Working at the mall

I hate to be the one who complains about their job but really working at the mall is an acquired taste. To this day I still find myself amazed by the behavior of strangers in public.
I have worked at a tea bar in the mall in my hometown for almost two years now. We provide a fun place where the average citizen can taste tea and find easy-to-use tea accessories. There is also a tea bar where people can get drinks.

I rarely run into people who come in and misbehave when purchasing merchandise (I reserve judgement for Christmastime, where that statement may be reedited for content); most of the time weird behavior comes from the food half of the business.

I had a young lady interrogate me for 15 minutes about the gluten content of our teas.
TEA. DOES NOT. HAVE. GLUTEN.

In the past week or so the school district in our town has let out for the summer. This has increased the teenager/young children traffic in the mall some 10 times the normal amount, especially for weeknights. So when I literally have to use the words "Would you like a napkin for your gum" to prevent someone from sticking it on the underside of my counter....

On top of this, these kids don't even buy anything. they do laps in the mall and stop by every half hour or so and get samples.
I even had one kid poke his head in and ask for a smoothie sample (basically a free smoothie). The audacity.

On the up side this means there are a plethora of interesting people to chat with, which is my favorite part of working in the mall--everyone goes to the mall. Thus I get to talk to all different kinds of people, which is always fun.

I try really hard to patient with the crazy people who come into the mall looking for someone to be crazy at. The best part is writing it down because it makes remembering it a lot easier.

My favorite today was a 7 year old coming in and telling me that our tea tasted horrible, before putting down the sample cup on the counter.

That and a 70 year old security guard whizzing past on a segue.