Disclaimer: I take my job seriously and treat my customers with the utmost respect. That said … 

A woman today came up to me at the cash register and told me she was looking for the “old-fashioned tabs.” I asked her exactly what kind of tabs she was looking for, she said “the old-fashioned tabs.” I asked her what she was planning on using them for, and she said, “organizing.” I asked her where in the store she purchased them before, and she said, “I don’t remember. Just that they were the old-fashioned tabs.” I asked her what specifically she was looking for, and she said impatiently, “The Old. Fashioned. Tabs.”  

Meanwhile, the line behind her grew.  

Ordinarily in this situation I would go to a computer and search for what the item might be based on a general description. But “old-fashioned tabs” wasn’t giving me much to go on (I even typed in “old-fashioned tabs” just to see if it was a brand name I was unaware of. I’ve been surprised by that kind of thing before.).  

Meanwhile the line behind her grew. 

So I tapped a bunch of buttons on the keyboard at random and said to her with great disappointment, “Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t carry those anymore.” 

“That’s okay, I didn’t think you did,” she replied, clearly satisfied with the exchange. 

The rest of the day was a bit more normal.