Dangus, I think Alexander is correct. This is a misunderstanding of who Karen is. Karen has no empathy for the 17-year-old. Karen wants to speak to his manager precisely because she is too self-important to speak with the 17-year-old kid and to try and act as the adult in the matter.
As others on the thread have noted, there is nothing wrong with a consumer or customer elevating a legitimate complaint about a product or service to the appropriate level of management that can resolve the issue.
i.e. A customer asks for some ketchup at the drive through and doesn't get any.
A responsible. mature adult (who really, really wants the ketchup) parks, goes into the store, waits in line if they have to, and politely asks the clerk for some ketchup then leaves.
A Karen storms into the store, pushes to the front of the line, demands to see the manager, from whom she will demand both the ketchup and an apology and most likely will hurl some invective or profanity towards the person who got her order wrong and will want to know what the manager plans on doing about it to make sure it never happens again.
OK... I was feeling like so many people were adding to the original Karen meme just everything they hate... (Anti-maskers claim she is a nazi hall monitor making everyone wear masks; pro-maskers claim she’s too selfish and self-important to wear a mask) but I think you may have the winning point.
But that said... Like everyone else, I worked in retail summers and after school. From a grocery store to a home goods store, I don’t think I ever encountered the Karen you describe. Not once. Maybe I was just really good at placating Karen or solving her problems. If Karen no longer bothers with the low-level staff, is that because she has learned from experience there’s no point? How many times can you get people sticking to scripts as if you weren’t even a human being before you just say it, “F*** it; I want to talk to someone who has the authority to say something other than as an NPC?”
Me going full Karen:
“I’d like to get one Whopper with no ma-—”
“Would you like cheese with that?”
“I’m sorry, you just interrupted me in the middle of a word!”
“Would you like cheese with that?”
“Does it come with cheese?” (knowing full well they charge you extra)
“Yes.”
“Cool, free cheese”
“No, the Whopper with cheese is $1.35 more.”
“You just said it comes with cheese.”
“The Whopper with cheese comes with cheese.”
“But I didn’t order a Whopper with cheese; I ordered a Whopper.”
“Would you like cheese with that?”
“Not if I have to pay $1.35 for a slice of cheese.”
“The cheese comes with the Whopper with cheese.”
“I’d like one Whopper with no cheese.” (I see another Whopper being rung up.)
“No, I’d like ONE Whopper, no cheese. You’re ringing up two.”
“Yes, would you like cheese on the second Whopper?”
“I don’t want any Whopper with cheese. Just one Whopper. No Mayonnaise. No pickle.”
“The sandwhich or the meal?”
Just the sandwich, but I’d also like one order of medium fries.”
“Would you like large fries with that?”
“Are you asking would I like large fries with my order of medium fries?”
“No, I’m asking if you’d like large fries with your Whopper.”
“No, I want one Whopper, one order of medium fries.”
(He rings me up for another Whopper and another order of medium fries.)
“Can I speak to your manager?”