Whose Attitude Needs Adjusting Here?

I work at a big store and have been there for almost a year now. Forty-five minutes before my shift ends, I begin putting stuff away and cleaning up. By the way I am dressed, it’s extremely clear that I’m employed here. I have my headset on which has a visible wire across my chest, a lanyard with a portable phone attached, my name tag, etc.

A regular comes up next to me — an older woman who I’d had interactions with before. They’re not necessarily pleasant but nothing terrible and usually brief. She loudly starts complaining about how awful the store is due to us changing the layout (over a year ago, before I even started working there).

Regular: “This store just sucks now, doesn’t it? I can’t ever find things now since they’ve moved everything. Like, look at this; it just looks awful.”

She takes a good look at me.

Regular: “Oh, you work here?”

I know for a fact she knew I was an employee and just wanted to get a rise out of me by complaining about the store. Out of all the customers around us, she picked me to complain to? While I was visibly working? In my uniform? Obviously, I’m not hurt by her comment; it’s not my company and I don’t get paid enough to care.

Me: “Yes, I do work here. I’m sorry that you feel like you can never find anything.”

Before I can offer to help her, she interrupts.

Regular: *Rudely* “How long have you been working here?”

Me: “Ten months.”

She just starts complaining about the store again, mostly to herself but directing her complaints toward me.

Me: “I can look up whatever you need.”

She ignores me, still complaining about how she cannot find a specific item. I can’t pull the item out of thin air, and I have no clue what exactly she wants.

Me: “Come over to the desk so I can look it up.”

I didn’t say it with a tone, I was polite, and the customer service desk is not even eight feet away from the spot where we’re standing.

The woman steps back with a shocked look on her face.

Regular: “You’d better find someone else to help me because I don’t like your attitude. You’re very rude. Like, who do you think you are? Telling me to come over to the desk? Why do I have to come to you?”

She then laughed to herself out of disgust. I said, “Okay,” and removed myself from her sight.

I was genuinely so confused because I could not have handled that situation differently. I don’t like confrontation, so I didn’t approach her rudely or act like I didn’t want to help her. It was awkward because so many people started staring. I asked over the headset for someone else to help her and walked upstairs.

While I was there, I noticed she was with someone from the receiving room who walked her over to the upstairs customer service desk and they looked up what she needed together. I was just in disbelief; I felt so incompetent. What was so wrong with me, and why was what he was doing different than what I offered? I went into the breakroom so she wouldn’t see me and told my managers about what happened. I started crying as soon as they asked me if I was all right.

Customers have screamed in my face, threatened to call the police on me, licked money during the height of the health crisis and slammed it into my hand — you name it. But this one interaction sent me over the edge. I don’t even know why.