You Know That Makes You Look MORE Suspicious, Right?

I was working in a shoe store. There were several customers in the store at the time, a few of them further toward the back of the store. I approached a lady that was shopping alone.

Me: “Do you need a hand, ma’am?”

Customer #1: “No, thanks, just looking.”

Then, I turned to a nearby mother-daughter duo and asked them the same question. The mother ignored me completely, but the daughter managed to snap a curt “no” at me.

As I was turning and walking away, I noticed one of the sample shoes had the laces undone — a big no-no — so I paused to fix it. All of a sudden, the mother just glared at me and yelled:

Mother: “You don’t need to keep watching us! We’re not stealing!”

I was completely taken off-guard since that thought hadn’t even crossed my mind.

Me: “I wasn’t watching you, ma’am.”

Mother: *Yelling* “Yes, you were! You don’t need to hover like that. You’re a terrible salesperson and horrible at your job! You’re the reason customers hate salespeople!” *To her daughter* “Let’s go. These people don’t want business.”

She kept up the diatribe against salespeople all the way out the door. I slowly walked to the front of the store and looked at my manager, completely flummoxed.

The first lady to whom I’d spoken walked past me on her way out the door and made a point of pausing to talk to me.

Customer #1: “I like your customer service. I’ll be back another day!”

Another customer, a regular, paused her shopping to come and stand next to me, shoulder to shoulder for a moment.

Customer #2: “Don’t listen to that b****. You are awesome at your job and a wonderful person. Some people are just s***ty.”

That woman almost ruined my day, but the other customers totally made my day.