I was standing in the electronics aisle at Costco last weekend, minding my own business and comparing two identical-looking Bluetooth speakers like my life depended on it. I had my backpack on, a lanyard from a conference still clipped to it, and apparently that combination reads as employee to a certain demographic.

An older woman, maybe mid-70s, walked right up to me, didn't say hello, didn't ask if I worked there, just pressed her hearing aid into my palm and said, "It's been making a whistling noise since Tuesday, can you take a look?"

I stood there holding this warm little device like it was a baby bird, completely unsure what my next move in life was supposed to be. I said, "Ma'am, I don't work here, I think you might want customer service at the front." She waved her hand like I'd said something mildly inconvenient and said, "Just check the battery, it'll only take a second," and then walked off toward the rotisserie chickens.

So now I'm holding a stranger's hearing aid in the middle of Costco, no idea where she went, no idea what to do with it. I ended up walking it up to the actual customer service desk myself and explaining the situation to an employee who looked at me like I'd handed her a live grenade. We paged the woman over the intercom. She came back ten minutes later, took the hearing aid, said "oh good, you fixed it," and left without further comment. I hadn't touched a single wire.

I still don't know if it actually worked again or if she just assumed main character energy fixes hearing aids.

Has anyone else been handed an actual medical device by a total stranger who was 100% convinced you worked there?

This happened a few years ago. Not a remarkable or intense story, but it's stuck in my mind.

I went to my nearest large Tesco late one night. It was Black Friday, which somehow is a thing in the UK despite the day not being a holiday. The store was quiet, with only a few people around. I was wearing a casual shirt, unbuttoned over a T-shirt, and jeans, with my leather man-bag over my shoulder. Tesco's staff uniform generally has a blue top of some kind, and I definitely wasn't wearing a blue shirt.

I walked past a now-empty display advertising large smart TVs, when a man approached me, already shouting at me. I get extremely nervous in situations like that, so tried to just ignore it and keep going, but he made sure to move in front of me so I couldn't ignore him.

"Hey, where are all the TVs?" he said, pointing at the empty display.

I figured maybe he was just a really rude person who wanted to know where the store generally kept their TVs, so he could look there for any more they had on sale. I told him where I thought they were.

"No, these ones here. Go and check in the back if you have any more." His tone was condescending and more than a little entitled.

I realised that he was somehow mistaking me for an employee, and my instinctive baffled helpfulness melted away as I realised the depths of his bargain-crazed confusion and general rudenessI just shook my head and walked in the opposite direction. He shouted after me, but thankfully (for me, not them) an actual employee appeared and took the bloke off my hands.

I do wonder if he'd ever been in a supermarket before. Or even left the house.

This just popped up in my fb memories and made me chuckle. Also I was a sommelier, a regular customer at this store and dressed in my usual black tank top and pants. The employees wear bright colored polos with the store logo on the chest.

I’m tasting wine and shopping for a bottle and in walks 1 guy with 3 females, all of them look underage. Guy stops right in front of me and says:
I’m looking for a wine for pizza.
Me: ok
Him: stares at me
Me: oh. ok. Um. Red or white?
Him: white
Me: the pizza is a white sauce or you want a white to pair with it?
Him: the pizza
Me: ok so you want the wine to cook for the sauce?
He nods yes, the person who’s working at the store has come back from helping someone else
Me to Wine Store Lady: they’re going to make a white pizza sauce and want a bottle. I’d recommend an unoaked Chardonnay but I don’t know what you have in your inventory...
The girls are giggling cuz I think they just realized I don’t work there and the guy is oblivious as he walks off to pay.
I continue drinking the wine sample I was holding and walk away.
The wine lady thanks me after the transaction. We laugh. I bought a really yummy sparkling burgundy for $10

I was reminded of this today, while listening to reddit stories on YouTube, and thought I'd share it here, even if it's not as dramatic or crazy as some of the others.

For context, I live in Colombia, and as some of you may know, there was a recent earthquake near the capital, luckily I don't live near the epicenter, and there're a lot of donation campaigns. That night I went to my nearest grocery store, 10 minutes before closing to pick some stuff to donate, I was wearing some grey and black sport shorts and a black tank top with grey lettering and some flip flops, and the store's uniform looked nothing like it, just jeans, a green and purple polo, and for the managers a purple and green polo, as well as an apron.

