A trend among young entrepreneurs nowadays is to include small treats or trinkets in the orders of their customers.
These are complimentary and serve as tokens of gratitude to the customers for patronizing small businesses.
Carissa Collins founded TLC body – a body care line specializing in scrubs and lotions – and she makes it a point to add free lollipops in her customers’ packages as a small ‘thank you’.
However, a ‘Karen’ customer of Collins did not perceive this as a thoughtful gesture.
She felt that she was paying for the treat and proceeded to write an email to express her discontent.
The email read:
“So once again I’m in a position where I will not be buying from you again because I no longer trust your word.
I don’t even eat lollies – vegan or not – what do you think you are gaining by sending someone a bit of sugary junk in the first place? I’d rather pay less for my product than get something I never asked for or wanted.
But if they were vegan I could’ve at least appreciated the thought.
Honestly, I don’t even know what to say.
Darn you, I liked your products. Please put more thought into things like this in the future. I won’t be buying from you again.”
In the tearful TikTok, Collins shared the email and asked “when did it become okay to speak to people like this?”
She was hurt as her ‘thoughtful’ gesture had backfired on her and she was not expecting such an aggressive response.
“Honestly how this email was worded, it was almost as if I had stabbed them or something,” she said in the video.
ONLINE SUPPORT
With almost 450,000 views, TikTok had garnered a lot of attention.
The Queensland small business owner received a massive amount of support from the internet following the incident.
“I am vegan and get sent some extra things that aren’t vegan all the time. I just give them to friends, it is the thought that counts,” one user commented.
“you did nothing wrong she clearly has issues and it’s not a reflection of you. I personally love when I get lollies in any order. you got this!” another user commented.
One user was quick to label the said customer as a ‘Karen’
Collins posted a follow-up TikTok yesterday, thanking everyone for all the support she had been receiving.
She asserted that she was not going to let the customer get her down and would continue to throw in free lollies in her orders.
WHAT’S A ‘KAREN’?
Among the youth, ’Karen’ is a slur used to describe women who are perceived as ‘entitled’ or ‘absurdly demanding’. They publicly and aggressively display their dissatisfaction when things do not go their way.
