Customers often get a bad reputation.

That’s because, while we don’t generally remember the everyday or normal, pleasant interactions with customers, we absolutely remember the ones that frustrated us or hurt our feelings.

For the gift shop worker in this story, however, one interaction in particular was a little different.

And they remembered this one for all the right reasons.

My favorite story from work

I work in a small gift store in a touristy town in the middle of nowhere in New England.

I, like many other people in my town, consider “in the area” to be in my town and in the neighboring town. By this definition, there are no supermarkets “in the area.” I’ve also never seen a Whole Foods in person, nor do I regularly hear about that chain.

The family that runs the shop also runs a few other places around town, including boat tours, and people often call our store asking for information on the area. We usually answer what questions we can, then try to direct them to the tour people or anyone else who might be helpful.

I was sixteen at the time of this story, and it was my first summer working there.

Let’s see how this day got started.

One day, the phone rang, and I was the only one close enough to pick it up. I said, “[gift store], how can I help you?” fully expecting it to be the third person today asking if we were open (no we’re closed, I’m just answering the phone for fun).

The man on the line asked, “Hi, is this the gift store?” to which I answered, “Yes, how can I help you?”

He proceeded to say, “I’m new to the area, and I have a question. Do you know if there are any supermarkets in the area?”

There was a short pause for me to think before I replied, “Not… not really in the area, no.”

But he never expected how the guy replied.

He said, “I see here that there’s a [supermarket 1] and [supermarket 2] in the area.”

I was asking myself why he needed to ask me where these things were if he’d already looked them up, but I responded, “yes, but they’re about a forty five minute drive, so I don’t know how far you’re willing to drive for your groceries, but there’s a [local grocery] in the downtown area, just off Main Street.”

He continued, “Okay, but can you tell me how [supermarkets 1 and 2] compare to Whole Foods?”

This time there was a super long pause as I completely blanked on what a Whole Foods is, before I said, “uh…um, I’m not sure, but I’m sure you can find some information on their websites.”

The guy’s questions didn’t stop there, though.

He said, “Okay, well, what about [local supermarket]? How does that compare to Whole Foods?”

I replied, “Ummm…I’m not sure, but if you call them, I’m sure they’d be happy to answer your questions.”

Then he asked, “What about the catch of the day? Do they have that?”

By this time I was really confused. I dropped my customer service voice but maintained my professionalism. “No- uh, I’m- I’m not sure, but I’m sure that they could answer that question for you.”

Finally, the guy got the message.

He asked, “Well, can you give me their number?” to which I replied, “I’m sorry, I don’t have that on hand, but you can find it online.”

He said, “Okay…I guess I’ll go call them,” and I replied, “Good luck, and have a nice day.” To that, he responded, “You too, bye.”

No Karen, no yelling, no managers. Just a somewhat funny story to add on to the ever-growing list of stories I have from that place.

I’ve always wondered why customers act like employees at my store magically know everything about the whole state, or why they ask us questions that they could easily look up on their own time. Dude was nice, though, just a little confused.

Sometimes when you move to a completely new area, it can take a while to get your bearings.

During this time, the advice and support of locals is vital.

After all, we’re social creatures at heart, and leaning on others for help is only natural.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person had had similar experiences with less pleasant customers.

While others were eye rolling at the customer asking for a completely different store’s number.

Meanwhile, this Redditor could relate to this story.

It’s nice that this gift shop could act as a kind of information hub for the small town.

But it’s also good that, unlike many customers, this guy didn’t get mad at the worker for not knowing absolutely everything.

Good customers really do exist!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a cashier who gave her phone number to be friendly to a guest, but immediately wished she could take it back.