I stopped off to do some quick grocery shopping after work today and while I was checking out my food, an employee came up to me and said, “excuse me, sir, but weren’t you banned from this store?”

My first thought was, “is this a joke?” I soon realized he was serious and I said, “uh, no.”

He then replied, “are you sure?”

I was amazed by this question and I answered, “yeah, I don’t know what I could’ve possibly done to get banned from here. I’m pretty sure I’d remember that. I shop here all the time and nobody’s ever given me reason to think I wasn’t welcome here.”

Before he left he said it might be a case of mistaken identity and that someone in a black hat was pointed out to him and he saw me, thinking I was the man in question.

I was quite taken aback by this incident, the clerk said nothing as she checked out my groceries for me. As I gathered my food and got ready to leave, the same guy who questioned me came back and apologized, saying it was the wrong type of hat. I said, “okay,” then I left.

As I made my way out to my car a few questions came to mind: 1) who saw me and thought I could be someone who was banned from the store? 2) what would someone even have to do to actually get banned from Overwaitea? 3) what kind of a system do they have in place where the description of someone they’ve banned is simply “someone in a black hat?”

One final question. I just bought this hat before I went in the grocery store:

Should I return it?

Also, next time to see some random guy in a black hat, tell him to behave himself in public from now on so that I don’t have to be questioned on his behalf.