Old woman!

I’d like to think I would have said “I am an old woman who is keeping you in a job”, but I’d probably just have kept quiet and thought “how rude!” and just fumed inside.

You are giving

It is about the implied significance you are to a word

What if they had said " there's someone at the till, an young / middle aged / blonde/ etc woman/man'" - would that offend anybody

nobody would say that!

So is 'There's a fat bloke with bad breath and a funny hat at the till', but nobody old say that, would they?

Why not? Because there are things about all of us that may be true but we don't need pointing out. It's about not making people feel bad, is all. (And yes, I know that not everybody sees old age as something that makes them feel bad; but none of us can possibly know who does and who doesn't, so good manners dictates that personal comments are not polite.)

How is it dismissive? It's a description.

Sometimes people aren’t aware they are being rude, or forget!

Charming

But was the cleaner factually correct? I’m not at all old….I’m only 74!

I am old, mid seventies, and I am quite happy to be this age but I don't think anyone should use age to describe someone.
Would she have said 'there's a middle aged man at the till'.
As others have said it is rude.

Very rude and totally unnecessary. What’s wrong with just saying ‘someone’? Your age and gender are irrelevant. You were a person requiring service.

It's dismissive, and (IMO) rude.

It's not that being old is anything to be ashamed of - it is that someone else is choosing which aspect of your personality/self should define you, and no-one has right to do that (particularly a stranger).

I don't know about you lot, but I positively embrace my aged (mid-70's) status. Being called "old" doesn't bother me at all. If I were being referred to as "silly old" or "ugly old" or even "miserable old", then I would probably object to the first part, but not the second - which I bear with considerable pride, satisfaction and a smidgen of surprise at having made it thus far...

I was tootling along on my cycle one day when a group of young lads called out ‘Look at granny on her bike’ I was close to getting off and giving them a tongue lashing but carried on as if I hadn’t heard a thing

How rude. There’s rude people everywhere.
No reflection on you.
Don’t let them make you feel bad about yourself.

I was called an old woman by some kids (12 years old or thereabouts) when I was 32!
And they weren’t even being rude!
One of them was about to ride into me outside the shops:
‘Watch that old woman!’

She`s just ignorant,don`t give it/her a second thought kircubbin2000.