Some people seem determined to take everything the wrong way.

This retail employee was working in the teen clothing department during a busy weekend rush when she found herself trying to put merchandise away near a customer.

To avoid awkwardly squeezing past people without saying anything, she had gotten into the habit of greeting shoppers and asking if they needed help finding anything.

Most people appreciated it, but this customer reacted differently.

After the employee asked a simple customer service question, the shopper immediately became defensive and accused her of trying to rush her out of the store before she’d even had a chance to shop.

And it only got more strange from there.

Keep reading to find out what happened.

Trying to help a customer = Trying to kick them out

I work at a big store that sells clothing, home goods, etc., known for its many coupons and sales. I work the clothing, jewelery, and accessories departments, and can run registers.

On this particular day, I was working in the ‘teen girls’ clothing section, cleaning up the fitting room area when I met a special kind of crotchety old goblin.

Me = Me. COG = crotchety old goblin.

I was putting clothes up, and I have this rule I came up with where if I have to shimmy around a customer to put clothes up, I always greet them as to not be rude.

The woman had an attitude from the start.

Me (trying to put up something by her): Hi, are you finding everything alright today?

COG (very aggressively): Ummm, I just got here.

Me: Oh! I’m sorry, didn’t know. If you need any help with anything I’ll be around here.

COG (scoffs): It would be nice if the employees didn’t try to rush me out the door the second I got here.

She was shocked by the whole encounter.

Me (taken aback): I’m so sorry if it seemed that way, but I promise that was not my intention.

COG: Certainly feels like you’re trying to kick me out.

After saying this, she gets huffy and marches away.

It was the middle of a super busy weekend rush, and I was just taken aback by how this nasty old lady could get so offended over me trying to see if she needs help.

Yikes! Situations like this tend to be very annoying.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a hardware store employee who lost his cool with customers wandering around after closing time.

Let’s check out how the folks over at Reddit feel about it.

There’s no need to even speak like that.

She did do the right thing.

It does seem like a sad way to be.

This is an interesting perspective.

That was some sort of reaction!

The employee wasn’t following the customer around the store or telling her to hurry up. She simply asked if she needed help finding anything.

Instead, the customer somehow turned a routine greeting into an accusation that someone wanted her gone.

It’s always amazing how people hear a simple question and somehow manage to find an insult that was never there in the first place.