Unfiltered Story #231718

(My husband and I had just purchased a new house. Before moving everything in, we wanted to paint a couple of the rooms. We went to the local home improvement store to purchase primer, to cover up the shoddy job the former owner had done and to make sure none of the color – brown – bled through and screwed up the softer, pastel colors I intended to put over the top. We get to the paint department, and after eyeballing several different brands of primer, we choose one that seems to be best suited for the job. When we head to the paint mixing counter to pick up our tinted paint, the employee there — an elderly man in his mid- to late 70s — takes one look at our primer selection and starts shouting at us.)

Employee: THAT’S NOT THE RIGHT PRIMER! YOU DON’T WANT THAT!

Me: Errr, okay? What–

Employee: IT ISN’T GONNA DO WHAT YOU WANT IT TO DO. IT’S THE WRONG KIND. YOU DON’T WANT THAT KIND.

Husband: It says here that it’s “primer”. Why is it–

Employee: LOOK HERE, THAT’S THE WRONG KIND AND YOU AREN’T GONNA GET IT TO WORK FOR WHAT YOU WANT IT TO DO. YOU DON’T WANT IT.

(Mind you, the guy never once asked what we were using it for, and he never suggested an alternative, he just kept angrily shouting that we had chosen the wrong primer, and talking down to us as though we were kids rather than 30-something year old adults. After several more minutes in which he wouldn’t let us get a word in edgewise, and kept insisting our selection was wrong, I had finally had enough.)

Me: *snapping* THEN WHY DON’T YOU TELL US WHAT THE RIGHT ONE IS!?

Employee: …. oh. I recommend [brand].

(Once I’d broken through his tirade, we were able to have a few questions answered about the brand he recommended, and made a selection based on what we learned. He still talked down to us as though we were 12 year-olds playing a prank or something, though. Thankfully, I haven’t seen that particular employee back in the paint department since that first encounter.)