Why do you ask?

Usually I can't stand it when customers interrupt when I'm helping another customer. But I was helping an old lady and she went ON AND ON AND ON AND ON.....how long was I helping her with her simple issue, anyway? Twenty minutes? More?

At least 5 people interrupted us, mostly just to ask where something was. I didn't mind because it meant escaping for a minute or two and the old lady didn't seem to mind. After all, I wasn't really helping her much at that point. It was mostly just her telling me her life story because she was lonely.

What DID annoy me, though, was that each time when I returned to the old lady she had to ask a question about the other customer's question/product they were looking for. After the second or third time I felt like asking the old woman, "Why do you ask? Does it matter?! The item you're looking at is COMPLETELY different from what they're looking at!"

It would be like if the old lady had a lamp that she needed a bulb for while the other customers needed a replacement panel for a solar roof or some violin strings or industrial strength fertilizer.....very specialized items that the lady would never need. She was asking questions purely to satisfy her curiosity, although it seemed as if she was asking purely to waste my time.