Chloe Bebbington was a snobby and bullying co-worker of Karen McDonald's at the trendy upmarket furniture store Elevation when she was briefly employed there between July and September 2002. Karen, desperate to escape her humble council-house upbringing, saw working at the store with its millionaire professional footballer customers as a huge step-up in life but she was little prepared for the likes of Chloe who looked down on Karen as a mouthy, backstreet scrubber.
After several weeks of being snubbed and ignored by her fellow workers, Chloe set Karen up by pointing out that a customer was eating a hamburger in the store, something that manager Jay Rodgers detested. Karen duly confronted the customer only to be smartly reprimanded by Jay who had witnessed the altercation and informed her that the scruffy-looking man was Giles Alexander, one of the most important record producers in the country. Karen quickly realised what Chloe had done to her. Nevertheless, she swallowed her pride and boasted to her "friends" in the Rovers about the rich and important people she was serving. The next day she discovered that Chloe had gone on to serve Giles herself and had sold him an expensive sofa, pocketing a large commission as a result. Karen confronted her and was firmly told, "'You don't belong here. Look at you, with your nicotine stained fingers and your clothes reeking of cigarettes!" Jay duly intervened before Karen was able to react in her usual style to this put-down. Later on, Karen was reprimanded for texting during shop hours, only to see Chloe happily using her own mobile phone.
Desperate for acceptance at the store, Karen overheard talk of a staff night out at The Attic, a trendy club frequented by the players of Manchester United and assumed she would be one of the party. Prompted by Chloe, Jay told her otherwise. Soon afterwards, after a row with Jay over a visit by to the store by Janice Battersby and Fiz Brown, Karen jacked in her job and walked out, desperately upset that her misjudged attempt to better herself had failed.
List of appearances[]
2002