away from Tanner and tells the other woman to “get the f**k out” of the store.
“Don’t talk to me like that, b***h,” the customer screamed.
Swaggy emo and her co-worker escort the woman out of the store and tell her not to “throw s**t,” indicating the customer threw something while she was standing off-camera.
The video finally ends with the customer flipping off the employees and then getting in her car to leave.
Violent Customers
Customer aggression has become commonplace in the fast-food industry. Debbie Berkowitz, a fellow at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, told Newsweek that violent behavior, in particular, is a widespread issue.
“A few years ago, in 2019, I worked on a report about McDonald’s and the risk to workers of getting hurt from instances of violence in the stores,” Berkowitz said. “There were stories where customers got so mad over the lack of straws or hot sauce they tried to harm the cashier ringing up their order. [But] these stories weren’t a one-off—they were indicative of a widespread pattern of threats to fast-food workers from customers and other violent crimes.”
Berkowitz explained that she and her team of researchers only looked at McDonald’s “since they were the largest fast-food chain.” However, she said the customer violence “is not limited to McDonald’s.”
In December, for example, a Whataburger customer threw their drink at a drive-thru employee over a shortchange argument. In August, a customer threw hot coffee at a cashier because the cashier mishandled her change. And last November, a customer threw hot soup on a restaurant employee’s face.
When asked if instances of customer violence had increased since the pandemic, Berkowitz said: “I haven’t looked at new data. But they were high before the pandemic.”
Viewers React
After watching swaggy emo’s video, a few former restaurant workers said they don’t regret quitting their jobs.
“I don’t miss Papa John’s,” queen_leo11 said.
“I don’t miss working in the food industry,” Ame added.
Newsweek has reached out to swaggy emo for comment.
