I’ve read a lot of stories where people are upset and confused when someone stops them in a store assuming that they work there when they really don’t, but it’s not as common to read the story from the opposite perspective.

That’s the unusual perspective we have in this story where someone admits to stopped a stranger in a store and realizing way too late that this stranger isn’t an employee.

This story also might give us some compassion if we ever are stopped in a store by someone who thinks we work there, because you never know what the other person is going through when they make this mixup.

Let’s read all about it.

Construction Champagne

In this tale I was the person assuming another shopper was an employee.

New Years Eve 2021: It was late, my fiancé’s mother was in the hospital for over a week at that point, and I was tasked with acquiring champagne so we could have a little bit of celebration in the midst of a health emergency.

I was wandering around a Target in New York state looking for champagne.

I couldn’t find it and I realized that maybe NY has different laws about when/where you can buy champagne (I don’t live in NY so I don’t know).

Time to find an employee.

I looked around for an employee and saw a woman wearing a construction hat, hi-vis vest, steel toe boots, and other construction PPE.

My brain told me: “this person is wearing a uniform, they must work here”.

Of course this doesn’t make sense now, but at the time I had so many other things on my mind.

The construction worker was nice about the mixup.

I approached her and said “Do you have any champagne?”

She didn’t react and I’m very soft-spoken, so I repeated my question loudly.

She stared at me for a while, likely trying to understand what exactly was going on. In her mind I’m sure she thought there was no possible way I could mistake her for a Target employee.

After some thinking, she responded “Honey, I wish I did!”, then folded her arms and faced me.

OP still didn’t get it.

I should have figured it out then, but I didn’t.

I said, “can you please help me find some? I can’t find any.”

She responded, “maybe an employee would know where to find some.”

At least the woman didn’t get upset.

It took a moment, but I got it. I smacked my head and apologized over and over.

She just laughed at me as I walked away.

I left Target and drove straight to the liquor store after that.

That’s funny! What’s weird is that some of my local Target stores carry alcohol and some don’t. Going to a liquor store was a smart decision.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Apparently, some states don’t allow Target to sell alcohol.

Someone from New York weighs in.

Apparently, liquor laws vary wildly from state to state.

This is a funny comparison!

At least the construction worker didn’t get upset!

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.