Just Leave Me Alone, I'm Shopping!

Back in the day, when someone went to a shoe store, the clerk would measure your feet, find you shoes, and put them on you. Now days we go into the department store, search the displays for a shoe that looks nice, find our size, put the shoes on and never see a worker in the entire department even if we want help. But having never known anything else we like things this way. We like self check out, no hassle, no fuss.
Well there's a shoe store here called Brown's Shoes. It's a little store that's loaded with shoes and helpful employees that have been trained in 1950's shoe service. I've been in there enough times to know it's hard to just casually "browse" and if you take a shoe out don't even think of putting it back! (That one proves quite challenging for me because I was raised to pick up after myself.) I remedy this problem by waiting until no ones looking and I secretly stick the boxes away!
Well today I was at the Bible store, which is in the same mall as Brown's. As I stood opening my new CD, a man came in and met his wife at the counter where she was paying for her purchases.
Then he grumbled, "I remember why I don't like Brown's Shoes."
His wife turned to him and asked knowingly, "Because they're expensive?"
He replied, "No, because they follow me around."
I wanted to laugh right there! I knew exactly what he was talking about. As he continued to talk with his wife, I found out that he assumed they were following him because they thought he was going to steal something. As I left the store I couldn't help but consider the great change. Long ago someone following you and offering you help was considered respectful service, now days it's seen as annoying and judgmental. Long ago it was fitting and proper for the store clerk to find the shoes and put them on your feet, now days it's considered inconvenient and creepy!
I'm not really suggesting we got back to the old days, for admittedly it does feel a little creepy having a stranger put my shoe on! (-: Maybe what needs to change is our own assumptions of the motives of others. The workers at Brown's may have thought that man was going to steal a shoe, but I've been there enough times to know that those employees are bored out of their minds from lack of customers and they are eager to serve anyone who walks through the door. We live in the age of suspicion. I'm not saying we all need to be ignorant of others and unaware that they may possibly have hidden motives. But how often are those hidden motives simply an image on our lens? Hmmm...