While shopping Saturday at the American Eagle store at Short pump Mall for a birthday present for his daughter, Doswell shopper Lloyd Krumly was shocked to discover that the shabby homeless man following him through the store was in fact a paid employee.
“I was wandering around, trying to remember what Kimberley said she wanted,” Krumly recounts, “I couldn’t remember if she said a hat or a scarf or what. Anyway, while I was wandering this crazy homeless guy approached me. He had on these dirty black jeans that had been ripped and patched numerous times, and an oversize v-neck lime green t-shirt straight out of a Goodwill.”
What stunned Krumly the most was his skin and hair. “He looked like an alien - his skin was whiter than white, real ghost-like. But his hair – my God, he had dirty black hair that looked like it had been cut by a blind barber with garden shears. It stood straight up on one side, and laid flat and greasy on the other.”
After regretfully making eye contact, the presumed homeless man then proceeded to follow Krumly throughout the store. “I offered him a quarter at one point, just to get rid of him, but he wouldn’t take it.” Krumly says, “Finally I went to the checkout girl and told her that a homeless man keeps following me around, asking if I need help.”
“She looked and said, ‘that’s not a homeless man, that’s one of our salesclerks, Jerod!’ Well, you could have fooled me.”
The 48-year-old Krumly then got on his high horse regarding the decaying appearance of sales people in today’s workplace. “In my day,” he pontificated, waving a finger in the air for emphasis, “salespeople in retail stores dressed impeccably. The men wore sharp suits and starched shirts. Sometimes they would put a handkerchief in their sportcoat pocket. Now, I would gladly buy clothing from someone like that – not some 17-year-old bleached white homeless guy with dangling jewelry and a Goodwill t-shirt. It’s all about respect for the shopper. I’m telling you, it’s all gone straight to h-e-double toothpicks.”
