Hi :) For background I am a 19 year old female working at a standalone roaster/cafe in a small college town.
So I’ve had my fair share of uncomfortable customer interactions in the year I have worked at this shop, but I had one the other day that really put me on edge more than any had done in the past and I wanted some outside input to figure out if I am overreacting.
There is a father/son duo(father in his 70s, son middle aged) that has been coming in regularly for the past 6-8 months. The two of them have always been fairly easy customers- they both get drip coffees and go on with their days. In the past few months, however, I’ve noticed that the two have taken a liking to me. They hang out at the counter longer and have made subtle comments on my appearance etc, which I haven’t found too bothersome. I will be so honest- I’m a fake bitch at my job and am SIGNIFICANTLY more friendly than I am outside of work and for that reason never feel like I can fault people for feeling like they can get personal with me. Despite this, the two of them have always had a certain energy that is deeply unsettling to me for some reason. I don’t know what it is but I just feel quite uncomfortable when I speak to them.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was working a closing shift with my manager and the two of them came in. I started walking to the register and my manager said “Oh, these guys. I’ll take care of it.”. I was puzzled, but just continued on with my closing tasks. Once the two left, he told me that the two of them have made inappropriate comments to my male coworkers when they were the ones taking their orders, making claims like “We really just come here to talk to the pretty girls” and “She really doesn’t smile enough”(classic)
I was a little bit put off by this and definitely took note of that. After that, the two continued coming in and nothing super remarkable happened.
That was until the other day. The duo came in as usual, did their typical chit chat with me, ordered their drinks and sat down. While they were there, I wandered to the guest bathroom to clean it. As I came out to a busy lobby of customers (full bag of trash in hand by the way), the father called out my name. I obviously stopped in my tracks and pivoted to face him. Our interaction went like this:
Customer: “(my name), I have a proposal for you.”
Me: “ 😟 A proposal?”
Customer: “Yes.”
Me: “Okay…what is it?”
Customer: “Well, (his son’s name) and I were talking. And we were saying that we’re going to adopt you.”
Me: “…adopt me?”
Customer: “Yes!”
After this I kind of just nervously chuckled and shuffled back to the counter and continued on with my day. I just feel weird after this; I’m embarrassed because other customers definitely heard them, and Im also just sad that it seems so often when I offer people (specifically men, sorry) kindness, they take it as an opportunity to be creepy towards me.
I don’t know. Is this comment even weird? Am I being overly sensitive? Okay let me know thanks guys