What are the silliest things you have had customers ask for?

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

J: (to me once OL is out of earshot) Theres another type of muffin?

Me: I don't know

There is. You can sometimes buy them at garden supply stores. Or find them in cow fields.

[Bagga]

"20 Senior Service, please" (It was a brand of cigarette.)

At the time, I was working in a branch of the biggest chain of camera retailers in the UK, possibly the biggest in the world. I mean, the guy was surrounded by cameras, flashguns, tripods, the whole gamut, but....

[Dreamstalker]

(SF/fantasy/gaming store)

Stamps
Bookshelves
Cookbooks
Oil paints (um, Pearl Art is about two blocks that way)
Fundamentalist Christian authors (doubly amusing given that our current window display is a huge lighted sign and paraphenalia for "teh eeeevil" Dungeons & Dragons)

[ArenaBoy]

Back at Whiskeyclone parking I had a guy asked if he could park in the Cingular Lot because Cingular was his provider. He needed a pass which he didn't.

[RedRoseSpiral]

I haven't had anyone ask for something extremely not in my store, but I have had people ask down right stupid questions. Now, I know my store is going through some renovations, but for the past 4 months every item has been in its current spot. Nothing has been moved or switched. The shampoo is still right down from the pet supplies like it was last week when you came in. I'm standing in front of the the soap. The soft soap is at eye level for anyone 5" or taller. A man comes up to me with brimstone and fire in his eyes and demands to be shown the location of are the soft soap. I point to his side and leave as fast as I could so he wouldn't see me laughing.

[Pagan]

Actually you can send them to the nearest Post Office. They carry the various 1040 forms and booklets.

Not all of 'em. The one in the shopping center across the street from me hasn't had them for a few years now.

I assume you mean a sandwich in a bread roll, in which case they are called "Barms" up here in the North of England. Still, the barms and sandwiches were in the cabinet next that one...

I think Fawn probably means these: http://www.breadrules.com/downloads/...in_EngMuff.JPG

[Forensic Waitress]

Well, theres the english muffin? lol. Thats the only other option I can think of.

You can also get a McMuffin made from English muffins from Macca's. But still that lady needed to be more specific.

[Lady Heather]

Our store has the same name as another store. Information gives out our number first. A customer called up asking for an OVEN. The only "apliance" we sell are vibrators. He argued with my boss insisting we did sell ovens. The guy would not belive my boss and then called her a lier. Then of course asked her for the correct number.

[Gurndigarn]

Our store has the same name as another store. Information gives out our number first. A customer called up asking for an OVEN. The only "apliance" we sell are vibrators.

You could have given him the number of the local gender-change surgeon. Probably should warn him that it's a long and expensive process, though.

[IHateStupidCustomers]

Tell me if I'm crazy for thinking this request was crazy, but:

I worked at a seasonal kisok that sells blown glass figurines. You may have seen them...basically flowers and animals. I get a guy that asks:

SG: "I'm looking for a soldier and his daughter."

I have to say I was a touch confused. Are you looking for something FOR a soldier and his daughter? Do you actully want a piece of glass depicting a soldier and his daughter? Or, did you mistake us for the info booth and you lost your soldier friend and his daughter?

He wanted a piece of glass depicting a soldier and his daughter. Would anyone else think a little glass kiosk would have something that specific, or I am I just crazy?

I did hear about someone at a different store asking for a glass figurine of the flying monkey things from the Wizard of Oz.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

I suppose it's possible. He might have been looking for that specific figure in whatever medium he could find and asked you on the off chance that you had it. But I'm speculating wildly (& based on the some of the oddball questions that I myself have asked).

[Zipporah]

I worked at a bank and one customer asked me if he could heat up his coffee in our employee-only break room. I was surprised, but I told him that only we were allowed in the kitchen. I did heat it up for him, though. I guess I didn't have to, but I definitely wasn't going to let someone wander past the drive-up teller stations and into the kitchen.

[HawaiianShirts]

I just get questions in my major electronics store for things like lawn furniture. Nothing really extreme. Although I had one manager tell me that when he was working at another branch of our chain someone asked where the store's pizza shop was and insisted that there used to be a small pizzeria in the store next to the camera department.

Didn't someone once post in a similar thread (on a previous incarnation of this site) about being asked for cheese in a video game shop?

Oh, and about asking for stuff at the wrong place... I once asked for Chicken McNuggets at Wendy's drive-thru. I admitted my own mistake at the window and chalked it up to being tired, but I still felt pretty stupid after that one.

[Victory Sabre]

Here's mine: Today someone came into the Restaurant portion of the gas station and wanted to know where the wax worms were. The bait store is in the other building.

[boffomusic]

I worked a couple holiday seasons in electronics stores (or other retailers that could conceivably carry electronics). Every year at least 3 people would come in asking for a male-to-male converter for an electrical outlet because they had strung the lights on the tree wrong-way-round and would rather drive to three or four (conservative estimate) stores looking for a product that doesn't exist than just re-string the lights.

Every year I, or a co-worker, would have to use small words to explain to these people why such a product doesn't exist and would actually be illegal to manufacture. (I guess they always assumed electricity was magic, or something.)