So. Apparently wearing a black pair of jeans that have a small hole in one leg, a casual sweater, and a red sox jacket over the sweater while staring at fabrics in Joann Fabrics with kind of a blank look makes other customers think you're an employee there. A random woman walked right into the store with a cart and just pulls up beside where I was standing and just flat out asks, "What time do you close?" (doesn't even stop to ask, "Do you work here?" first). I just looked at her with the same blank stare I had on and said, "I don't work here" and proceeded to ignore her. XD

Her excuse was, "Oh, you looked like you were sorting fabrics". But like I said, I ignored her / didn't respond further to anything she said. But in my head I was thinking, "So you think employees are allowed to wear worn out jeans and hoodie jackets as their work clothes?"

Tell me your encounters in any store you've been in where this has happened to you or you've seen it happen to someone else.

I've gotten that before. If I know the answer, I usually just answer them. Or a mixture of "Oh, I don't work here, but I think etc...." Overall, I don't mind~ ヽ(´ー`)ﾉ

Normally I don't mind but the way this woman just walked in and kind of just asked her question so suddenly, not even asking if I even worked there, and kind of had an attitude behind her tone, I just didn't want to deal with her. XD

I used to work at a pharmacy, and part of our uniform was a blue smock and a lanyard with our name tag and punch card on it. Well apparently this meant that I worked at EVERY store I went into, because I've been asked questions in Wal-Mart, K-Mart, grocery stores, even Target! I was wearing the blue smock and black pants in a Target one day after work and this lady comes up to me and asks me if I could show her where something was... the uniform for Target employees (red shirt and tan pants) isn't even close to what I was wearing! Do people just see the lanyard with the name tag on it an assume I work there no matter what else I'm wearing? D:

I hate when people with attitudes ask for help when you don't even work there. I actually get that a lot. Not sure if it's how I carry myself or my clothes or if people just feel comfortable approaching me or what it is but I'll be shopping and people ask me for help. Most the time I just tell them I don't work there then if I know the answer to their question I answer them.

I've also had times where I would be off the clock shopping and people ask me for help.

Originally Posted by Mystic

I hate when people with attitudes ask for help when you don't even work there. I actually get that a lot. Not sure if it's how I carry myself or my clothes or if people just feel comfortable approaching me or what it is but I'll be shopping and people ask me for help. Most the time I just tell them I don't work there then if I know the answer to their question I answer them.

I've also had times where I would be off the clock shopping and people ask me for help.

Mystic:
Where I work, people will stop my co-workers and I if we're off the clock and we're wearing our jackets over our uniforms. Hell, we'll get stopped while we're ON THE PHONE and we're walking to go out of the store.

I couldn't help myself one time with giving a customer my, ". . . Really?" look when I was walking back into the store I work at while I was on my lunch break. I was holding a bag of McDonalds in one hand and my drink in another, TAKING A DRINK FROM IT. And this woman comes up to me and asks if I can show her where something is. I wasn't wearing my name tag or lanyard, I was just in my clothes, walking through the store to get to the break room in the back while drinking my soda and holding my lunch. XD

It was really bad when I worked at a pet store. I was the only one that knew anything about fish or reptiles. People that knew I worked there would stop me even if I was in another store and ask me questions. Like one time my girlfriend and I were at Walmart and this guy stopped to ask me about his fish and how he should set his tank up. I don't mind most the time as long as I'm not in a hurry and people aren't annoying about it.

Mystic:
I don't know, to me that just seems kind of rude. You're in another store, clearly off the clock and doing your own shopping. xD People should know not to bother you during your time off.

I'm pretty laid back most the time about things but yeah, it is kinda rude. I wouldn't personally do it, especially if someone if with their partner. XD

I usually just get followed around the store by employees or security that think I'm going to steal something.
Oh yeah, I stick out like a sore thumb. I'm totally going to be all stealthy ninja and shove this beer down my pants. I might even be able to fit this big fat bag of chips in my boot.
Seriously, everywhere I go I get stared at. What dumb ass would steal anything with the whole damn store staring at them? /:
I don't steal anyway. xD
Go after the normal people or the wannabe gangsters walking around the store with their pants around their ankles.
I see those shiesty bastards creepin' around all suspicious looking, shoving bottles of liqour in their clothes all sneaky like. ALL THE TIME!!!
Why don't they get followed around? xD
Hell, they're waaay more suspicious looking than my loud, crazy, obnoxiousness.
Their whole sketchy demeanor is like SUPER obvious.
Pacing around, looking over their shoulder, walking super slow.
Hello!! I see you!
...and the overly "normal" looking people walking around...Just casually putting things in their bag, all out in the open, knowing no store personnel will even look twice at them.
Da fuq man!!
I mean, I'm usually bouncing around all hyper, dressed in crazy bright clothes half the time, tattoos, piercings, crazy ass ginger fro with bangs dyed BRIGHT red...who honestly would be stealing with all those eyes drawn to them?
No one with a brain, that's for certain.
Just don't get it man, just don't get it. xD

Never been in that spot, but I have got to say that lady is an idiot. I am not sure how it is where you are but around here what you described yourself as having been wearing (particularly the black ripped jeans) is a super rare acceptable dress code for a workplace. Only Hot Topic or this rinky dink place called Tilly's that I know of would allow that. Though I have hardly ever set foot in a fabric store I still think they would be like a business casual.
Honestly any workplace that would allow such a casuel, you can even say free dress code, would be the minimum wage job of my dreams!

