Panel 1: We find ourselves at the Eastgate Mall today watching Elly be very interested in a wraparound dress in a shop window.
Panel 2: Since Lynn can't think of a stupid shop name that implies spending too much like Costington's, Elly walks into a clothing store named "Duds."
Panel 3: In the foreground, we see Elly trying to find the dress she wants. In the background, we see the cashier (who I'm naming Joanie because of the Happy Days marathon on one of the upper channels) talking to a customer on the phone. This becomes the conflict for a very Lynn reason.
Panel 4: Elly smiles when she finds the dress she wants.
Panel 5: When she goes to pay for the dress, we find that Joanie is still dealing with the same customer on the phone. This constitutes a problem because Lynn/Elly thinks that customer service means 'dropping everything to cater to her whims.'
Panel 6: Since it would be rude to ask Joanie to put the other person on hold and would also obviate Elly's need to feel like the victim of all victims surpassing all others, Elly just stands there "watching someone talk to nobody about nothing."
Panel 7: When Joanie turns her back to tell Nobody In Particular about how the bane of her existence is some passive idiot who won't speak up, Elly looks at the dress as if to think that this is not worth it.
Panel 8: Since she sees herself as having been defeated by the person on the phone, she puts the dress back.
Panel 9: As she gets ready to leave the store, Elly is gobsmacked when Joanie puts the receiver aside for a second and asks "May I help you?"
What this tells me is that when she gets home, she'll talk about some Browsing Betty in her late thirties who got all huffy when it was pointed out that she could have, y'know, asked for help instead of nailing herself to her cross or something.
Summary: What Lynn/Elly never realized is that the person she's lambasting was watching her while talking on the phone. I betcha she gets blindsided by multitasking all the time. I also bet you that she hadn't shopped for herself since she moved outta Lynn Lake because a realistic joke would have been Elly fending off a swarm of Joanies asking her if there's anything they can help her find that day.