Dipping In And Out Of Attention

I’m putting bagged lunchmeat in our grab-and-go section when a customer walks over and leans over me. When he speaks, it’s with a foreign accent I can’t place.

Customer: *Cheerfully* “Vegetable dip? It is not where it is supposed to be. Is it moved?”

He points toward the produce area. Deli and produce are two different areas with different workers, but since they do kind of bleed into each other, it’s not unusual for someone to ask a produce worker about something in the deli area or vice versa. I nod to a coworker that I’m going to the other department with the customer.

Me: “Let’s see if we can find it.”

I start to walk toward the produce area, just to have the customer charge right past me to another of the deli coolers.

Customer: “Maybe it is there?”

I completely blank at this point. My coworker gives me a confused look.

Me: “He’s not even listening…”

My brain starts to catch up, and I think maybe the customer is looking for spinach dip, which is something totally different than the produce vegetable dip, but at least, in that case, he’s headed in the right direction. I start to walk over just to have him charge toward me again.

Customer: “Not there!”

He finally followed me to the area where I thought the vegetable dip was. Right as I got there, I saw a produce worker stocking product. By the looks of things, he’d been there longer than the customer had been talking to me, meaning the customer had to pass him to talk to me. Since the worker would know more about the missing vegetable dip than I would, I handed the customer off and went back to the deli, just shaking my head at my now rather amused coworker. I didn’t see the customer again.