This happens to me at Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc… all the time. I do wear a work shirt and/or jacket with my company logo but it doesn’t resemble their uniforms.
I am (arguably) more knowledgeable than most of the staff and/or available, so I will occasionally stop and help out other customers. Unfortunately, sometimes this will cause people to assume I work there and a line-up ensues.
I used to work part time for a grocery store and was outside the store in one of their bright yellow raincoats when someone mistook me for a cop and tried to report a mugging.
This time of year, I look for people who aren’t wearing scarves up to their noses and boots. Other times, I look for women who aren’t carrying purses. I know a lot of women don’t carry purses at any time, but I figure I have a better shot of finding an employee who’s locked up her purse in her desk drawer or the break room. I don’t get that – people walk to a woman “Do you work here?” “Yes, I always stock shelves with my handbag over my arm.”
Funny you should mention this because I was going to respond that while I don’t remember ever being mistaken for an employee at a store, I am frequently mistaken for a local when I am out of town. I’ll be walking down the street and someone will come up and ask “Do you know how to get to…” and I’ll just shrug and say “I’m not from around here.” But for some reason it happens a LOT. I guess I just look like I know where I’m going.
It happens to me in retail stores all the time - the last one was when I had my jacket on and my headphones in my ears. Yes, Sears encourages its employees to wear their jackets and work with iPods on on the retail floor - I had a hard time not saying to the person, “Seriously?” It’s actually happening less as I get older, which is appreciated. I guess I’m moving out of “retail employee” age.
I’ve been asked for information a few times, both at stores I’ve worked at, and for directions and I have a theory.
Everyone who has worked in retail(or with the public in general) acquires a certain air or ‘look’ that attracts customers. Unfortunately, it also attracts anyone else looking for information, and you(generic) wind up looking the the person to ask.
Ha!
I figured it was my scowling and looking miserable. 
One time I’m at home depot and happened to be wearing my favored Orange Crush tshirt.
Wound up helping some guy load stuff into his car before realizing he thought I worked there.
This happens to me most of the time I go into Boston. The funny thing is, I only know where a few things happen to be, and it took me a long time to learn how to properly navigate the subway. I did discover that there’s a way to keep people from asking you where things are, though: wear your camera!
Apparently you all have the invisible “ask me” sign tattooed on your forehead that I was also born with. Old people, especially loony old people, can see these invisible tattoos and will hunt me down wherever I go to ask me where things are or to help them find something in a store.
I’ve had alot of times where I’m buying something that I’m not sure of, (ex: what’s the difference in these two products? will one look/work better?) and there won’t be an employee around anywhere. As most of the times my questions are kitchen/cooking related, I just find the closest grandmotherly type and say, “I’m sorry, I know you don’t work here, but you sure do look like you know your way around a kitchen! Can I ask you something?” in my most sweetest, honey-dripping way possible, and they never refuse 
No gentlewoman can refuse my good ole southern charm when I chose to use it!
I’m usually not surly to people, but I was asked once where something was in a store in which I was just a customer, had never worked, etc., and I snapped “I don’t fucking work here.” One of my last previous jobs had been in retail, so that was a lot of pent up “I hate customers” anger. I still feel kinda bad about it.
I don’t get this as often as some of you, but I did get mistaken for an employee a couple of times in one day last year. It was November 1st, and both occasions were in Halloween stores, where I was bargain-hunting. (The day after Halloween is a LARP prop-master’s Black Friday.)
I figure my all-black outfit had something to do with it, but you can make of it what you will.
This is when you go along with it and send them to some random location in the store (where it probably won’t be located). Be rude back; I mean, hey, it’s not like they can fire you when you don’t even work there. It might teach these idiots to listen next time someone says they don’t work there.
There’s a grocery store I shop at a lot as it’s right on my way home from work, and the closest to my house. The shirt I used to have to wear at work was almost exactly the same style as the store’s shirt. I’d get asked all the time where stuff was and if I knew I’d tell them. If I didn’t I’d say I didn’t work there. At least nobody ever was upset at the latter statement.
A woman I work with complains about that. She says whenever she sees an old loony on the street she tries to avoid catching their eye, but never can.
This Improv Everywhere Mission is quite an amusing take on the confusion of being dressed like a retail worker while not actually working.
When I worked in an office off London’s Oxford Street, I used to get this all the time during the summer months when I went into a shop for something during my lunchbreak. The curse of wearing a standard office uniform! :rolleyes:
The oddest experience was when looking for something in a menswear department. A tourist came up to me, wanting my assistance. What was odd about it was that he addressed me in Spanish, and expected me to speak the language. What made him think that shop staff in London can all speak Spanish?! (Bizarrely, this approach of his worked at least on this occasion, since I could speak Spanish… :smack:)
I’ve also had it in Sainsbury’s in the past (before they switched to burgundy uniforms), and also in Wilkinson’s; these two because I have a red jacket (coat).
The most recent time in Wilko’s I was wearing my front-of-house theatre uniform, which includes a red waistcoat, so it was kinda understandable.
Worked for a month at a hot wing place called Wing Zone. Uniform was khaki slacks and a red polo shirt with a hat. My usual routine was to stop at HEB (where the uniform was khaki slacks and a red polo shirt) on the way to or from work to grab something to eat and drink. On occasion, folks would ask me where something was, thinking I worked there. Since I lived about a block from the HEB and shopped there all the time, I would say “I don’t work here, but…” and point them in the right direction.
Same thing would happen with my dad at Home Depot, even though he never dressed anything like the people who work there. I suspect he just spent so much time browsing at Home Depot that people just assumed he was a manager there or something. Incidentally, he claimed that he was just price checking to make sure they weren’t selling stuff for less than what the store he worked at sold them for. Gotta stay competitive. 