Hey all! So this happened quite a while back, at least 5 years ago, but I was just reminded of it by a comment saying that certain people will think you work somewhere if you merely do the polite thing and clean up after yourself.

This happened at a British book shop beginning with W with a black and grey/dark brown theme and a cafe inside.

I was browsing the teen fiction/Young adult section of this shop and tidying up the messy stacks of books as I went (honestly it's a habit of mine I picked up as a kid when watching my nan do it). I was flipping through the pages of this one book and heard someone clear their throat behind me and rather meekly say "excuse me?". I look around and there's nobody else there but this woman, maybe 5ft and on her late 30s at a guess, so I ask her what's up.

She asks me for a recommendation for her daughter, who is around 14 I think at the time. She liked comedy books and mystery/crime books so I recommended Skulduggery Pleasant (an amazing series that I fell in love with at 15 years old and still love today at almost 24).

She thanks me and asks for my manager so she can tell them how good an employee I was and how helpful I was. Obviously I tell her I don't work there, but appreciate the comments nonetheless.

She stammers out apologies and I cut her off telling her it's fine! There's no uniform here and I was cleaning up, so it's understandable she thought I was an employee.

She gave me a light pat on the shoulder as she walked to the tills to buy the first two books and thanked me again before I walked to the exit.

Super wholesome especially cos I frequented that shop and it was the first of many times to happen, some of which weren't so kind.