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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

I'm always getting mistaken for a shop worker

133 replies

temosmail · 03/08/2023 01:22

AIBU for always being annoyed for always been mistaken for a shop worker or do people not check?

I'm always been mistaken for a shop worker. The other day I went to the B&Q in a pair of flip flops, adidas stripped hoodie, jogging bottoms and had my sunglasses on my head. I was pushing a trolly and someone still thought I worked for B&Q.

Late at night in a not busy McDonald's I was wearing flip flops, long black jogging bottoms and a long grey top. I was sipping on my Oasis and I still got asked to help with the machine.

I'm always alone and minding my own business....

OP posts:
Adelstrop · 03/08/2023 09:53

Not in supermarkets, but it doesn’t matter where I am in the world, someone will ask me for directions. I can get lost going upstairs.

FlamingYam · 03/08/2023 10:03

*Wouldn't you go to the staffed counter which was three steps away?

If I'm desperate for help I would go to a staff area first, not other customers*

Yes I would. You would. Evidently, they wouldn't. Just do something weird for kicks next time.

StarlightLady · 03/08/2023 10:33

A light but true response. I was recently in a well known department store wearing a summer dress, a soggy summer dress, I had just got caught in a heavy downpour. I was standing there dripping, soaked hair and steamed up glasses, with an ever enlarging puddle on the floor emerging round me and some twit thought I worked there.

AffIt · 03/08/2023 10:36

This happens to my cousin all the time, we joke she has 'resting 'Can I Help You?' face'. 😁

Sleepyquest · 03/08/2023 12:48

This happens to my brother a lot.
One time a woman asked him loads of questions about where things were and he kept saying 'sorry, I don't know' and in the end she got cross and said 'do you work here or what?' And he said 'no...' 😂

RoseBucket · 03/08/2023 12:52

This happens to me a lot, and people asking me for directions! I always (why I don’t know) try to actually help find what they want, a member of staff or Google directions. My daughter always says ‘it’s always me’

declutteringmymind · 03/08/2023 12:53

Maybe you come across as approachable. Perhaps work on you fuck off vibes.

TRexTara · 03/08/2023 12:59

I used to get this a lot when I was younger. I worked for years in retail and realised I wasn't helping myself because I couldn't help but tidy up and space the hangers on clothes rails when I was having a browse, had to stop doing that.

LardoBurrows · 03/08/2023 13:00

I never have this problem when I wear my Chanel suit in B&Q.

toddlermum27 · 03/08/2023 13:02

I asked someone to help me reach something when I was 9 months pregnant, I knew they didn't work there, I just needed some help, they got very huffy about not working there, v strange

Rummikub · 03/08/2023 13:09

I ask tall people to get stuff for me sometimes. I knew they were customers.

Think that’s ok..

Daphnis156 · 03/08/2023 13:11

This reply has been deleted

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Dombasle · 03/08/2023 13:17

Up your glamour. Get those evening dresses out of the wardrobe that have been gathering dust and wear them to go shopping. Don a tiara and a bright lipstick and you'll never be mistaken for a shop assistant again.

Dombasle · 03/08/2023 13:18

Wear a badge -

www.etsy.com/ie/listing/62412037/dont-ask-me-i-dont-work-here-button

brunettemic · 03/08/2023 13:21

Just tell them, “yep, they’re on aisle 14” (unless you’re on aisle 14).

FlamingYam · 03/08/2023 13:21

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You sound lovely.

Duckduckie · 03/08/2023 13:24

Not to brag but I got mistaken for a worker in H&M at the weekend I was so chuffed!

Meant I didn’t look like a scruffy tired mum for once! I celebrated lol

HollieHobbie · 03/08/2023 13:26

My DH and I were going to a funeral so him wearing a black suit, me in a black dress and heels popped into Tesco to get a pair of tights as I'd laddered my only pair and got asked by 3 different people why we weren't opening more checkouts as the queues were long. 🙄

Ive also been accosted by an older lady about 5 times now (walking by a bus stop, in the local shop, in the pub and once while gardening) who stops and tells me in gruesome detail her "plumbing" problems and what happened at the hospital the last time "so's you know in case I don't get booked in with you at the surgery luv" I've tried to tell her she's got the wrong person but once she starts talking its like trying to stop an express train with a butterfly net.

BloodyHellKen · 03/08/2023 13:28

It could be worse OP, when I was in my teens I was mistaken for a mannequin. I was stood waiting for my mum at the bottom of a flight of stairs in a department store and a compete (older female) stranger walked up to me and started feeling my coat remarking to her friend how nice it was. She almost wet herself when I moved 😂

CurlyhairedAssassin · 03/08/2023 13:33

temosmail · 03/08/2023 09:40

They are asking for help. Guy at McDonald's was at the kiosk ordering food

But he could have just been needing, you know, help with the ordering system. From a fellow human. Who maybe looks like they've done it before.

littlefluffycloudy · 03/08/2023 13:36

I got mistaken for a bobby last week. I wearing a white shirt and blue jeans!

I once popped into Manchester art gallery on my lunch break to see my favourite painting. So I was walking fast through the gallery, in skirt suit and heels. A lady stopped me and said "your gallery is stunning, well done"!

Upsizer · 03/08/2023 13:39

This happens to me all the time too!! No it’s not a BIGGIE but WHY????

DH thinks I have a confident walk (?)

CurlyhairedAssassin · 03/08/2023 13:40

Rummikub · 03/08/2023 13:09

I ask tall people to get stuff for me sometimes. I knew they were customers.

Think that’s ok..

Of course it is. I'm quite surprised at the story about the old lady and reading the "fucking small print". All she said to the poster's husband was "excuse me." He didn't wait to see what she wanted, just went straight in with "I don't work here." No wonder she was blunt back with him. How did he know she wasn't going to say something like "You've dropped this, I think" or "is your mum called Margaret? Cos you don't half look like her - she lives down my road and I knew her son when he was a boy but haven't seen him for years"

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 03/08/2023 13:45

When I was a teenager I was browsing earrings in C&A once and a woman and her daughter thought I was a shop worker and started bitching in full earshot about how lazy I was.
Opened my eyes to how badly some people treat shop staff….
If it happened now I would say calmly, ‘I don’t actually work here but I think you’re extremely rude.’ But being a teenager I just turned bright red and scarpered, completely mortified.

purplecorkheart · 03/08/2023 13:51

Do people actually think that you work there or are they just asking for help from another customer. I often get asked for help by people in Supermarkets etc but don't think they think I work there. I think I have one of those faces. I am forever being asked for direction or to take someone photo at tourist sites etc.

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