Do I Look Unemployed?

I spent one of the strangest 30 seconds of my life in Target the other day.

I have the day off from work, so I'm in the store shortly after noon (when most other people are working). I'm browsing through the TV-on-DVD section when this guy comes over to me and says, "Can I ask you a question?"

First thought: He thinks I'm a store employee. That's not possible, though, because even if you're color blind like me you know a guy in a brown jacket and black skull cap isn't the same as a worker in a bright red polo.

Second thought: He must be looking for something and is desperate for help. I get that; I've done the same before when a store employee isn't readily available. Sure, I'll do what I can for this guy.

Well, both thoughts are wrong.

As soon as I mumble a "yes" to his question, he starts telling me about how he works for a new company "down the road" and would I be interested in full- or part-time work? Um, no.

"No, sorry, not interested," I tell him.

"Are you sure? We have part-time positions available," he says.

"No, really, but thanks."

He's still not giving up: "What do you do?"

"I'm a journalist. This is just my day off." And I don't care what you're selling, there's no way it's better than my gig.

The guy finally moves off to prey on some other poor unsuspecting shopper. The whole thing was rather creepy, the way he's slinking around the store preying on people he thinks don't have jobs; I've never heard of job recruiting in the TV aisle at Target, and I've certainly never had anything like this happen to me before. I'm so taken aback it's not until I get to the car that I kick myself for not finding out what the job actually was.

I wonder about it for the rest of the day.