Have you ever gone to a big box store and gotten a free sample? Personally, I love stores that hand out samples because it’s much easier to know if I’m going to like something or not if I can try it first.

What’s important to note is that these workers don’t actually work for the store. They are third party vendors.

Imagine being one of these third party vendors handing out samples when a customer thinks you work for the store and keeps asking you questions you really can’t answer. How would you handle the situation?

The worker in this story is in that exact situation. Let’s see how they handle it.

No, I still don’t work for the store!

I work for one of those companies that hands out free samples in big box stores.

We don’t work FOR the store, but as a third party.

Our uniform is just your basic white shirt and black pants.

The big box store in question, their employees wear blue or orange vests and name tags with the store’s name on them.

One customer asked for assistance.

One day while doing my sampling thing, an elderly lady stops and asks me where something is in the store.

I responded by telling the lady that I don’t work FOR the store and have no knowledge of the exact layout of the store, so I stopped a blue vested person and asked him.

He was able to help the lady. He nicely told the old lady that she should let him know if she needed any other help.

I went about my business.

The same lady came back.

About five minutes later, she’s back and asking me to come to another aisle to help her lift something into her cart.

I explain to her again that I don’t work for the store. I also explain to her that I am not allowed to leave my sample cart, and she should ask the person in the blue vest walking towards us.

She gives me a nasty look and walks away, mumbling under her breath.

The lady comes back yet again!

About another 10 minutes later, here she comes again.

She walks over to my cart and pushes through the short line of people waiting for a free sample.

This little old lady SLAMS this box down on my cart, knocking a bunch of stuff off of my serving tray, and tells me that I had to read the ingredients to her, then tell her how to cook the product, because she couldn’t see the writing.

Again, “Ma’am, I am not a (insert big box store name here) employee. I’m sorry, but I am very busy with these other members and I’m unable to help you.” (Had there been no one at my cart, I would have read the box for her, if she’d asked nicely.)

A supervisor came to her rescue.

I suddenly see one of the store supervisors walking by, and I called him to my cart to help the lady.

He politely says, “Hello, ma’am. How can I help you?”

The first words out of her mouth? “You need to tell your people how to treat customers!” She says this as she points at me.

The supervisor responded, “Ma’am, she doesn’t work for the store. Now what can I do to help you?”

She picked up her box and stomped away, complaining about “lazy workers” all the way to the registers.

It sounds like this lady is going to be a continuous problem.

Same lady came in the next day and asked me for help again.

“Sorry, ma’am. I still don’t work for the store. I can’t help you.”

Turns out, she’s one of our regular “grazers.”

I have never wanted to run someone over with a metal cart so badly before that day.

I wonder how long it will take for that lady to finally understand how to find an actual store employee.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person shares their experience working for the same company.

Here’s a theory about why the woman keeps asking her for help.

Here’s a completely different theory about the woman’s intentions.

No, she shouldn’t really do this.

Some customers really can’t take a hint.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.