Wearing a lanyard in a grocery store that uses lanyards for employee badges is apparently enough to become an honorary staff member.

In this story, a shopper found that out firsthand when a fellow customer flagged her down mid-aisle and asked about a coupon item, having spotted the lanyard and made a very reasonable assumption. The shopper smiled, cleared up the confusion without making it weird, and pointed her toward the aisle where she’d just come from.

It was a perfectly contained little moment of mistaken identity with a kind ending.

Except it didn’t quite end there. Read on to find out how the story finished up.

Because I am wearing a lanyard does that make me an employee?

I’m sure so many can relate to this happening to them.

When I was at the grocery store last Saturday I was going through my usual aisles while my husband took the other half of the aisles.

I wear a lanyard for carrying my keys and my fob for getting into work.

This particular grocery store — all employees wear lanyards with an employee ID badge instead of a name tag.

So soon the shopper was met with an unexpected interruption.

I get the next item on my list and a woman approached me asking if an item in her coupons is still available.

And I simply smiled and said, “I don’t work here, I’m sorry.”

The woman then noticed my lanyard didn’t have an employee ID badge.

The customer was embarrassed, but the shopper quickly understood her confusion.

The woman blushed and apologized, which I told her it’s okay.

I also told her I had just come from the aisle the item in question was supposed to be in, and I told her I think there’s a few items left, which she thanked me and was on her way.

As my husband and I were loading our cars (we have to take two cars because we have a big family to shop for), the woman walks by and thanks me again saying she found what she wanted.

I said she was welcome, then we went our separate ways.

This shopper came in for a few items and ended up fielding unexpected questions instead!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a cashier who was on break when she was physically dragged back to the register by a customer.

What did Reddit have to say?

This commenter is glad this shopper let the confused shopper down easy.

Some customers aren’t nearly as nice with their requests.

There is something about a lanyard that seems to confuse people.

A carabiner has a similar effect.

She wasn’t a store employee and never claimed to be, but she acted like one anyway in the best possible way.

This customer helped the woman, pointed her in the right direction, and didn’t make the mix-up awkward for anyone involved. The parking lot thank-you at the end was the kind of small, wholesome moment that makes grocery runs feel like something more than an errand.

Most people would have just corrected the mistake and walked off. She chose to be useful instead.

It cost her about thirty seconds and resulted in a genuinely sweet interaction with a stranger.

It’s proof that being kind costs nothing at all!