When I got in line to pay, there was only a guy from a delivery service (like UberEATS) picking up groceries, a single cashier, a manager cleaning the aisles and me, the delivery guy behind me in line, when we heard a smack to the closed doors, 2 guys were there, and seemingly upset with the bold sign on the automatic doors that had started the opening and closing hours, the store closed at 9PM, the time being around 9:12 PM

This is what I remember from the Conversation, and it's translated from Spanish, it happened a couple of days ago

Guy1: Hey, can we go inside?

Guy2: Yeah, we need something quick

Cashier: Sorry, the store closes at 9, and we'll be closing our cash registers in a minute

Guy1: Come on! It'll be just quick! In and out

Cashier: Sorry buddy, no luck

Me: (I was just standing there, waiting for the cashier to finish with my groceries)

Guy2: (turning to me) Hey, buddy, could you help us out? Can you convince him?

Me: Sorry dude, I really have no power to do anything about this

Guy1: Come on! Can't you just threaten him with a reprimand or something? Everything else is closed right now

Me: Reprimand? What am I? His boss or something? (At this point I was confused, and shared a confused look with the cashier and the dude behind me)

Guy1: I mean, you can try, y'know?

Guy2: I've seen you around in this store, you can always just go to your higher ups and tell them that guy doesn't want to take the business from some customers

At this point it hit me...

Me: How can you confuse a guy, with grey and black sport shorts, a black tank top and flip flops as a manager or even a worker in this store? Besides... If you really were in a hurry, you should have come sooner... Or maybe order through an app?

DeliveryGuy: It's obvious he doesn't work here, or maybe I also work here, and I hadn't noticed

Cashier: I have to agree with them both, this guy (pointing at me) doesn't work here, he's a customer, and the opening and closing times are stated at the door, if you prefer, you can come back tomorrow, we open at 7AM and close at 9PM every day

At this point, I wasn't sure if it was embarrassment, if they didn't think about it or simply talked without thinking, but the next we knew, those guys got back on their bike, and rode away, after that I simply paid for my stuff, and even while paying, another person approached the store and asked me to let him in, while I stood there, and I simply let him know the time and the fact that I didn't work there... So, yeah, that's my story

So I work at Goodwill and get off my first shift for a split shift. I’m outside a grocery outlet waiting for my ride when these two ladies push their carts to the lock boundary. I suddenly get asked if I can unlock it for them, I just shake my head with a polite smile. I’m standing there with my Badge that CLEARY says GOODWILL. I then get asked “Do you work here or not?” I say “Wrong store, goodwill!!”

Even when I’m on break I will be asked help to their cars, when I’m just getting a drink

Hi there! Just found the subreddit, but I worked in retail for years and have tons of related stories. This one fits in here perfectly as I was a customer shopping this time and not an employee.

Ok, so I am a giant gaming nerd, 2nd generation as my Mom was once locked in a struggle at her local arcade over the top score at a Centepede machine. I never let her live that down when she complains about my games! lol

Anyway, I was at a Walmart at the time just wearing normal street clothes and looking at. . . I think a Webcam or something small for my PC? I dont remember.

This lady storms up behind me and says something I dont catch. My father was an abusive prick and boxed in my right hand side ear, so I can no longer hear out of it, and thst makes it difficult to pick out and hear one person talking, especially in noisy environments like a Walmart with a wall full of tvs screaming out ads.

I decide on which device I wanted to get and turned to find the person to unlock the hanger.

I nearly bump into this boomer lady as she walked right up behind me with her hands on her hips to let me k ow she was angry with me.

Now, mind you, I'm just a random girl wearing normal clothes, not a blue shirt and khakis, and carrying my purse! I don't know what else I could have done to look any less like I worked there other than wearing maybe a glowing sandwich board that flashed the words 'I don't work here!'

Well, that wasn't good enough for her so the moment I said, oh, sorry I didn't know you were there! She starts yelling at me as she gets red in the face with anger. "I've been waiting here for HALF AN HOUR looking for HELP!"

