I used to get scared when they announced the mall was closing that we wouldn't make it out on time. For whatever reason, I thought if you got caught there after closing you'd be turned into a mannequin.

Anon

At one time during my childhood I hated going shopping. That was because we couldn't buy everything in the store. I thought merchandise in a store would be sad every time someone passed by without buying it. I hated making all that merchandise sad.

Beth

I used to belive that employees who worked at 24/7 shops lived there and never slept!(they worked 24/7)

tilly Waukesha WI

I used to think a strip mall was a mall where people wold walk around the mall naked and then put they're clothes back on when they leave

No way I'll give my name!

I used to belive that, when a store held a "liquidation sale", all the unsold stuff would be melted down.

Marty

I used to believe that "help wanted" signs meant that someone had robbed the store very recently and needed help trying to catch the thief.

gdc

I used to think that strip malls were places men went to shop, so they could buy everything and be entertained by strippers placed randomly throughout the mall.

Jessica

When i around 5 or 6 and went to the supermarkets with my parents, they used to leave it til the store was shutting before they would finish their shopping. I remember the staff pulling down the roller doors and i used to scream and cry, thinking that we'd be locked inside for the night. I would pull in my mothers arm and try to drag her out the door before the mean staff locked us in!

Codes

I used to believe that the dummies in the windows of clothes shops were real people and they had to stand still all day.

Anon

My Mother used to play games (more for her benefit) with me when I was young. She used to tell me that store mannequins were actually real, live people who were paid to stand still all day and model clothing. She used to tell me to go and talk to them while she shopped because they get lonely. So, here I was, 3 or 4 years old, talking to mannequins all the time. When I asked her why they never talked back, she simply replied, "Well, they will get fired, they're not allowed to." Love ya' Mom!

Lisa Lynette

When I was about 7 or 8 my mother took me and my brother to a card shop. On the counter was a fish tank full of water with a bubling water filter inside.

It was suspiciously absent of fish. I am not sure, but I think I asked my mom why there were no fish.

In front of the cashier she told me there were fish in the tank, they were just invisible and that they would appear when the moonlight shined on the tank at midnight. The cashier seemed to happily confirm this fact.

I stared at the tank to see if I could see any movement, but it was difficult with the bubles bubbling from the filter. My imagination would conjure up visions of moon light streaking in from front of the store while it was dark and the store was empty and the fish suddenly appearing.

I thought this true for years until I was a teenager. My mom liked to tell me things like this.

Keith

When I was a kid, we still had Woolworth's five-and-ten cent stores, which have since gone out of business. I thought back then that their name was "Wool Worse". So I thought they were the last place anyone would want to buy anything made of wool, as their wool, I thought, was worse than anyone else's.

Bobby

I was always so amazed by those maps in the mall that say "you are here" I thought they were magic and could detect where I was at any given moment.

Nicole

When I was little, the cashiers at the store would i guess "pretend" and tell me that when i got candy, i got it for free cuz i was so cute. So, I thought cand was free for me. Anyway, one day, I just took it without telling my mom and I got in trouble! She had this black manager guy come over and give me a "talk" about not being a little theif. It's their fault! they're the ones who told me it was free! I don't know why, but that story al ways made me REALLY mad. argh...

Nick

Whenever I would walk through the cosmetic section at a store my dad used to tell me that the women wearing the white coats (like at the Estee Lauder counter) dealt with toxic chemicals. His tactic worked, I stayed away for years.

Mick

When there was an advert for a "3 peice suite" i thought it was a shop selling 3 P Sweet's!!!

Kate Parker

when i was little, coupons really confused me. they always told me how much i was going to save, but my question was: how did they know how much money i even had in the first place?

amy

When we would go shopping my mom would tell me that, no we could not buy the candy because it was not "on sale" and I used to get so upset and confused because why would they put the candy or snacks on the shelf if they were not going to sell it to you?!

Anon

For whatever reason, I don't know why, when I was a little girl, maybe four or five, I thought all the handicapped marked parking spaces at the stores were for drunk people. Imagine the look on my parents faces when I announced this in front of some of their friends!! I'm sure they all wondered what my parents did on the weekends!!!

Star

I used to belive that the black market was a place

Lyndsey