I frequent one particular gas station on a pretty regular basis at least 3-4 times in a week. As a result I see people outside of there job there once in a while. I have always made it a point to wait to see if they want to interact first. Cause seriously just cause they sell me cigarettes does not make us friends. It would be extremely rude of me to presume as much. You were dead on in your reaction that creeper deserved that verbal beat down 100%.

I live in a relatively small area where my work is pretty much the hub. So yeah I run into people every f'n where. My kid always gets annoyed and asks if I know everyone. What's worse is running into someone whilst holding a GIANT box of tampons. Yeah awkward.

I frequent the local Steak N Shake with a group of my Malmart buddies, and we always get people who recognize us from work (it helps that the Steak n Shake is almost in the same parking lot as Malmart). Most people I've had are nice, but if someone was as annoying as your guy, I would definitely say something along those lines. You are not completely defined by your work. You are also human. I don't think they realize this.

That's ludicrous.

Its only happened to me once, and even then I'm sure it was a line. Oh, and by the way, while I waiting to get my ankle x-rayed is NOT the time to hit on me. And when I tell you that no, you don't recognize me from working at some shop because I am a stay-at-home-mom that with the wedding ring is even more reason to STFU!

I was at my park over the summer once not for work, and I was talking to one of my friends there, and someone came up to me to complain about the lines. I'M NOT EVEN IN UNIFORM YOU [insert colorful language here]

I haven't had that happen to me before, but I do get annoyed when people read my nametag and call me that the whole time I'm interacting with them. Yes sir, great, you can read. However, I don't know your name, and all I'm doing is ringing you out for a $100 lego kit for your spoiled brat. It's weird for you to call me by my name like you know me, stop it :<

Stalking across the parking lot is weird but customers saying hi to me outside of work never bothered me in general. I think it means that the customers recognize you as a human and realize who you are despite the fact you're not in uniform. I always thought it was kinda nice actually, maybe I just had nice customers. I particularly liked chatting to fellow slaves from other stores because we'd all help each other out. The guy from the hobby store knew I was looking out for him (I always checked my samples for allergens and remembered my regular custies allergies) so when I went in to his store to buy a gift he gave me great service and so much help. I'd look the other way when the SB guy wanted an extra taste of something and he'd take extra care making my latte just the way I liked it.

I've had a couple of times where I've seen someone from a store I frequented, and just said a casual hello, but didn't stop to socialize (like Spritzy said). On the other side of the coin though was someone recognizing me from my job and wanting to stop and talk to me while I was out with my family when my parents were visiting. I had no idea who this guy was and him trying to tell me who he was wasn't working. I worked in a restaurant at the time and saw dozens upon dozens of people a day, and unless you were a regular (and most of the regulars sat up at the bar) I don't know you from Adam. My mother asked me who the guy was when I finally got rid of him I said "I have no freakin' clue."

Truthfully this hasn't really happened to me, but I do sympathize. One incident comes to mind:

On a particularly cheery day, I woke up early and therefore got to work early, around 9:20am. My store has big metal gates that need to be raised by pulling on a chain. While I'm pulling the gates open, I hear honking behind me. There's a dude in, like, a purple '81 Honda sitting there staring at me. I stare back O_O. He rolls down his window.

"WHEN DO YOU OPEN?"

I take a gander at my storefront, which clearly displays our hours. "At 10am," I smile, and go back to opening the gates. I finish, unlock the door, and slip inside to disarm the alarm system. As I reach the keypad,

"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK"

I plunk in my code and begin counting my registers. After all, my name is not 'honk'.

A few seconds later I hear BAM BAM BAM as this guy starts banging on my glass door. Ok now my morning is wrecked. I crack the door open and just look at the guy. Guy says, "I NEED TO RENT A CLARINET!!!!!"

I say, "Um, ok. We open at ten." (nevermind this guy just stood there and watched me haul the gates up for ten minutes).

He stares at me like I'm an alien. "I have the money. CAN YOU GIVE ME A CLARINET?!"

Me: *heavy sigh* "Yes, I can, in about forty minutes. I just got here."

This goes on for a while, and finally I simply lock the door and go back to my work, now that I'm behind schedule. Dude throws up his hands, get back in his car, and peels out.

Ten minutes later I pull up at the bank to make the deposit and get change...and guess who's at the bank! It's Annoying Purple Honda guy! As I walk past him, I stop in the middle of the lobby, put on my best Frightened and Hurt Puppy Face, and say loudly, "SIR, I WILL BE RIGHT BACK TO RENT YOU THAT CLARINET, JUST AS SOON AS I CAN!! DON'T WORRY!!!"

He was so embarrassed. It was fantastic :D

I hate it when that happens.

Most of the customers at work, I only speak with them because I have to.
It's happened to me a few times where they try to give me their life story outside of work or try to tell me their problems.

Sorry, I'm off the clock, so fuck off.

I used to work at Kohl's. One year, I made the mistake of shopping there on Black Friday. I asked an on-duty fellow employee a question, and that tipped other customers off that I worked there. Even though it was clear that I was doing my own shopping and was not on-duty, customers stalked me and asked me questions and overall would not leave me alone. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was walking around with coat and purse and Kohl's shopping cart, so it never occurred to me that people would harass me with questions.

I was shopping last year at J.C. Penney. I was on my knees going through the folded shirts on tables looking for ones in my sizes in the patterns I wanted. A woman approached me and asked if I worked there. I said no. She looked as if she was going to lay into me. She walked deliberately on my side of the table to take a closer look at me. I think that she had mistaken my big clumsy functional cell phone as a palm pilot used for store inventory. When she reassured herself that I in fact did not work there, she left me alone.

One recent night, I was locking the shop at night. I turned around and found a couple sitting in their car with their window down. They asked me our operating hours, which was fine, but then they asked questions about particular products and their uses and how they compared to each other and which products should be used for results X and Y. It was too much. I was obviously off-duty. I had been standing for nine hours, I was tired, hungry, I wanted to go home, and the couple clearly had no compunction about standing between me and my escape home.

This happens a lot to me, too... half the time, I don't recognize the custy at ALL. If they remind me, and they're a regular customer I actually like, I'll say something like "Oh, sorry. It's hard to remember names and faces when I'm not in my work mode." If I'm just shopping at work and I see one of my regular customers, I'll say hi, how are ya, etc., if I'm not strapped for time. If it's a custy I don't remember/aren't fond of/who is creepy, I totally ignore them. I'm off the clock, I don't get paid to deal with you. Get away from me. I don't talk to strangers.

the other day i was talking to some people, and they found out where i worked, and one of them actually wanted to complain about something there. Nice try, but I quit 2 months ago.

My mother works for Planning, Zoning and Building. Basically, if you need a permit to build something in Southeast Florida, you go to PZ&B. We are always running into contractors she's met from work. Luckily, they're the nice ones.

Whenever a custy accosts me away from work, my first response is a blank stare.
"Remember me? I was the guy who bought those pants from you that time?"
Seriously!? Most of them don't realize the Sixties were good to me: I can't remember what I had for BREAKFAST, ferchristsake!