The Dish Towel That Made Me Sick

Sometimes I like to share everyday stories about little incidents that occur. This one has nothing to do with the boys, just me and some rude shop owners.

In case any of my readers are shop owners, here's a tip: your customers don't like being ignored, then called liars. I experienced this firsthand today, so I speak from experience! Rita took the boys into a toy store while I walked around a kitchen store. There were at least 4 employees working in the store, none of which said one word to me until I walked up to the counter to make my purchase. When I walked in the door, one of the employees was helping another customer, but she didn't even look up and greet me. That didn't bother me so much, but as I continued to walk around, I looked directly at a lady behind the counter (just chatting with other employees), gave her a big smile, and she just continued her conversation. I'll admit I thought this was quite rude. I kept browsing, and a male employee walked right past me, completely ignoring me. I should add that I was showered, wearing decent clothing, and had applied makeup. I looked around the store at several different items for at least 10 minutes without so much as an "are you finding everything OK? "or "how are you today?" For some reason, I decided to buy something from this store. It was a cute dish towel that was $4.00. I proceeded to the counter to pay, and as I approached, the lady asked, "Did you find everything today?" Yeah, no thanks to you guys, I wanted to reply. But of course I gave a polite, "Yes." I decided since it was only $4.00, and there's no sales tax here, I would just pay with cash. I had a $20 that I hadn't broken since I'd gotten here, so I handed it to her. She gave me back $6. I looked at it, then her, and said, "I gave you a $20." She replied, "No, you gave me a $10." Oh dear. "No, I'm pretty sure it was a $20," I said, now doubting myself a little. She started looking through the cash register, counting the money, and said, "No, you gave me a $10, but I'll go ahead and give you the $10 and just write down that I gave a customer extra change." She reluctantly handed me the bill. Oh great! Now she really had me doubting myself. I knew the only bills I had in my wallet were a $20 and a $1, but she had me half convinced that I had actually given her a $10. I said, "No, if you think I gave you a $10 I won't take this." She said she'd hate to be wrong, and I said me too. In the end I kept the $10, but I knew she thought I was lying. I walked over to the toy store, my stomach in knots. I told Rita the story and how I would never be able to enjoy the dish towel! After about 5 minutes, I said, "I'm going to go give her back the $10 and tell her that I just can't have her thinking I'm a liar." Rita told me to give her my name and address and tell her that if they came up $10 over when they closed the register today to mail it to me. I walked in with the $10 in my hand and she looked at me and said, "You were right." She had counted the money again, and realized that I had, in fact, given her a $20. What a relief! I told her I was coming back to give her the $10 because I couldn't stand for her to think I was a liar. Thank goodness I went back over there. I probably would have ended up burning that dish towel otherwise!