Times have changed since shoe store workers had their meaty paws all over the feet of customers on a daily basis.

Most folks don’t want their feet touched by strangers these days, and people who work in shoe stores aren’t exactly crazy about it, either.

A store worker told readers about how they reacted when a customer wanted them to give them a helping hand while trying on shoes.

Read on and see what you think.

Am I supposed to put shoes on for a customer?

“I’ll keep this short.

I work the shoe department of a pretty big retail store, I am used to helping customers with whatever they need usually, but this felt like it’d be crossing my personal boundaries.

This middle aged lady comes in, asks for a shoe, and I grab it for her. She then takes it over to one of the seats, doesn’t put on the pantyhose/stocking meant for trying on shoes that I had handed her, and starts unboxing the shoes.

Oh, no!

She then waves me over to where she is sitting, and asks for a shoe horn, I tell her that we unfortunately don’t have one, and then she tells me to put the shoe on for her (I had to touch the bottom of her foot and pull a strap up).

I felt so uncomfortable, and offered to grab her a stocking so that if I did help her, I wouldn’t be touching her bare foot, and she refused.

I kinda just sighed internally, then tried to just pull the strap up, it wouldn’t really budge then I stopped to offer her a bigger size.

She wasn’t willing to try another size and made it seem like I just wasn’t trying. She then complained about how stores now are the worst and she didn’t want anything.

That didn’t go very well…

I understand she may have mobility issues, so I did try to offer her something extremely similar that she could just slip on, but again she was just not accepting of the idea.

Let me just add too, I don’t have the access to a close sink and I can’t just walk away from my area to wash my hands, it was a hot summer day and she was wearing filthy gym shoes, and in general, I don’t like having to touch a customer.

I don’t know, this just seems ridiculous because why buy a shoe if you can’t even put it on yourself, or why make someone else put it on for you?

I am sick of feeling like someone that can just be told to do whatever and not have the authority to question it.”

Check out what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person spoke up.

Another individual weighed in.

This Reddit user had a lot to say.

Another reader shared their thoughts.

Can we please normalize not touching the bare feet of strangers…?

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.