Before I could say anything she cuts me off and keeps yelling

"I called out to you 3 TIMES and you IGNORED MEEE!!

ARE YOU DEAF!!?"

I, didn't work there, and have built up a whole well of disdain and bile thanks to customers like her, so I went off!

"YES, ACTUALLY I AM! My abusive father beat me so badly i've lost the ability to hear normally! Thanks for trying to make me feel like shit for surviving child abuse!

Oh, also, look at me! Do I look like I f-in work here!? I would refuse your rude ass service if I did! Now get out of my way so I can keep shopping in peace!"

Naturally, because I was rude she made a nasty comment and stormed off to go ruin someone else's day, but part of me hopes her cold dead heart felt some kind of shame. . . Who am I kidding. I've worked retail. I know she didn't and just found a new person to victimize. . .

So glad I don't do customer service anymore. People freaking suck.

Just remembered this incident as i booked a show for tomorrow. My trips to the cinema are very few and far in between. So i wouldn't know about any new upgrades.

My best friend and i went to the cinema with our kids. She's in the line buying tickets while i'm standing off to the side with my kids looking around at the posters.

This lady comes up to me and shows me an order for the concession stand on her phone. She asks if the collection point is here, as in the general waiting area. I look at her phone and it says "Hall 4". I have no idea about any ordering so i point at the concession stand and say to collect there. She thanks me and walks off.

My best friend joins me, we go into our theatre hall. We take our seats and i see qr codes on each seat. It has the concession stand logo. Curious, i scan it. It's an order form for the concession stand. You can either get your order sent to your seat, meet them outside your hall or collect it yourself at the concession stand.

I tell my friend this and we're like damn, i gave her wrong info. All that lady had to do was meet the staff outside her movie hall but she came all the way out to the concession stand. I just hope she got it sorted out.

How about people stop approaching random people at businesses and approach actual staff for help.

What a great sub, have to share this story because my family still jokes about it...

I was attending and giving a talk at a scientific conference in Bar Harbor ME, and the attendees were staying at an Inn in town. I was up late the night before (as you do when at a conference), but always an early riser. Kind of tired, hit the restaurant where the breakfast is, but too early. The staff was making coffee and setting up, so I started chatting and started to help them out a bit. I'm from Vermont, but lived in Maine for a few years, so being down to earth and having an accent came right to the front. Got stuff going, got my coffee, and just made small talk about a late night etc etc and they were great fun, but looked at my coffee strangely.

Breakfast comes out, and I say great meeting you guys, I'm going to grab a bite and go and grab a plate. Gets real quiet, and the gal in charge says, you know, we aren't supposed to eat on the job, and the set up is for guests... I look at my coffee, and she says it looked like I needed it, but now I have to clock in.

Turns out they thought I was the new guy that was supposed to start that day for first shift, and with my making time and joking with them they assumed I was that, or local, or both. We had a good laugh when it all straightened out, and she offered me a job because the new guy was a no show.

Said they were a great bunch, and would be fun to work with, but sadly no, I was a scientist and just in town for the conference. I did offer to help with coffee set up for the week (self serving) and got a good laugh. She said that I was about to be docked for the coffee but as my first day, they would read me up on the rules later...

Sometimes just being helpful will do that, like knowing something at the hardware store...

