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Retail employees never know which customer interaction will unexpectedly become the highlight of their entire shift.
What happens when a curious little shopper discovers that a store tablet contains work programs instead of games?
Instead of losing interest, one polite boy began investigating just how joyless this employee’s working conditions truly were.
Let’s see how this tiny workplace inspection unfolded.
Little kids are so unintentionally funny sometimes
At my shoe store, we have tablets where we can check people out, look at our website, order shoes for them, etc.
Usually, there is one or two associates on the floor with those tablets, helping people out with those things.
On this day, I was working with women with the tablet.
A woman and her two kids, a boy aged 6-7 and a girl aged 4-5, enter our store from the elevator.
The first thing I noticed was that the kids were on scooters. Which was actually pretty cute.
But they behaved differently from most kids we see nowadays.
They just cruised slowly behind their mom, and weren’t causing any trouble.
I went over to ask the mother if she needed any help, and it turns out the family was English and had accents (which as an American is always unnecessarily exciting for me).
The kids also had accents, which was adorable.
I’m helping out the mother and using the tablet to look something up for her.
As I’m doing this, the boy comes over and tries to see what I’m doing.
I bent down to show him what I was doing, and talked through it.
He watched with way more fascination than I would ever expect (it’s really not an interesting process) and politely waited for me to finish what I was doing.
The boy had a question.
After I let the mom know about her shoes, the boy asks if he can see the tablet again and I show him the screen while I’m still holding it.
The conversation went as follows, the words aren’t exact, but the content is the same.
I will be Me and the kid will be B. Reminder, this kid has a posh little English accent.
B: How do I get out of this? (referring to the program I was using to look up shoes)
Me: (exits program) Like this.
B: Where are your games?
Me: I’m sorry bud, but I don’t have any games on here.
He looks at me with genuine concern, like he seemed really worried for me.
The interaction was different from what he expected.
B: They don’t let you have games?! What do you do?!
Me: I have to work and help people. My boss wouldn’t like it if I were playing games all day.
B: What about toys?
Me: No, I don’t get any toys either.
B: (he touches my arm like a parent would to a child) I’m so sorry.
At this point, the mom was finished shopping and started taking the kids to leave.
As they’re getting ready to leave, the boy says to me: “I hope they let you have some fun.”
This interaction really made my day.
I’ve had kids before try and play games on my tablet, but I’d never had any of them feel bad for me when I told them I don’t have any.
It was hilarious and adorable.
This wholesome story warmed my heart!
Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this.
Probably both.
Oof.
No in between.
Cute!
They just waited for Halloween until one needed a job.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who cleverly shuts down customer arguments about closing time.
Adorable indeed.
After learning that the employee’s tablet had no games, the boy became genuinely concerned about how she possibly survived each shift.
He offered a sympathetic touch, apologized for her toy-free existence, and left sincerely hoping her employers would eventually permit some fun.
A tiny British customer entered looking for shoes and departed convinced he had witnessed an employee trapped inside a joyless Dickensian tablet factory.