Wow, I thought that question was something that people only asked ME when I worked in a grocery store. The exchange usually went something like this:Mr Pantomime said:
Customer: "Where's the laundry detergent?"
Me: "Aisle 10."
Customer: "Where's that?"
Me: "Between aisles 9 and 11."
I had one customer screech at me about how I shouldn't DARE treat her like an idiot when I gave this reply. Her husband (ex-husband by now, I'd imagine) replied with "Well, honey, after a question that stupid, it was a logical conclusion on his part!"
Another memorable exchange:
Customer: "I didn't see any Caffeine Free Diet Coke at that front display. Where else do you have it?"
Me: "If we have any, it'll be in aisle seven, on the right side, near the front."
Customer: "What do you mean by that?"
Me: "If we have any, it'll be in aisle seven, on the right side, near the front. If we don't have any, then it WON'T be in aisle seven, on the right side, near the front."
When the manager questioned me about the exchange (the customer complained about me), I told him the entire exchange. The manager looked at me, shrugged, said "Yeah, he looked like somebody dumb enough to say that." and walked off (I was VERY fortunate that the managers on duty during most of my shifts would ignore complaints from customers unless any of the alleged rudeness was uncalled for; I was never thrown under the bus by my managers).
We had another customer come into our store (a grocery store called "Shop Rite") in order to file a complaint against the manager of a Price Chopper grocery store. She complained that he'd said to her "What are you, an idiot?". Now, for those of you who know retail managers, you probably realize exactly how much it takes to push a manager to that point... It took our shift manager ten minutes to explain to her that we were a competing store, and didn't have the number to Price Chopper's home office. The manager told me the story later on, but not before prefacing it with "Since working here, I've lost all faith in humanity".
Regarding workign retail, I think this web comic sums it up: http://www.krakowstudios.com/krakow/archive.php?date=20030917 [http://www.krakowstudios.com/krakow/archive.php?date=20030917].