Fancying people who work in shops.

[purlieu]

Used to chat to a girl in HMV whenever I bought stuff and she served me, on the fourth or fifth time she actually asked if she could give me her number and wrote it down on some receipt paper. Probably not company policy but I wasn't complaining. We only went on one date, as I happened to meet one of the two people I can say I've genuinely been in love with straight after.

My local Tesco Express has a couple of staff I fancy, a girl who's probably 10-15 years younger than me and one who's about 10 years older. Our Holland & Barrett also has a member of staff who I'm very attracted to, her overwhelming friendliness and enthusiasm adding to it. Never in a million years would I ever even consider saying anything, though, any more than I would to someone I saw in the street. Just because I see them on a semi-regular basis doesn't make it any different. Can't even begin to fathom anyone thinking it's an ok think to do.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

My grandfather met my gran when she worked in a newsagent and he went in to buy a fishing permit. This was 1950-odd, of course, so if you want to know when the best time to ask a retail worker out is, the answer is  - the 1950s.

[chveik]

i assume it's half people affected by crippling loneliness half entitled, genuine creeps

[madhair60]

i had a weird crush on someone who worked at Gamestation, there was something about them, I don't mean a good thing, they had some sort of physical deformity (minor) and I can't remember what it was now. I didn't know anything about them whatsoever and never said anything non-shop-related to them. I wish I could remember what the physical deformity was, it was just some weird little thing, not meaning to harp on about it. extra finger or one less finger or something. weird eye maybe i dunno. that wasn't why i liked them, it was just there and i wasn't bothered because i'm the salt of the earth

[touchingcloth]

Fancying people who work in pubs
Fancying people who work in public transport
Fancying people who work in local government
Fancying people who work in education
Fancying people who work in health
Fancying people who are in parks
Fancying people who aren't in parks
Fancying people

[Mr_Simnock]

M&S in the middle of Manchester this big blonde left me in a right muddled state, week at the knees and jabbering level I was.

[imitationleather]

M&S in the middle of Manchester this big blonde left me in a right muddled state, week at the knees and jabbering level I was.

Myra Hindley?

[Captain Z]

Rare for Boris to make an appearance in the north.

[Shaky]

Not in a shop, but I really, really fancy the new administrator who works in our school. She reminds me of an ex girlfriend ( a Russian lady), she speaks 5 languages, She's super- friendly and smiley, and I really, really fucking fancy Her. Oh, Bloody Hell.

What year are you in?

I had a massive crush on a work colleague about 4 years ago when my longterm relationship was breaking down. Looking back, I made a complete twat out of myself although I had enough nous to keep it the right side of creepy. She was a Poirot fan so I left a little paper David Suchet head on her desk one day, though.

[Cloud]

Yeah the classic "someone of the opposite gender was nice to me (because it's her job) so I guess she likes me".  Been there.

The irony is I'm of the mind that opposite genders should be able to be friends, even really close ones, without being assumed to be or feeling the need to be a couple / cheating on their existing partners.  Having a crush on someone because they happen to be the opposite gender and were friendly towards you, flies in the face of that ideal.  To add further complication, being about 70% on the gayness scale.

[Janie Jones]

What year are you in?

LJAMC? About 1981. This one, though...

Cone shaped breasts, too curious to ignore. I bought far more bread rolls than I could ever eat every day just to look at her.
Had a nice face too. I think...

... not sure, but I'd imagine sugar and margarine are still rationed.

[Thursday]

Thing is having worked in retail, I would sometimes notice a female colleague brighten up around specific customers, so it is possible for a shop girl to fancy a customer. It's just that she doesn't fancy you. So no don't actually ask her out or anything.

Unless she is actually THE ONE and you have to take the chance just in case. I mean what's the worst that can happen? She says no and even though it's all perfectly friendly and polite you still cringe at the memory of the encounter from time to time for the rest of your life?

[Pijlstaart]

Stripes with stripes, spots with spots, they put a counter there for a reason, to keep roving paws off the talent.

https://corporate.asda.com/article/colleague-couples-celebrate-valentines-day-at-our-dunstable-store
https://corporate.asda.com/article/happy-valentines-day-to-the-couples-who-fell-in-love-at-asda-taunton
https://corporate.asda.com/blog/2019/02/13/happy-valentines-day-to-the-couples-who-fell-in-love-working-at-asda

See, they don't need you, you're a stranger looking in, though you give custom you will never know their customs,  can't pass down time-honoured shop chants to your shop-kids, you wouldn't last a day in a real shop.

[itsfredtitmus]

I send them my number

[Jockice]

Me and my friend used to fancy a girl who worked in the Port Vale club shop. She looked a bit like Louise Woodward.

Her name wasn't Sarah, was it? Because I had another of my platonic female friendships with someone of that name who looked like the aforementioned baby shaker.

She worked at the same place as me, although in a different department and we just ended up chatting in the canteen queue one day. We started going for lunch elsewhere after a while, and even when she went to work somewhere else (but nearby) we'd still do it.

