The Bird Lady

We have this customer that I took to calling the "bird-lady" because she reminded me of the bird lady from the Disney movie Mary Poppins. My store doesn't have shopping carts, a blessing or a curse is yet to be decided, so the bird lady comes in with her own shopping cart from some other store.

She often already has several bags in the cart and leans upon it heavily for support. When I worked in fine jewelry I noticed she would appear every Wednesday night because she would ask me to show her items she had no intentions of purchasing. I learned to take my break at the right time, so I wouldn't have to deal with her.

When I began working in another department, I nominated her the "bird-lady" and quickly tried to avoid her. Now that I am in my fifth year of employment I have learned more than enough about her despite my plans to avoid her at all costs. I as well as many of my co-workers even know her car in the parking lot because it is filled to the brim with bags of merchandise from all sorts of stores. She shops for stuff she doesn't need and returns it within a week or two.

I also came to discover that she has some really bad sciatica and needs the shopping carts to hold her up. I no longer avoid her like I used to and I wonder if it's because I got to know her. Who knows...

I still call her the bird-lady, but with more affection. She's a regular fixture in my workplace and I've gotten used to her.