Well, as a costumer, it's pretty hard to come up with my wierdest purchase -- we're always using something for a purpose other than that for which it is intended.
But the day last spring I was in our local Coast to Coast Hardware store -- and I live in a small farming community in rural Oregon -- with the lavender satin Fredricks of Hollywood push up, lace up corset laid out on the check out counter while we tried to find the best toggle switches and solder to connect to the battery packs for the tit and butt and crotch lights for the costume, and the farmers kept walking past slowly, then "forgetting something" , making a loop and passing the counter again...
well, that day has to be right up there...

The musical is Gypsy, and the character Electra, one of the three strip entertainers who sing "You Gotta Have a Gimmick".
blessings,
Barbara