Sometimes customers make silly mistakes, and sometimes the best way to help them understand their mistake it to show them the reality of the situation.

Imagine doing your job in a clothing store when a customer mistakes you for another customer and starts yelling at you. Would you humor them, or would you show them how foolish they’re being?

This employee shares an amusing story of a customer and an early morning misunderstanding.

Let’s see what happened.

How dare you change that kid’s clothes in public!

I used to work at a clothing store and one of my jobs was to change the wardrobe of the mannequins.

We do this on the floor because a lot of them are high up on platforms and it’s really much easier to pull them down, plunk them on a rolling cart and change their outfits before going back up the rolling steps and putting them back.

I was doing this in the children’s section and I have a child mannequin about the size of a five-year-old on my rolling cart.

So she changes the mannequin’s clothes.

It was one slated for female clothing, so it had on a knee-length skirt, a summery top and a girl’s hat.

According to the style guide, they wanted to keep the hat but change the rest of the outfit.

I changed the shirt and threw the hat back on top before pulling down the skirt so I wouldn’t have to lift the mannequin all the way off its stand.

A customer startled her.

It is at this point that a woman starts screaming.

I look around and this woman on the other side of the children’s section is pointing wildly at me.

It’s really early in the morning, so the only other people there are the cashier, who’s got three people in line, and the manager, who’s deactivated the emergency door in the back of the store so she can vape instead of working.

Here’s how the conversation went…

W: What the hell are you doing?!

M: I’m sorry?

W: How dare you change her clothes in public! The changing station is right there!

The pointing finger moves to the kids’ changing stall.

She realizes the customer’s misunderstanding.

I quickly realize that she thinks I’m a customer (we don’t really have uniforms and she’s far enough away that she probably can’t see my name tag).

I look back at my mannequin and note something else. If she was looking over my shoulder, all she see around my body is an arm, the downed skirt and the hat.

So, with a flourish, because at this point, I’m so sick of this job I really don’t care if I get fired, I spin back and yank the hat off the mannequin and step away.

She made the customer very aware of her mistake.

The child mannequins here do not have heads.

Facing a headless, half-clothed, marble-white mannequin, she goes from squawking to silent and red-faced in an instant before storming into another section.

And I go back to changing children in public.

It’s always great when you can help someone realize their mistake without even having to say a word!

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

I have the same question.

This person couldn’t resist responding with a pun!

Here’s another story about customers who misunderstood the situation.

This person rants about style guides.

What a hilarious misunderstanding!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.