'Scuse me, do you work here?

PhotonWrangler

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Does this happen to you a lot? You're in a retail store and a customer comes over to you and asks for help. It happens to me often enough to make me wonder if it's just random occurences or if there's something about my appearance, stance or something else that makes people assume that I look like someone who works in a retail store...?
:thinking:
 

IsaacHayes

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yeah I've had it happen several times. In all kinds of places. Tech stores, small retail chains, and even at bars!!
 

Haz

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Glad it's not only me as it happens to me all the time. Everytime i take a lunch break to visit the dept stores, i get ask for assistance.
When i get asked do i work here?, i say no, so that's normally the end of the conversation.

Occasionally i just get asked with the assumption i already work there. ie where are the those items located?, how much is this?. Not being the type to refuse a request, i normally help out until i get ask questions are i cannot answer!!. You should see the surprise on their faces, when i tell them i don't work there, after helping them find items on shelves, and locating the price!!, it's funny.

Lastly, i have a few times responded that i don't work here, but they still want assistance. So you don't work here, but can you still help me?.

I've always wondered too, if i have the retail store look!, because i think i get singled out more than others.

Sometimes i think it's my clothing, business i wear a business shirt and tie etc, however even on weekends shopping i get asked. This is despite wearing casual clothing, sometimes with a hood, and wearing sandals, it's quite unbelievable.
 

Flying Turtle

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You guys must be too well dressed. Wear blue jeans with holes, old shoes, and a ratty t-shirt and it'll never happen. :laughing:

Geoff
 

jtice

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Happens to me all the time.
Whats sad is, 90% of the time, I know alot more about the products than the ppl that actually work in the store !

Best time was when a lady started asking ME questions right in front of the sales guy at Circuit City.
He would say something dumb, and I would... politely contradict him.

I usually do research before I even go looking at a product, but it would be nice of the sales ppl knew more than the price of the item.

Oh well, I am happy to help them out, and feel lucky that I could actualy educate them while im there, instead of them being frustrating with the sales people.

~John
 

PhotonWrangler

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It doesn't seem to have much to do with clothing for me; I'm usually dressed in casual clothes when it happens. Maybe it's because I'm not pushing a shopping cart?

I do try to be helpful when I can, especially when I know what the customer is looking for or I have some specific product knowledge about the customer's request.
 

greenlight

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Especially whem I'm wearing my ID tag. Uh, no, I don't work here, I just wear this ridiculous ID tag so people will ask me stupid questions.

I'm getting tired of people I work with asking me questions they should know already about work. I've started answering 'I don't know' to almost everything now. Maybe they'll get the picture and stop asking me. Being a knowitall has its drawbacks.
 

bobisculous

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jtice said exactly what I was about to say.

During my lunch hour from my college crappy retail job I go visit the nearby Best Buy. I wear a red polo for work. BB dudes wear blue. Way different in my opinion. But still I get asked questions every time I go there. And I know for a fact I know more than most that work at the Best Buy.

The Polo I wear very much shows I dont work for Best Buy, but instead the local sports and outdoors store. I will frequently just point to the name and logo on my polo and carry on without saying a word. I know damn well I could help the customer out more than the Best Buy workers could, but opt to use my lunch hour to suit my own needs rather than make Best Buy look better by giving answers. I will be in the camera section and over hear a conversation I would love to interupt and truly recommend what someone needs, but never seem to do it. It would make me feel better inside to say something, but I just don't like Best Buy and don't want to make someone like BB more. I rarely ever buy stuff there, I just go in to test out products I might get, as I will buy most everything online(no tax, much cheaper).

So what if I got off topic...I feel better inside after yakking about that :D No offense to anyone that works at my Best Buy.

-Cameron
 

Mike Painter

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I get asked a lot even in shorts and t-shirt. Somebody finally told me why. Almost all the T-shirts I own have "Staff" on them.
When I did a lot of consulting and the client was nice, I would tell people that I was not employed at the place, pause, then say that nobody worked there.
 

Coop

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Pretty much what Jtice said :)


But I had one rather funny experience. I was in a camera store, and I politely corrected a salesman a few times, with different customers. After a while the guy got pretty upset and asked me (not so politely) to stop correcting him. I told him I would, as soon as he would either do his homework to learn what he's talking about, or stop lying to his customers. While I did this in a very nice and polite manner, he didn't like my reply one bit. So he went off to get the manager. The manager told the guy to quit whining and that 'the helpful customer' actually made more sales than the salesman that morning...
I think it was the last time I saw that salesman at that store.... Never received a job offer tho....
 

Makarov

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It has happened to me several times, but mostly around the entrance of bars and the like. I usually wear a dark jacket or coat, and when the evening ends I'm usually the early out the door and waiting for my friends. I've been contacted several times from people assuming I'm a bouncer, and I don't really know why because I'm relatively short(174 cm).

Once at a stagparty we ended up in a stripclub, and a guy came up to me and asked if he could take some pictures of himself at the dancing pole. After some to-and-fro I said that I didn't care as I didn't work there, and he replyed shockingly "You cannot not be working here dressed like that!" I was wearing a black shirt/trousers and a white tie, and he had assumed that I was the manager. I was blatlantly dubbed "the Pimp" after that, and the white tie is now known as the "The Pimp Tie" :D
 

DUQ

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Oh man it happens to me all the time. My work uniform was the same as what they wore at Ikea. Everytime I stopped in after a shift, people asked me where something was. The worst place for this was at Home Depot!!! Employees there wear friggin orange, how can you not figure that out when you ask a man wearing a blue uniform?! At lashed out at a lady the last time it happened "AM I WEARING ORANGE?" I still slept like a baby that night ;)
 

Topper

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I get it alot in K-Mart and Lowe's. My guess is I normally do not have a cart. And if I make eye contact. I do always try to help when I can and when I can't I ask them to stay there and I go find somone that can. It can be frustrating trying to find things in stores that seem to move everything every few months.

Topper:ohgeez:
 

TENMMIKE

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LOL .nobody ever asks me if i work there , come to think about it, nobody ever asks me anything while I'm out running around.
 

chesterqw

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if they ask you the price of the product, just reply with $1.50.

that will make full use of it... and make sure they don't ask you again :)
 

chmsam

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I work for a grocery store and our uniform consists of aprons, destinctively colored shirts, and sometimes even hats (depending on the job we are doing). Our aprons, name tags, and hats all have a logo on them. We still get asked, even when we are telling other customers about a product, taking customers to products, or even when we are demonstrating products (yep, seen it happen and had it happen to me, too). We are still polite and provide service and products. Shoot, many people recognize me and will ask me questions when I am shopping in street clothes in the store I work or in others I shop. It's all OK, but I wish I got paid for all that, too!

I always get asked this question when I shop and it happens in any type of place. I must have a "there's someone who looks like they know what is going on" face. Somebody should tell my wife... she needs a laugh.
 

rik

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I'd advise you all to wear this tshirt, but i've been stood in a store, facing someone who asked me if i worked there... i stared at them for a moment. i looked at my chest. i stared again. "ohhh.. okay"
 
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