As someone who personally had business dealings with a company/person mentioned in one of those stories, I can say that the story perfectly matched the personas of those involved, which has me absolutely convinced that it actually happened (at least in some form). Extrapolating this to the other stories on the site, I have always assumed that they are in reality more truth than embellishment.

I'm not sure to what degree they're embellished but they do have some basis in reality. I didn't realise that until he shared on facebook that Simon, the subject of many jokes in his stories but someone he'd gotten closer to over time, had killed himself. It was a bit of a rude awakening.

That makes me happy to hear. After visiting /r/thatHappened you just stop believing anything funny or amazing is real online.

Obligatory /r/nothingeverhappens

Or to stay on topic, /r/talesfromretail and its friends