Working retail has opened my eyes to a whole new breed of people. The kind of people that you simply can never please. The kind that will ask you questions that have clearly obvious answers. Clearly obvious. Then there are those that you can simply never understand what is going through their minds. You physically have to just shake your head and forget that the interaction even happened.
This entry is to share with you a few of those encounters. About the people that come into our stores solely to baffle me.
The first customer that I can really remember is really strange man. The front of our store is a wall of huge windows. Between the windows and the sidewalk is a large landscaped garden that is approximately 10-12 feet wide. That being said you can imagine how surprised I was when I saw a man walking within inches of our front windows. He then stomped through the bushes at the end and back onto the sidewalk right in front of the door. I thought that was strange and that this would be one of those shake it off and forget about it moments. However, when he came in I realized that he looked like he came straight out of the woods. He had on work boots, a hat that had a brim all the way around it, a back pack that was stuffed to the max and tall wool socks that his sweat pants were tucked into. He went about his way, did his shopping and then came back down to check out. When he left we all sort of watched to see if he would take his preferred route through the garden. And to our surprise... he did! Back along the windows he went. We all sort of giggled because we just couldn't figure out why you wouldn't use the more than spacious sidewalk that most people took.
He was almost out of sight, but then I saw him tuck into a corner. This intrigued me and I adjusted my position so I could see what he was doing. In the corner he had hid his other belongings that he didn't want to tote around the store. And can I just tell you that he had the largest walking stick I have ever seen! It must have been 6 foot high and no lie, 5-6 inches thick! I was blown away! A ridiculously huge walking stick? In Rochester, NY? Why on earth would he need such a thing?
Another customer that sticks out in my mind is a man who spent a lot of time around the swimsuits. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Then he walked up to me with two, one piece swimsuits in hand and asked, "How do you tell if this is mens or womens"? My jaw hit. the. floor. Seriously? Had the man never been to a pool? I answered him as calmly as I could, trying desperately not to burst out laughing, as I knew that I had to be on candid camera.
"Anything that looks like this is going to be for women, but I can show you the suits that are for men." Yikes.
Lastly, this story comes from working at the cash register in Rochester, NY. There were no customers in my line. A man walked straight up to me and threw two items on the counter. A speedo. And Circus Peanuts. What in the world? What could possibly possess a person to come into the store and walk out with that combination of items? How completely random.
You never know what you will come across while working retail.
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