One time I got something like that at Walmart. To be fair, I was wearing a blue shirt and was tidying up the CD area. Everything was in the wrong place and it was bothering me, so I was putting everything back where it belonged. But I was also 14.

This tends to happen to me a lot
I don't even usually wear anything that looks similar to what the employees in the stores wear, I just happen to like to help tidy up some of the messier areas while shopping (I can't stand going through messy clothes racks).

I usually try to help the person, but if I'm feeling a bit annoyed or cranky I just tell them that I don't work there. There are also times where I like to mess with them, but I don't do that often because that's kinda rude.

In middle school, I took Karate lessons at the karate place in the same shopping plaza as the grocery store in my town. And after the lessons were done, my mom and I went grocery shopping. I was in my karate uniform and sweaty and gross looking. Well this guy comes up to me and just starts asking me what aisle he can find a certain product in. And I looked at him, then my outfit, then at him and said, "I'm sorry, I don't work here!" and he was so embarrassed!

I just have NO idea how he could have mistaken me for an employee. Even as a 23 year old, I look like I'm 12 years old. So back when I was 12 I looked like I was in elementary school. Plus the karate uniform D: XD

I never get that. Though when I worked at a grocery store all the sudden one day customers asked one of the managers (not even my manager) if they could request me as their cashier... Now the first time was just two old ladies so no one thought anything of it. But then more people would request me. People would even wait in 10 person line just to have me as their cashier... What is even strange now keep in mind cahsiers cannot accept tips, one day a lady gave my boss an envelope to give to me. My boss told me to open it up in front of them and out popped $60!!! This also happened with other customers! Then the owners of the store chain heard of this and they came in with a $1,000 check for me and promoted me to have any hours I wanted, managers break time instead of 15 minutes I then got 30 minutes for a full lunch, and also I got paid holidays off!!!

Ah the best part of this though it was a snub to my old boss in my old job who abused me~~ Even though I can't work right now when I go to that store people still think I work their. I really wish I could go back to work! T.T Best job ever!

Sometimes I get stop by random people while I'm in walmart. they'll ask me politely if I know where something is. if I do I tell them where to go and rarely people need help. getting some stuff down so I'll try get it for them cause. I'm use to doing it for my mom are for my grand papa.

I love when people who recognize me and know I work in the building ask me for help, even if I'm not working that day. I work in a pharmacy at walmart, in a pretty small town, so even if I go in there for something on my day off and people who know me see me, they'll ask me for help :P The worst part is that I usually help them, even if I'm not supposed to. Work ethics and all that, I guess, but I think it's just a nice thing to do. I won't do anything more than show where something else. More help, find someone on the job.

A couple that comes into the charity where I work will stop me if they see me on the street, and ask me if we've got particular things in at work -.-

I saw them coming down the street towards me one day and I literally hide from them so they couldn't do it

This happens to me quite a bit when I'm in stores. If it's a store I'm in a lot I'll usually help out, but if not I just tell the person that I don't work there. I'm a teenager so I look pretty common-place in some of these stores. Plus a lot of these places I go are really casual. Like "wear what ever you want as long as it isn't jeans, mini skirt, short shorts, t-shirt, or tank top and doesn't have holes or bleach stains" casual. So yeah. But one time, when I actually had a job at a store I liked, I'd get stopped in there all the time on my off days. I live in a city, but you tend to see most people more than once, so I'm always just nice. It's how I was raised, even on my worst days I'm nice.
-smh-
But it is irritating.

I've had things like that happen to me before, where I wore a similar-ish uniform into another store, but it CLEARLY has the logo for the other business on it, and ask me where things are. I usually give them a blank look and tell them I don't work and I don't know.
Usually I'm wandering around lost myself anyways!

People tend to stay away from me at regular establishments (I am "scary", as I have dark hair/eyes and am tall), however, I do get a lot of mix-ups at work. I am a bartender, though unless I am behind the bar, people assume I am a bouncer and will ask me to deal with obnoxious drunks, complain about this or that, and have even handed me keys. The strangest incident yet has to be when I was out getting some air on my break and two people tried to bribe me to let their underage friend in. I told them they were on a watch list now (there is no such thing) and they never tried again with any of the bouncers. They also stayed away from the club for weeks.*chuckles* It was kind of satisfying, really.

While I was walking around in the DVD section at Wal-mart, someone asked my roommate if she worked there... she was wearing her FedEx Uniform. o.O

People ask me sometimes but I just tell them to get away from me.

Occasionally when I'm in Best Buy or any other sort of store debating buying a video game, I'll see a flustered mother looking around trying to figure something out about a game or console and I'll offer advice. One time, I was asked if I could check to see if a game was in stock after doing this, and she was surprised that a stranger would just stop and help someone out in a store.

One time I was standing in line at Bulk Barn, with an arm load of candy, when a woman came up to me and asked if I have T.V.P. The only thing that might have tipped her off that I was an employee at someplace somewhere was the lanyard I'd been wearing at the time. There wasn't even a name tag, JUST the lanyard.

The really funny thing was that I didn't know that T.V.P meat Textured Vegetable Powder. I though she'd asked me if I have some kind of disability or condition (there are no less than four group homes for mid to low functioning mentally disabled adults in the area, and it's pretty standard to see quite a few of the core members around). I was so startled by the question, thinking "Oh god, did I drool or something? Do I look disabled somehow?!" that I practically yelled "EXCUSE ME?!" with far more indignation than was probably warranted, right in the poor lady's face!

The real Bee-Barn employees jumped to our mutual rescues, and looking back now it was pretty funny. XD