This story happened to me this past Valentine’s Day. My wife and I went to Target. She was doing a return and there was a line so I went ahead and started the shopping. Important note here – I’m low vision and use a white cane to help people understand I am visually impaired. Anyways, I was in the dog food aisle getting some dog food and looking for a specific flavor of dog treats when this older lady walks up and starts yelling at me to get a bag of dog food and put it in her cart. At first, I didn’t realize she was making this demand of me.  I think there is a nicer way to ask someone f or help besides immediately screaming at them. But OK – so I ask her what she needs she seems to point at something and says that one. Now remember, I have my white cane in my hand and pointing at something doesn’t really tell me what you need from me. I ask her to identify which one she wants and she again points at something. I tell her I can’t see what you are pointing at. I can help if you tell me what you need. Then she yells, “I swear, why does this store hire blind people that can’t even see to help people!” I was shocked to say the least!!  I told her I don’t work here and I’m trying to be nice. Then she said why did you wear a red shirt to Target then.  I could see enough of her to see that she was wearing a red shirt. I told her I’ m not wearing a red shirt it is pink for Valentine’s Day and by using her logic that means she works there as well. By this time a manager came over to see what the commotion was and had heard her comment to me about being blind.  The manager apologized to me for the rudeness of the lady., She was then escorting the lady away from the area. My wife by this time was headed to find me. She heard the lady crying please don’t ban me from the store, I won’t have anywhere else that I can shop. The manager said, “You’ve been warned before about screaming at customers.”  When my wife found me, she could tell I was upset. She asked me what was wrong. I told her about the incident. She said, “You’ll be happy to know that she has been banned from the store.” And she filled me in on the conversation that she heard. I doubt the lady learned her lesson, but that Target store gained a loyal customer with me.

I go to the same gas station very frequently after work to get a slushie to treat myself. I’m in there the other night in full uniform (hat, apron, shirt) that is very clearly not affiliated with this store. Logo on the hat, apron has the business name in giant lettering, and the back of the shirt also has the business name written on it. Not to mention the employee “colors” at my store are black and red and this store’s is green.

Older guy approaches me as I’m filling my cup (another clear sign I don’t work here,) and quite literally barks at me, “Where’s the coffee?” I had just had a long shift, and so I simply responded, “I don’t know.” He gets MAD. Like his expression completely shifts. “What do you mean you don’t know!?”

I say, “I mean I don’t work here?” He scoffs at me, mutters “Useless bitch,” and then turns around and marches off. Okay man. Cool. Entirely my fault you assume every person in any uniform works at a location they are currently at regardless of obvious signals to the contrary.

Also, why are we getting coffee at 10:15pm?

I had recently gotten new clothes to wear, and it was a weekend where my family decided to go out to shop so of course I wanted to wear one of the new t-shirts I had gotten, it was yellow and with a cartoon design at the front.

Inside IKEA, I was helping my parents look for things in our list. Almost halfway into the store I felt a presence following me, but I thought nothing of it.

Since it was closing time, I urged my parents to get whatever they wanted and to leave the window shopping for another time. When we got to the final section with all the giant shelves filled with boxes, parents got distracted by the computers there to try and find something they were looking for.

I once again felt the same presence around, except this time I took a quick look around and saw an elderly woman staring straight into my soul.

I look at her with question, she looks at me in question, notices the cartoon design on my shirt and says "Oh my god I've been following the wrong person... Thought you worked here" and she walked back into the store.

On the drive back my brother tells me how he had a hunch someone would mistake me for an employee

Alright I didn’t know there was a subreddit for this but I got a story I just have to share because my friends and I laugh over it so much.

When I go out shopping I commonly get mistaken for a worker there. This has happened to me at Costco, Walmart, Target, and even local franchises like Meijers and Woodmans. Before you ask no I do not try to wear colors that match the store employees in fact I try to do the opposite. I will literally be wearing all black in a store and someone will come up and ask me where something is thinking I work at the store and know.

If I know where the item is, I obviously try to help out and give them general directions and if I don’t I apologize say I don’t work there and that I typically don’t shop there much either.

Well I was at my favorite local Target last month, in the beauty isle stocking up on my favorite body wash and a middle aged woman comes up to me and very rudely ask me where an item was.

In her defense I was moving body wash out of the way because I couldn’t find the scent I liked and wanted to make sure it wasn’t behind another scent so maybe I looked like I was stocking shelves. And I happened to be wearing a red shirt.

I smiled and apologized saying I wasn’t sure where that item was but before I could say I didn’t work here she cut me off and said it was my job and I needed to look it up for her. I dropped my smile and told her ‘that’s not my job’ to which she scoffed and said my manager would hear of this. And I said “look I don’t work here, so I can’t help you” she of course scoffed again and walked away and I went back to picking up my things before heading to the self checkout.

