I Just Had the Weirdest and Worst Shopping Experience
There’s a new pet store somewhat close to where I live. My sister came over for the weekend, and both of us being pet owners, grabbed her daughter and headed over there. It was a nice enough store, super expensive as you’d expect for one of these dedicated pet places. But the strangest thing happened to use while we were there.
The woman who worked there followed us up and down the aisles. She kept about a ten or fifteen foot distance from us, but every so often she’d walk past us, say either “hello, how are you?” or “are you finding everything okay?” and then stand at the other end of the aisle. We were in the store for no longer than ten minutes and she did this six times while we were together. I split off from my sister and niece once and the woman ran past me asking the same questions, and before I could say anything ran off to the other aisle where my sister and niece were to ask them.
My sister and I both got something, so we went to the checkout. Except, this place didn’t have traditional checkout aisles. They had one big computer tucked away in the corner of the store. It looked like it was from the 90s. The store employee watched us from one of the aisles as we tried to figure out what to do before my sister asked her to come over. The employee said nothing as my sister told her we were ready to check out.
My sister handed her the thing she was buying, and the lady looked at it for a few seconds and handed it back to my sister, without ringing it up, and just said “Merry Christmas” with the most neutral, nothing expression on her face imaginable. My sister understandably was dumbstruck and stood there confused while the employee grabbed my item, looked at it for a few seconds, and again just said “Merry Christmas.” We looked at each other before I thought to say, “really? We can have these for free?” And she simply said “yes,” again with the same blank look on her face. My sister and I looked at each other, the employee just stood there staring at us without saying anything, and together with my niece (who was looking at dog toys at the time) we walked out of the store.
We were talking about how utterly strange that was and how we wouldn’t be going back there again when I heard footsteps behind us. I turned around, and it was that same employee, following us out to our car and watching us drive away.
What in the what?
When she followed us around the store, I thought she figured we were thieves or something. I have no idea what gave her that impression, but I don’t know why else she’d follow us like that. But when she gave us those dog treats for free (and they weren’t cheap, they were both about $20 per bag) I was totally confused. I thought maybe their system was down, but why wouldn’t she say so? And why would she follow us out the store?
I honestly don’t know what to make of any of this. If anyone has any clue, please let me know because we’re still completely dumbfounded. This feels like one of those things that’s going to randomly pop in my head ten years from now when I’m trying to go to sleep.
