Being mistaken for a record store clerk

I assume it's happened to most of us here.

HMV in London - someone came up to me and asked "where's the easy listening section?"

From you know you're in a shitty record store when....:

[q](I've been mistaken for a record store employee at least 4 times over the years, but I guess I shouldn't place the blame on the stores themselves, i.e. mostly N3wbury C0mics)

think I've been mistaken for an employee two or three times in various N3wbury C0mics stores over the years

― markers, Saturday, July 31, 2010 1:01 PM (1 hour ago)[/q]

When I actually was a record store clerk I would be mistaken for the actual manager because I was the only employee on the floor wearing a button down shirt and khakis.

HMV in London - someone came up to me and asked "where's the easy listening section?"

...I'd almost take that as a bizarre compliment these days.

The question now is: has anyone mistaken for a clerk played along and messed with the person asking for help?

The question now is: has anyone mistaken for a clerk played along and messed with the person asking for help?

Nope. When I've been asked, I always make an earnest effort to help...for about thirty seconds. I say "I don't work here, but I think this is what you're looking for" and then go on about my own business. I can't imagine having such an empty life that it would amuse me to fuck with someone looking for something to listen to.

^this

high horse

I was wearing my 3rd party IT support corporate identity black polo shirt at the time. I told him "in the basement, go down the escalator, it's on the right".

I've been mistaken for a gym class instructor, for a librarian and for a grocery store clerk but never for a record store clerk. I must now hang out around record shops all dressed in black until someone does.

I went to a certain record shop 2-3 times a week from about 2003 until 2009. I've been asked probably 15 times for help. People saw me in there so frequently that they would come in and see me there again and think I worked there. I always responded "well i don't actually work here, i just shop here a lot, but X section is over there/i think you would like Y artist based on what you're asking me/etc."

A+

I am a record store clerk!

Have you ever been mistaken for a customer?

I keep reading the title of this thread as "Being Mistaken For a Record."

"I guess I should stop wearing that black vinyl circle skirt."

You would be surprised at how many of my customer interactions start with "do you work here?" Clearly people are not sure! Just yesterday, in fact, a lady walked in while I was going through a bay of CDs with a handheld scanner and asked me "do you work here or are you just helping out?" She wasn't joking, either. Like me and everybody else likes to go and hit up Target on my off days to help out America with inventory.

She might have thought you worked for one of those companies like RGIS that hires temps to go into stores and do inventory.

I used to have little kids on the street shout "Austin Powers" at me. Then I grew my my hair back out.

But yes, I have helped quite a few people find what they're looking for (or something better) at stores I've never worked at.

It's never happened to me in a record store, but it has in Borders - I was pissing about on the computer catalogue when approached and asked for the Gay and Lesbian section. I too made an inept and earnest effort to help the guy. It was only when he had a whole load of follow-up questions that I realised I'd been mistaken for a clerk. Or was being chatted up, if that's how these things work.

Were the follow-up questions something along the lines of "You have such muscular calves--can I touch them?" Because that's one of the ones I got when I was actually a clerk at Borders.

Oh, I only used to mess with the customers when I actually worked at a record store. And yes, my life was that dead and empty for the 8 hours a day I was there.

Used to happen to me all the time, but thankfully less so since I've become more visibly middle aged.

Though that hasn't stopped the urge to correct outspoken young men imparting RONG information about music very loudly to their mates in the aisles. Does anyone else ever get this?

Haha no way xp - even I would twig at what's going on there

this never happened to me but i got mistaken for a technician in college and spent my final year giving darkroom classes and fixing the colour printer

I once got mistaken for a peer-to-peer filesharing network. That was awkward.

This happens practically every single time I am at Amoeba. I can usually answer the question though ("where is X section, etc.")

It's no big deal to tell someone where a section is (if I know the answer). It's akin to when you're walking and someone asks for directions--though I suppose sidewalks don't normally have a bunch of paid direction-givers milling about wearing lanyards identifying them as such.

But I did work in retail for a long time, and encountered a large number of pushy assholes, who don't bother with politeness when asking questions. So when I'm shopping and some middle aged guy starts asking me why I shelve the Bruce Springsteen CDs under S instead B where it's easier to find them, or shoves a list of CDs at me and says "find these while go take a shit"--I almost want to go Jack Black on them, but usually just walk away as though I didn't hear them.

I guess I've been guilty of messing with people, but I'd like to think for a good cause. Someone asked me where the Limp Biscuit was at Tower and I said they were out, but did you know they're older than they look, and some members previously were in another lesser known band? They seemed pretty excited about this new information, and ended up buying Funhouse.

I'm frequently mistaken for a record store clerk, and I suppose I deserve it since I'm always correcting mis-filed discs.

xp: the P!nk album or The Stooges?

That's actually pretty excellent, whichever album it was.

Happened to me in Circuit City when I was 19. I was wearing a dress shirt and a redneck woman wanted Limp Bizkit or some bullshit.

A better story is when I was dropping of an application at EB Games (also age 19) and on my way out a woman assumed I worked there and I helped her pick out a gameboy sp and two games for her son for Christmas AND THEY STILL DIDN'T HIRE ME. I'm a born retail salesmen, assholes

this happens every freakin' time i go to the damn music store

This has never happened to me at a record store (probably cause the ones I go to are small and the customers recognize the two dudes who are always behind the counter) , but it happens at every used bookstore I ever go to.

This happens to me in lingerie stores, and I have no freaking idea why, since I dress & look like a schlub and not one of the dolled-up, well-dressed women that they actually hire at these places. And it's always very old ladies approaching me, "Pardon me, miss, do you have this in a 34E?"

i think this only ever happened to me once, at a trader joe's, which maybe indicates that i give off a fairly definitive vibe of unemployability and dress like a would-be parrothead?

when i bought quiet riot's metal health record in sixth grade, the store clerk at record city or whatever the fuck it was called looked at it and pronounced "haha Quiet Riot sucks to his co-worker". then i went home and listened to slick black cadillac like fifty times in a row or something

"sucks" how i can't type n e more these days

i had one person come up to me and say "Excuse me, can you tell me where 'item' is?"...I wasn't dressed real fancy, but I did my usual spiel ("I'm sorry, I don't work here"), and had no idea where it was. Odd thing is she said she knew I didn't work there after I said that.

SO WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME THEN WHEN THERE ARE 2-3 EMPLOYEES TWEAKING THEIR NIPPLES TO EITHER DIRECTION OF ME?

this was at an FYE too...ya know, where they have UNIFORMS

because she found you attractive. suck it up, man

I'm not sure if I'd shop in a store where visible clerk nipple tweaking was going on.

come to think of it maybe it wasn't a store after all

This happened to me in Staples last week. While I was wearing a really ratty tank top and cutoffs. WTF?

I'll know something's wrong if I walk in wearing nipple clamps and a diaper and I get asked questions

it's the economy, stupid. i mean, i saw mr. peanut sprawled out in jorts the other day