I had a similar situation in a GameStop store in SC. While we were in the checkout line, two men, one about 20ish and the other about 50ish started trying to chat up my 8 year old daughter- while I was standing right behind her. They made their purchase first and turned to leave the store. while my daughter made her purchase I looked to see where they were and they had not left the store. What they had done was the older one went behind a display on the left and the younger one went behind one on the right. While my daughter was paying for her item, I quietly opened my purse, took my pistol out of the holster, and put it in my hand. When we turned to leave, my daughter saw them and froze- I put my left hand on her shoulder and told her to start walking, she didn’t know I had my gun in my right hand. As we started walking out of the store the old man stepped closer to our aisle and got this weird grin on his face- until he saw the barrel of my gun pointed at him. When he saw it, he made some kind of grunting sound and made a crossing motion with his arms in the direction of the other one. We walked out of that store- I kept my gun by my side until we got out of the mall. We got into my car and I locked the doors. My daughter was in tears when we got into the car- she said she was so scared she didn’t know what to do. She said she was thankful I was with her because she felt like they would have tried to hurt her. She didn’t know I had my gun out until she saw me put it back into the holster- I told her she was right- they probably would have tried to hurt her but I wasn’t going to let them. I called the police to tell them what happened; I thought I may have overreacted a bit. But the lady who answered the phone told me I had probably just save my daughter from an abduction! I gave them a description of the two men and a squad car came out to look for them. After that, I called my husband and thanked him for my birthday present- which was a pistol and he paid for my CCP. Now where ever we go, my daughter asks if I have my “little friend” with me, which I always do.
I have learned my lesson: I didn't have my cell phone on me or my pistol (I do have a CCW)but somehow I made the mistake of thinking that a quick visit to a large, well-lit store wouldn't be a problem.
I will follow your example in the future.