I paid for my stuff and went on my merry way. Before leaving I heard someone very loudly call out “Excuse me!” Right as I was walking out the door. I turned my head and noticed the woman who stopped me earlier was at the returns desk, but I kept walking.

“Where do you think you’re going!?” Someone behind me yelled and I turned around, receipt in hand to show I paid for my stuff.

“You realize you are not in proper uniform! You do know that’s grounds for termination?!” This woman in a target shirt, presumably a manager looks me up and down in my red shirt and shorts and at this point I’m dying laughing inside. How can she not tell that I don’t actually work here?

“I didn’t know I needed a uniform to shop here?” Was my answer. Yes I know it probably would have been better to tell her I didn’t work for her but I found the whole thing so funny and kinda wanted to see how far this manager would go.

“You think you’re so funny don’t you!” The manager said to me in response.

To which I shrugged and said “well I don’t work for you so I don’t know why it matters”

Her angry face fell and she looked me up and down again. My purse in hand car keys out, bag full of stuff and receipt out.

“I am so sorry” she said shocked. “That woman pointed you out and I thought you were someone else”

I shrugged again and said “maybe you should pay more attention to what your actual employees look like so the next time Karen comes and tries to get fired you don’t try to fire someone who doesn’t work here”

She just nodded and turned around. The Karen watched the whole exchange from the doors and a guy around my age walking into target just laughed hysterically as I went to my car triumphantly beating two Karen’s in one day before treating myself to a trip to Micheal’s craft store!

So, I've been to a few different types of stores where I was somehow mistaken for an employee. Most retail places, that I know of, don't have people wearing goth clothes (unless it's a place like Hot Topic or something). Or if they do wear goth stuff they're usually wearing a vest with a name tag or something that signals they're an employee there.

Both of these times happened when I was in my late teens/early 20's. Back then I wore almost exclusively black clothes. Like a band t-shirt and tripp pants, and black platform boots. What I wore looked nothing like what employees at the stores wore.

The one time it was at Michael's and some lady asked me where the shirts were. I just told her where they were cause I just happened to pass by them a moment prior but I really wish I had told her I don't work there, just because.

The second time, I was at Menards. Some lady almost stopped me to ask about something but as she looked at me she realized I wasn't an employee. She was like, "Excuse me, do... Oh, you're not... No.". Not sure what made her think that I was an employee when she first saw me. She was with a friend or whoever the other lady was. Later, I was slightly somewhere else and they walked past me again and the other lady shouted a question, "Do you have (I couldn't hear it)?" I was far down the aisle from where they were. I tried shouting to them, "*I don't work here.*" but they kept looking at me like they were waiting for an answer. I'm guessing they couldn't hear me. And I'm also guessing the lady that first tried asking me a question didn't see that I was the same person, or the other lady if she was even paying any attention the first time. So I just shook my head and they walked away.

I just can't understand why people would mistake me for an employee at places like Michael's and Menards, cause as I mentioned my goth clothing looks nothing like what the employees at those places wear.

My parents and I were just recently on a Disney Cruise. On the first day, the kid's clubs have open house, so we like to walk around and check them out. This woman came up to me and started asking me where she can buy the wristband. I told her, "They should have some in the shop," and then she asked how to register her child and I said, "I don't know, I don't work here." She said, "Oh! I thought you did. You're wearing stripes!"

I was wearing a red and white striped shirt with blue short shorts. The Youth Counselors wear yellow and white striped shirts with gray knee-length shorts. I guess any stripes and I'm qualified to work there!

A few years ago I shopped for InstaCart for about two weeks before I got fed up with it. One day I was shopping an order at Publix, and the customer had ordered a couple of cases of a specific soda. That soda was on sale so of course the shelf had been completely cleared of it, but luckily there was an employee in the soda aisle so I asked him if he could look up if there was any more. He pulled out his inventory device thing and was looking it up for me when a woman came up and with no "hello" or "excuse me" asked where the juice was.