I never mentioned the resemblance (although there really was one) but one lunchtime I was sitting on the precinct with her (just down from Schuh incidentally) and a Sid The Sexist type bloke from work clocked us and gave me a nod.

When I returned afterwards he sidled up to me and came up with the immortal line; "Are you piping that Louise Woodward bird?" Followed by the even more immortal line: "She killed that Ethan Hawke, didn't she?"

[Jockice]

The last I saw of her was just before she moved back to Leeds - where she was originally from - and invited me to her work leaving do on a Friday lunchtime. Then she emailed me the day before and told me she'd had to cancel it because she wasn't well so wasn't going into work.

So imagine my surprise when I walked past the pub it was due to be in (sheer chance. I had to pick something up from a shop nearby) the following day and almost bumped into her staggering out. A brief embarrassed (on her part) conversation took place (apparently she'd had a miraculous recovery overnight) and I've never seen or heard from her since.

I don't know what that was all about anyway? We'd been hanging about in public for at least two years beforehand but by the look of it I was considered too embarrassing to meet the people she'd worked with and would never see again after that day. Sod her. Fucking baby killer

Incidentally, that isn't the only time a woman has claimed illness as a reason for not meeting me and then I've seen her risen up from her death bed. Maybe I should start a thread on that.

[JaDanketies]

edit: maybe it's hard not to come across like a skeevy misogynist itt

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

LJAMC? About 1981.

I honestly don't get this.

[Retinend]

I honestly don't get this.

double-entendre:

"What year are you in?"  as in school year
vs
"What year are you in?" as in "are you still living in the 80s, with those attitudes?"

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

" Are you, a heterosexual person, still finding members of the opposite sex to be attractive, for reasons inclusive of intelligence and attractive personality? Tsk- Tsk."

Yeah, that's me telt, right enough.

[Retinend]

edit: maybe it's hard not to come across like a skeevy misogynist itt

whosoever looketh on a shopwench to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart

[JaDanketies]

aah fuck it

so there was these non-identical twins in high school and I used to fancy one of them. We were in the same social circle and we were friends really, but she knew I fancied her.

Anyway she later worked at Pound Bakery, and she became well-known around the local area for being good-looking. Not like me and my mates talk about 'fit birds' often, but we might have once or twice, and it turned out they had also noticed 'Jan at Pound Bakery' too. Based on my experiences with fancying her in high school, she always was very relaxed about it and appeared to enjoy the compliments. Who knows how it felt to be the non-identical twin sister of someone who sucked in male attention like that?

So many years pass and I bump into 'Jan' in Tesco, and discover I'm not attracted to her any more. She looks well made-up and looks like she's been hitting the sunbeds. Her twin sister however is working in the local post office, and she's got into fitness since high school, but doesn't seem overly interested in her looks (like she never was). You see her hufting boxes into the post office wearing loose casual clothes, and she looks great. Way better than the one who I fancied in high school, just fresh-faced, fit and smiley. Maybe it shows that perhaps for some people, the pressure of being a beautiful person has worse beauty outcomes than the pressure of being the more normal-looking one.

[Hat FM]

The last I saw of her was just before she moved back to Leeds - where she was originally from - and invited me to her work leaving do on a Friday lunchtime. Then she emailed me the day before and told me she'd had to cancel it because she wasn't well so wasn't going into work.

So imagine my surprise when I walked past the pub it was due to be in (sheer chance. I had to pick something up from a shop nearby) the following day and almost bumped into her staggering out. A brief embarrassed (on her part) conversation took place (apparently she'd had a miraculous recovery overnight) and I've never seen or heard from her since.

I don't know what that was all about anyway? We'd been hanging about in public for at least two years beforehand but by the look of it I was considered too embarrassing to meet the people she'd worked with and would never see again after that day. Sod her. Fucking baby killer

Incidentally, that isn't the only time a woman has claimed illness as a reason for not meeting me and then I've seen her risen up from her death bed. Maybe I should start a thread on that.

defs decided that you were going to cockblock her with the guy she fancied at work. bit harsh.

this thread reminds me of the brazillian barmaid from the crown and anchor. ah she was a princess. never made any romantic gesture towards her as the idea of her reciprocating would be ridiculous but the dream was always there.

[Cloud]

aah fuck it

so there was these non-identical twins in high school and I used to fancy one of them. We were in the same social circle and we were friends really, but she knew I fancied her.

Anyway she later worked at Pound Bakery, and she became well-known around the local area for being good-looking. Not like me and my mates talk about 'fit birds' often, but we might have once or twice, and it turned out they had also noticed 'Jan at Pound Bakery' too. Based on my experiences with fancying her in high school, she always was very relaxed about it and appeared to enjoy the compliments. Who knows how it felt to be the non-identical twin sister of someone who sucked in male attention like that?

