A coffee shop customer shared their epic story of mistaken identity.
For those of us with social anxiety, one of life’s most excruciating moments is having an awkward interaction with a stranger. Perhaps someone at the fast-food drive-through tells you to "enjoy your food" and you respond with an enthusiastic, "You too!" Maybe the customer service rep tells you to "have a great night" and you engage auto-pilot spouse-convo mode, replying, "Love you, bye!" Full-body cringe.
Now imagine a deeper layer of awkward-encounter hell—one where you’re forced to relive your embarrassment over and over. That’s basically what happened to one person who shared their story online in a thread titled, "The barista thinks I am a completely different person and I just went with it."
A coffee shop barista's innocent mistake turned into a life crisisImage via Canva
In the r/CasualConversation subreddit, user adrianmoorfield explained that, before their first day of work at a new office, they dropped by the coffee shop next door and placed an order. "Super nervous" about the shift ahead, they "mumbled" their name when asked by the barista, who then wrote "Kevin" on the cup. "I am not Kevin, not even close, but there were people behind me and I panicked and just nodded," the Redditor wrote. "The problem is that I kept going back. Every morning she greets me like, 'Hey Kevin, usual iced latte,' and at this point correcting her feels illegal."
Ugh, I genuinely feel this—and I have to admit I’ve done the exact same thing at a restaurant I used to frequent. But anyway, back to the story: Making the situation even trickier, "Kevin" apparently made a nice impression on the barista. "She has told other customers that I am one of her favorite regulars, asked how my 'dog' is doing because apparently one day I mentioned having a dog," they continued. "I do not own any pets. Last week she gave me a free muffin because 'Kevin has had a rough week.' I have no idea what version of me she has built in her head, but I am scared that if I tell her my real name the entire lore collapses."
So what’s this person supposed to do? We all know that solid, conveniently located coffee shops are hard to come by. But how long can you keep up this Seinfeld-level charade? Naturally, fellow Redditors weighed in with some hilarious suggestions. "You have 2 options," one user wrote. "1. Find another coffee place. 2. Change your name to Kevin." (Someone replied, "3. Adopt a dog too. Apparently Kevin has a dog.")
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Others also shared some wild tales of their own. "This happened to me at a Chick Fil A," someone wrote. "I used to always go the same one for my lunch break, and the girl at the register would always get my name wrong, and I would have to correct her every time, so one time she called me 'Mario' and I just went with it, thinking she would forget it after anyway… nope, that one stuck. So I became Mario for months, until another girl at the register said my real name and the one who knew me as Mario was there and turned to me shocked—'Your name’s not Mario?! I’ve been calling you that for months!’ I just kinda shrugged my shoulders, almost felt bad about it."
Someone else chimed in, "I used to go to a diner every Saturday and order the same thing. I would always chat with the counter guy. After a few months the counter guy asked me if I wanted my usual. I was tickled he remembered and said yes. It was not my usual. Did I eat it and continue to eat it for months afterwards? Yes."
So what's the best move when someone either calls you the wrong name or mispronounces your actual name? In 2023, etiquette expert Sara Jane Ho gave a step-by-step breakdown to CNBC, noting the importance of making the correction quickly. "When you correct someone, you don’t want to dwell on it," she said. "You want to get going and move on."
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