The employee did absolutely nothing to acknowledge the woman, so after a second of awkward silence and her staring expectantly at me, I said "um I think it's a couple aisles over, I believe on aisle 7?" She wasn't impressed with this answer and went "you think? you don't know?", which made me realize she thought I was also an employee, and clearly not a very good one. I told her I didn't work there, and, pointing at the employee, she went "well he does! and he's not even acknowledging me!" The employee looked up for the first time through this whole interaction and immediately snapped at her, saying "I can only help one person at a time, and I'm clearly helping this person right now!"

The two of them had a back and forth where she told him that he had bad customer service and should have at least acknowledged her when she initially approached, and he defended that he was obviously busy assisting someone else and she needed to wait her turn. I just stood there dumbfounded waiting for him to find my soda, thinking about how they were both kind of right but also so unnecessarily rude to each other.

One day my husband and I were in Walmart buying laptops for work. This younger girl tapped me on my shoulder asking me where the phone chargers were. I told her I didn't know because I didn't work there. She looked confused.

I opened my leather jacket and said "Look at me." I was wearing that jacket, a Misfits shirt, combat boots, a cat ear headband, and stripey tights under black shorts. I also have sunset colored hair (red, pink, orange and yellow). I'm a 55 year old goth/punk kid. I definitely wasn't wearing a Walmart vest or anything like it.

She looked very embarrassed and walked away. I actually felt bad for her for a minute and didn't wanna laugh until she walked away. I didn't wanna make her feel worse. When she was gone, both my husband and I did laugh. I mean, how? There's no way I looked like I worked there. I had a similar thing happen in a grocery store once. Unlike this younger girl, the older lady was mad at me for not working there. I may look weird, but some people are genuinely weird.

So my ex wife works for a high end yacht club in Florida. For one of the holidays I was contracted to come in and do custom airbrush on tumblers (I’m an artist). At one point an employee was desperate to find my ex wife (still married back then) so I said I’d go out and find her at the pool area (I was working behind the scenes away from members). Once I was out there some woman came storming up to me with a very stern voice
“There is an air leak in the inflatable water slide!!”
I replied “ummmm dang, good luck with that though” and I kept walking as I was on a mission to find my wife.
“Aren’t YOU going to fix it?!?!” Now she’s yelling at my back as I walk away.
I turned and hollered back “ummm NOPE! But good luck with that!”😁
Mind you, I was wearing nothing resembling an employee of the yacht club or any other company. I can only guess it’s bc I’m a minority, but I was so seriously pissed she’d jump to the conclusion I was “the help” pissing her off in return was my only consolation!

I was waiting inside a store for my friend when a woman walked up to me and asked where she could find a certain item.

I told her I didn’t work there, but she apologized and walked away. A few minutes later she came back and asked if I could check the back for her.

I had to explain again that I was just a customer. She looked at my shirt, then at the actual employees, and finally realized her mistake.

We both laughed about it and she apologized before walking away.

Last week my husband and I went to a local appliance dealership to look at refrigerators (because ours was making a weird noise and had been giving us problems for a while). As we walked in the door, a man walked toward us. He was wearing a bright blue polo and khakis, and I somehow concluded he was a salesperson, heading to greet us.

I said brightly "Hi!" and he nodded, turned, and kept walking. I figured he was being considerate, giving us a minute to look around. Which we did, while he wandered slowly around the showroom, barely looking at the appliances. TWICE I almost headed for him to ask about refrigerators, and twice something I saw or my husband said caused me not to.

Thank goodness, because I was still a bit confused when one of the actual sales staff asked him if he needed some help, or was waiting for someone or ... ?

Finally I noticed that there were two actual salespeople there wearing dark green polos with the store's logo.

Durr.

Still, I dare hope that no one would have been infuriated if I'd actually spoken to him -- although I guarantee that I (and likely my husband) would have been deeply embarrassed (and a bit amused).

So I go to my semi local theme park after work today wearing nothing but my prescription glasses, a blue under armor workout shirt, and cargo zipper pants.

Explain to me how while I’m standing in line at the welcome center/guest relations that this older lady shouts at me asking where to put the stroller and I had to calmly explain that I don’t even work at the place to tell her.