So many years pass and I bump into 'Jan' in Tesco, and discover I'm not attracted to her any more. She looks well made-up and looks like she's been hitting the sunbeds. Her twin sister however is working in the local post office, and she's got into fitness since high school, but doesn't seem overly interested in her looks (like she never was). You see her hufting boxes into the post office wearing loose casual clothes, and she looks great. Way better than the one who I fancied in high school, just fresh-faced, fit and smiley. Maybe it shows that perhaps for some people, the pressure of being a beautiful person has worse beauty outcomes than the pressure of being the more normal-looking one.

Noticed the same thing with those I fancied earlier in life going the "try too hard" route and ending up too skinny, made-up etc to push my physical attraction buttons.  Which is a comment I'm a bit self aware of also but for what it's worth it's the same with the guys.  I've seen so many "before and after" bodybuilding/toning pics and thought "I prefer the before version when you looked cute and cuddly and didn't have such defined pecs and abs"
Just personal preferences really isn't it, there are plenty out there who like slim dolled-up and tanned women or muscular men etc.

[shiftwork2]

In theory it should be fine to ask someone out and take the yes / no like a rational adult.  But not in a setting where the customer is supposedly always right.

I used to work with this massive tool who would ask patients for their phone number.  When "management" (me, hence the inverted commas) intervened he began looking them up on facebook and messaging them through that.  He no longer works there.  It was entitlement on his part.  He was over 40 yet would only 'date' 'hot girls' in their 20s.  Oddly enough he became a vicar in Norwich.

[Mobbd]

This is the creepiest fucking thread.

It is not okay to hit on people who are working. That's basic. There is a power imbalance between you, they probably don't want to be there, they can't get away, and they are professionally and socially required to be friendly. It is not romantic. It is gross.

Get yourselves onto a dating app to express your romantic urges appropriately. Everyone needs to have their cards on the table, to be open to an encounter being a date, which obviously isn't the case when they're working in a Co-op.

[Ham Bap]

I worked in a petrol station for 2 years and cant remember anyone asking any of the staff out.
The staff were mostly 18-20 years old but we must have been an ugly lot. It was a very busy petrol station and thats the excuse i'll be using. It was though, 50k a day going through the tills.

One thing to remember is that what might be an important/meaningful conversation for the person coming into the shop, it might one of 1000 people that person sees/speaks to that day.
I think as a worker and someone was coming into the shop every day thinking they had a meaningful relationship enough so that they could ask someone out, it might come across as a bit creepy and uncomfortable. 

[JaDanketies]

My possessive ex I moaned about earlier itt who pulled me when I was working behind the bar used to freak out and get upset if I was sharing the bar work with a woman, especially a specific woman who's name or face I literally can't remember. She had straight black hair. The fuckin arguments I put up with because I was told to work the same shift as her. What a fuckin idiot I was.

I remember once we went into Barclays Bank to deposit a cheque or something, and when I started talking to the cashier, my fuckin ex started jabbing me and pinching me "because I was flirting". But really because she was insecure. can you imagine. This shit was a regular occurrence. You literally get anxious about going into a shop because you don't know if the person serving you will be a friendly woman. I hope she has a lifetime of misery. 5 and a half fuckin years

let that be a warning to any retail staff reading this thread - in my experience 100% of the people who pull you while you're working are fucking awful mistakes you still regret many years later

[Ham Bap]

I worked in a petrol station for 2 years and cant remember anyone asking any of the staff out.
The staff were mostly 18-20 years old but we must have been an ugly lot. It was a very busy petrol station and thats the excuse i'll be using. It was though, 50k a day going through the tills.

One thing to remember is that what might be an important/meaningful conversation for the person coming into the shop, it might one of 1000 people that person sees/speaks to that day.
I think as a worker and someone was coming into the shop every day thinking they had a meaningful relationship enough so that they could ask someone out, it might come across as a bit creepy and uncomfortable.

Actually a few people did used to try it on/flirt with one of the girls on the till. She was v chatty/friendly/laughing with customers but she was like that with everyone. So some customers may have thought she was just like that with them. She was asked out a couple of times.
She never went out with any customers though.

[Jockice]

This is the creepiest fucking thread.

It is not okay to hit on people who are working. That's basic. There is a power imbalance between you, they probably don't want to be there, they can't get away, and they are professionally and socially required to be friendly. It is not romantic. It is gross.

Get yourselves onto a dating app to express your romantic urges appropriately. Everyone needs to have their cards on the table, to be open to an encounter being a date, which obviously isn't the case when they're working in a Co-op.

How did people ask each other out and get together before dating apps existed then? Which incidentally, my shoe shop girl experience was. I really fancied her, and you can't help who you fancy. So should I not have made my thwarted approach just because she happened to work in a shop? People should only get together through 'official' means? Because I've known couples who have ended up married/in long term relationships in all sorts of ways - including meeting their partners through/because of work - but the only thing they've had in common is that someone had to make the first move.