These Customers Are Better Than Those Ones

Customer: “Excuse me, are you [Store] people?”

Me: “Yes, ma’am. How can we help you?”

Customer: “Do you ever have store meetings with all the workers?”

Me: *thinking she’s going to ask us to promote something* “Yes, ma’am, we do.”

Customer: “Oh, good. The girl in the shoe department was showing someone some boots and she said ‘these ones’ and ‘those ones.’ Someone needs to tell her it’s ‘these’ and ‘those,’ not ‘these ones’ and ‘those ones.’” *looks at me expectantly*

Me: “I’ll… um… all right.”

(I have worked retail for years and am a grammar perfectionist myself. I have never considered telling another adult in the workplace to correct her grammar. My favorite part was that she didn’t want me to walk right over and talk to her; she wanted me to bring this up at a store meeting in front of everyone!)