She realized that I have nothing to do with the company, gets in line, and apologizes for shouting at me. Her reason was that I was wearing blue shirt like the employees…but the fun part is this:

A.) Employees has a dark polo shirt with the theme park branding on the front.
B.) My shirt is royal blue with an under armor logo on the left side of my chest along with the under armor logo on the back of my neck.
C.) If I was an employee why would I wait in line for guest relations/welcome center where the customers go for assistance? Wouldn’t I be at HR?

In short there’s literally very little reason for the women’s to really think I work there. She even acknowledges that my shirt is a different color blue lol

Sorry if my English isn't perfect—it's my second language, so my vocabulary isn't huge, but I hope you enjoy the story!

Long-time lurker here, and I finally had my very first experience with a wild Karen! Until now, I’d only read these stories here or listened to them on Reddit podcasts, thinking to myself, “What a crazy world, I'm glad that stuff never happens to me.” Well, I was wrong!

In the UK, there's a big tech and electronics shop called Currys. My wife and I were visiting one recently because we love doing a bit of window shopping—just having a walk around to see what’s new without planning to buy anything. A quick bit of context: I actually used to work in tech support for Currys over five years ago, so I know a bit about their products.

We were looking at TVs, amazed by how thin they are nowadays, when I overheard another couple looking a bit confused. They were trying to decide which telly to pick out of all the options. Normally I'm quite shy, but because I love tech, I couldn't help being friendly. I leaned in and said, “Go for Hisense, it's the most reliable brand. I’m on my second one now.” They asked for more details, so we had a quick chat. I explained my old tech support job and told them that Hisense had the fewest issues. The couple thanked me and went to check out the Hisense section. I smiled at my wife and we kept looking around, both in a great mood.

Then came the dreaded “Ahem!” behind me.

I turned around and asked, “Yes?”

A woman in her late 50s asked me in a very rude tone, “Where are the vacuum cleaners?” No “please”, no “excuse me”, just a demand.

Still feeling polite, I said, “Oh, sorry, I’m not sure. I think the home appliances are upstairs.” I turned back to talk to my wife, but the woman tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Hey! I need dust filters for a Vax model. Tell me where they are!”

I was getting a bit annoyed by her tone, so I said, “Madam, I don’t work here and I have no idea where the filters or vacuums are.” I turned back to my wife and whispered, “What a rude bish.”

For context, I was wearing a black t-shirt with a Spartan Race logo, while Currys staff always wear bright purple tops!

Then, she actually grabbed my shoulder, spun me around, and pointed her finger right at my face. “You are the most useless man I’ve ever seen! Tell me where it is!”

My wife stepped in and said, “Don’t call him useless!”

At that point, I’d had enough. I remembered a famous internet joke, looked her straight in the eye, smiled, and in my sweetest customer service voice said while pointing towards exit of the store: “Right, walk that way, and keep walking until you f*** all the way off.”

I grabbed my wife’s hand and walked off towards the gaming laptops, laughing like a madman. I didn’t look back, but my wife told me the woman was standing there with her mouth wide open in complete shock!

Made my day ^_^

Back when I was in high school, we had to wear a polo and khakis as our uniform. We had color choices for the shirt, but the post popular one was a reddish burgundy color. Down the street, there was a Target location, where students would often go after school to get snacks with friends.

I can't count how many times I alone got confused for a Target employee, with people often not believing me when I said I don't work there, especially if they were already frustrated or lost. So many comments about lazy teens or disrespectful kids, blah blah... Even when I pointed out the school logo on the shirt, they'd sometimes say I was lying.

I can only imagine how many times it happened to others, but my friends had it happen a hundred times each by graduation. We didn't want to just stop going, or buy all new school shirts, but we did consider those options. Either way, it was really annoying though people weren't too bad about it. Somehow, nobody I knew had a manager called on them!

Probably my fault, I got started with having a kid late in life. I was 47 when our daughter was born (wife 12 years younger). So I was always the oldest parent at all her schools. Several times while at a school or school function I got asked: Are you staff?

And when we went to Lamaze class, we walked in, my wife sat down, there were pamphlets on the table at the front so I went to get one. A young mother to be, early 20s, asked: Are you the instructor?

Kids in college now, I keep waiting to be asked about being on staff, but it may not happen.