He clearly thought you were homeless. Probably jumping the gun on his part but.....seriously? You went to a public shopping area with no shoes? What did you expect would happen? "No shirt, no shoes, no service" has been posted at every gas station and shopping center for decades.
Yeah, most shops won't want you in without shoes. Same reason they don't want you turning up in pyjamas or a gimp suit or whatever.
...I think that means that most American shops would evaluate most of my neighbours from last year as 'homeless'. And a lot of the people living within five minutes walk of me now. Around here, people are quite happy to roam the streets in pyjamas and slippers if it's earlier than about ten in the morning.
Pajamas & Slippers != barefoot.
For the record, I think feet are nasty. They smell. They have bunions, boils, blisters and fungus. I don't want to share someone else's feet in public. I love being barefoot, personally. But I have respect for others. It actually really pisses me off when someone is like "WHAT?!?!" when they're obviously violating social mores, because "that's how they like to be." I'm all about doing what you enjoy. As long as you're not fucking it up for everyone else. Same shit happened at work. This complete and total hipster who likes to roll his pants up to his knees for some reason constantly was walking through the whole building barefoot. Mind you, this is a former heavy industrial shop converted into a white collar business. So the floors are covered in filth. There's cracked pavement and flooring everywhere. Nails. Broken glass. Bugs. Bats. Rats. It's not the kind of place you'd NORMALLY not wear shoes.
Hell, I got yelled at for not wearing my shoes when I worked at the University, because I'd take them off after sitting at a cubicle for 6 hours and forget to put them back on. It's not like I haven't done it. But I've learned my lesson.
So yeah. Enjoy being barefoot. But respect that the world isn't your house.
Up until now I never had problems going shopping without them and I have actually never see a sign "No shirt, no shoes, no service"
They probably stop putting them up because they assumed it was widely understood.......