It’s always a surprise when strangers approach you while you’re shopping. It’s even more surprising when you approach you because they think you work there and expect you to help them find something.

This man was an IT employee who rarely went inside his company’s retail stores.

A customer mistook him for staff, asking him to help look for ratchet straps.

When he asked, “What makes you think I work here?” the customer gave a solid response.

Read the full story below for all the details.

Why Do You Think I Work Here?!

A few months ago, I popped into a large box store at lunch just to grab a thing.

I hate shopping and avoid going into any store as much as possible, but this store in particular I really avoid.

This man was minding his own business when a customer approached him.

So, I’m in an aisle pondering on life and this old guy comes up to me.

He says, “Excuse me, can you tell me where the ratchet straps are?”

I look at him for a beat and say, “What makes you think I work here?”

He points to the badge on a lanyard around my neck. “You are wearing a badge.”

He helped the customer find the ratchet straps and explained the situation to him.

And, in fact, that badge was for this company because I do work for them, deep at the bottom of the IT department.

So I spent the next 20 minutes trying to find the damned ratchet straps, which we did.

I explained the situation to him, and he thought it was funny.

The good news is that, thanks to this interaction, we now are mere weeks away from releasing the “Find In Store” feature for our app.

That’s funny that he works for a company that he hates shopping at.

Let’s check out the comments of other people on Reddit to this story.

It’s not hard to understand, says this person.

This user commends him.

Here’s a short but valid point.

This person loves how he eventually helped the customer.

Finally, people are loving the story.

Some small misunderstandings can lead to big improvements.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.