o.O...just o.O

[fireheart]

This is the first crazy customer that I have seen since transferring stores.

The first clue that something was up was that she came in wearing a facemask. My first thought strayed to either a) protection from swine flu or b) something religious or cultlike.

The second clue was that she stayed in the store for TWO. HOURS. I mean it. I wound up going to lunch and coming back and she was STILL shopping. (only a half hour break today )

And the final clue that something was weird was when the assistant store manager (it's not that title, but I don't wanna give it away and that's pretty damn close to her actual title) came up to me and my coworker and asked if we've been using the hand sanitizer. We both replied with a yes-I had hayfever and was washing my hands for the sake of it, while my CW was using it for other reasons.

I'm watching the ASM serve her and she took FOREVER. She had two trolleys full. Not to mention, she also had a bag of the small garbage bags that some customers use as plastic bags since we don't give them out anymore (state law, we are NOT debating this here folks...check my user title for my location). On top of that, there was a strict order for everything to go in its own bag.

I'm watching this, while serving my customer with a huge WTF look on my face. When I was dismissed for my 15 minutes later on, I asked her what that was all about.

Turns out that the lady is "allergic to the world." This is despite the fact that she has a cat. Apparaently she's also allergic to the hand sanitizer (hence why my ASM asked us), which is possibly legitimate, but the bag packing? She has OCD as well. And the facemask? Yeah, she's allergic to air as well....BIIIIG WTF there....

I got very tempted to ask her if she'd ask the lady about using the home shopping service we'll be providing soon. But apparaently that would conflict with that too, because what if the employees there use the hand sanitizer?

(basically, the person orders and pays for it online, then the items are picked in a warehouse, packed and delivered. Perishable and produce goods are chilled, along with meats. )

[Magpie]

The allergies I can actually believe, although I'd almost have expected the facemask to cause problems... I was reading about a service project where the girls involved had to wash all the clothes they wore before going to this woman's house, and then wash them again in just water, because she was that sensitive. The cleansers you use in your store would probably be enough to cause a problem. That and a lot of people use scented products regularly, and since it's enough to give me problems...

I agree though, that something sounds off. If she can't use the delivery service, then she'd probably have issues with the processing/packaging of the products in the first place.

[Flying Grype]

There is such a thing as environmental allergy, I know people who are allergic to perfumes and animals and rubber smell and cleaning products and etc. etc. Once I went to a conference in a school where some carpeting had just been replaced, and we didn't know about it, and one of the conference organizers had to wear a gas mask while she was in that room just so that she wouldn't react to the rubber fumes.

Having said that, if this lady said she was allergic to air, she's probably just mentally ill... the mask is not stopping air from getting to her, otherwise she'd be dead. Maybe she has a few allergies and is also hyperextrapolating and believing she's allergic to everything. Or maybe she's allergic to nothing, thinks she's allergic to everything, and the mask is a placebo that keeps her from having symptoms of something that doesn't exist.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I got very tempted to ask her if she'd ask the lady about using the home shopping service we'll be providing soon. But apparaently that would conflict with that too, because what if the employees there use the hand sanitizer?

Do you mean the same employees that handle those same products when they stock the shelves?

[Broomjockey]

Do you mean the same employees that handle those same products when they stock the shelves?

No no. Apparently these are warehouse employees. So these are the ones who likely never wash, work in a dusty environment, and sweat all over themselves. And never wash.

[fireheart]

See, I would've believed that she did have an allergy to the world...except for the part where she has a cat.

[Broomjockey]

.except for the part where she has a cat.

... maybe it's a HYPO-ALLERGENIC CAT! Or maybe she shaves it. Was she scratched up? Maybe it's a fake cat, and she only pretends it's real.

[fireheart]

I'd be more inclined to think it's fake....o.O

[LillFilly]

I do know a store owner that's sensitive to certain scents, perfumes, cleaners, etc. If someone enters her store wearing loads of perfume she will be covered in hives within minutes; so she keeps an ample supply of Benadryl close at hand, as well as epi-pens.

[Amina516]

The driver always answers that they've applied deodorant.

Rapscallion

Smart...

(filler!)

[BlaqueKatt]

There is such a thing as environmental allergy, I know people who are allergic to perfumes and animals and rubber smell and cleaning products and etc. etc.

not recognized by any medical professionallother than the ones bilking people for treating it-as well as Morgellians, and being "allergic to wi-fi"-it's psychosomatic

Multiple Chemical sensitivity from Quackwatch

[Broomjockey]

Okay, so from what you seem to be saying is, I'm imagining the splitting headache I get from certain scented objects, usually perfumes and cleaning products.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Okay, so from what you seem to be saying is, I'm imagining the splitting headache I get from certain scented objects, usually perfumes and cleaning products.

Then we must be imagining the same thing. There are some cleaning products and chemicals I cannot stand to be around, such as bleach, paint and professional insecticides. There's also some solution that was used when my bedroom was being repainted . . .I can't recall what it's called but it's a solution used to wash the nicotine layer off the walls before painting. . . that was some nauseating stuff. It took a week and a half before the smell was completely gone from my room.

Those smells will give me a headache, so if anybody's using them around me, there had better be a door standing wide open and every window open to the max and fans to blow the smell out of the house.

Better yet, I'll just go outside on the front porch for awhile until it clears.

[Shalom]

Smells that give you a headache... in my case it's new carpeting. I don't know what's in there that does it, if it's the dye, the glue, or what have you, but it gives me a headache, and I don't normally get them. I first found this out in grade school, I missed the first couple days of 7th grade because the school had just put new carpets in, and as soon as I walked in the building I got a splitting headache and had to leave. A few months ago I had to pray in a different synagogue for a couple days for this same reason, until the carpets aired out. (They were replacing the ancient theater-type seats, and once the floor was empty they took that opportunity to replace the almost-as-ancient carpet as well.)

It's not technically an allergy, though.

(I can't walk down that aisle of the House of the Orange Apron where they have the rugs either. Carpet stores are Right Out...)

[BlaqueKatt]

Smells that give you a headache...
It's not technically an allergy, though.

exactly my point-no antigen/antibody reaction=not an allergy.

eating bacon or drinking a glass of wine gives me a migraine-doesn't mean I have an "allergy"-benadryl's not gonna fix it.