my long day (11 hours of retail) began with a woman who could make the stupid costume question record books.  she wanted to dress up for her grandkids, "maybe a snowman?  i don’t know.  show me the costumes you have." 

"which costumes?"

"oh, everything you have."

"can you narrow it down a little? i can’t really bring up the entire warehouse."

so, i went looking for her snowman, and brought up a few that might make her happy.  when i returned, she was trying on the queen amidala headpiece.  i said, "oh, you think you might be queen amidala?"

"who is that?"

"the costume you have on.  from star wars?"

"would my granddaughters know who that is?"

i told her she might want to keep looking, if she didn’t know what that was…  next, i showed her the cat in the hat.  her reply?  "who is that?"

"the cat in the hat"

"would my 7 year old granddaughters know him?"

this was not going to get easier.  she really wanted to be a superhero (after all the fairytale characters had been exhausted), and she thought her husband could be batman.  i gave her the packaged (to buy, not rent) batgirl and batman costumes.  they are the same price as a rental, without me needing to explain the "security deposit" concept to her.  "oh, i won’t ever need these again, don’t you have something i can rent?"  now, superhero women don’t tend to wear flattering clothing, so i knew she would want the spandex i was about to show her, but i brought them anyway.  "they look awfully small!" 

"well, ma’am, they are pretty form fitting."

"well, i guess i buy these.  do you think i should?  maybe i should be a snowman?"