Was wearing a bright orange hoodie at Home Depot and a man handed me a list of items he needed from three different aisles
Home Depot employees wear orange aprons over whatever they're wearing. An apron. A specific garment that goes on top of clothes. I was wearing an orange zip-up hoodie, jeans, and headphones around my neck. No apron. No badge. No lanyard. Just an orange hoodie because it's my orange hoodie and I own it and I was cold.
A man, probably late 60s, walked up to me while I was crouched down reading the back of a box of wood filler, tapped me on the shoulder, and handed me an actual written list. Not asked me a question, not said "excuse me do you work here" - handed me a physical piece of paper with four items on it and said "I need these, can you start with the lumber." I looked at the list. I looked at him. I looked at my hoodie. I said "sir I don't work here." He looked at my hoodie and then back at me and said "well you're wearing orange." I said "a lot of people wear orange." He seemed genuinely unconvinced and asked if I could at least point him toward the lumber section because he was in a hurry. I pointed. He walked away without saying thank you or acknowledging that any of this was unusual in any way.
The list had four items on it written in very neat handwriting. Lumber, caulk, two types of screws specified by exact size, and something called "the grey brackets like last time." I still think about that last one. Some Home Depot employee somewhere has context for the grey brackets. I did not. I was just a guy in an orange hoodie trying to fix a hole in my wall on a saturday afternoon.