..to have complained about the cashier at sainsbury's this afternoon...?

She wasn't polite, and I think I'd have felt put out, but I wouldn't have complained. It's a shitty job she has to do, and I don't have the right to make it harder - the lack of a thank you won't kill me.

Life in supermarkets is hell on both sides. She probably has a note on her till which exhorts her to 'smile at customer, make eye contact, offer cashback, offer to lick her bum' and she's a bit fed up.

Perhaps her dog died or something, you never know what's going on in other people's lives. If she'd have told you to bugger off, that's different, being dismissive and rude are not the same IMHO.

I've spent a lot of time in the states and the insincere niceness used to hack me off even more than the apathy you get over here!

I'm afraid I think you were really mean.

Have not read whole thread, but if you want staff to be polite and happy and treat you like a human being, I suggest going to real shops, that sell real food ,and employ real people who will get to know you and will greet you with genuine feeling, rather than huge great hangars of shops, where the only thing they care about is squeezing the extra couple of pennies off their prices, by screwing their suppliers, the environment, their customers and, oh yeah, their staff

working in a supermarket is a fkn horrible experience

you are not being unreasonable. a receipt and a thankyou costs nothing and turning your back on a customer is rude

I dont think you are unreasonable.
Whilst I hate the american contrived "have a nice day" I do like basic manners, and expect a thankyou and goodbye. I have worked in a shop and in a restaurant, and always had impecable manners. I am not expecting a chat with everyone I meet, but a simple hello, thankyou will suffice.
I maybe would not have told her manager, but would have said something to her, or been overly polite in a "Thankyou soooooooo much for your manners"

That reminded me of when there was a sale on in a sports shop in my town. The shop was heaving, people stepping on each other, a queue a mile long. This guy entered the shop with a pushchair and went storming through just pushing people out of the way. Then he had a go at the poor assistant cos he couldnt get to the changing room. Crazy behaviour.

PMSL!

Nearly! - Bromley

Crikey margo, where do you live? The Bronx!

It kicked off in my Sainsburys today - maybe it was the time of the visit which had something to do with it(3.30pm)

I'm in the second aisle and there were 3 workers complaining about their managers. I didn't quite get what they were saying.

Over the tannoy "xxxx please come to customer services, customer STILL waiting" To which the three workers made a comment "see what I mean they don't know what they're doing"

A few aisle later another worker was complaining how most of them were still in their cafe running over their lunch break

Another worker was rude to her colleague at the meat counter

Now I'm not saying the workers are at fault. There has got to be something going really wrong at management level to warrant such low morale

Bear with me, I'm still not finished...

Then I'm at the checkout and I was watching a group of schoolboys acting suspiciously and I saw one of them take an item from the self and put it in his pocket. I told my cashier and she pressed her buzzer for her supervisor. The supervisor said that there was nothing she could do as he had a receipt. I SAW HIM TAKE IT

Instead their alarm went off 5 seconds later when another lady took shopping which she hadn't paid for. They had been watching her and seemed a nasty piece of work, swearing at everyone, I think she said something about me when I caught her eye. About 20 men chased her up the street, they didn't catch her though.

My cashier was very nice, she'd only been there for 2 days and she said it was worse than the previous branch she was at.

All this in a half hour visit, I felt like I was in the middle of an episode of 24! (Obviously without Jack though)

I think the cashier was rude.

You enter into a transaction with someone, you make eye contact and acknowledge them at the very least.

Not doing so is a deliberately hostile act imo. I only do it if I really want to piss someone off or if I'm making a point.

I probably wouldn't have bothered to complain about it though, unless I had just been to a funeral/ found out my DH was shagging the dog/ realised I'd missed my dentist appointment.

It's one of those things that if you're in a good mood you don't notice/ don't care, if you're in a bad mood, it can be the last straw.

I think the person who was the most discourteous was americantrish for complaining to the manager.

Ok it is nice to get a thank you and a smile, but IMO not worth dwelling on it if you don't. Complain to the manager means that cashier risks the sack. And she wasn't even properly rude!

I feel it is a cultural difference so I think as americantrish is in a strange country she should show some understanding of this. Incidently when I sell on ebay, the american buyers are always the ones who expect lots of emails and a personal touch to any transaction. It is a very marked difference.

americantrish could have been a mystery shopper - the manager would have got a major bollocking from above in due course if she was and quite right too - it is a service industry FFS.

Nobody has to work in a supermarket, yes the money is crap and some customers are rude but if you can't deal with that get a job where you don't have to deal with people face-to-face (like a call centre, like me, where you can at least chill them to the bone without being overtly unpleasant, or pull faces at them, or write notes about them in your book )

i hate it when they chuck your shopping in the bag, don't they realise i go all the way to the back of the shelf to get things that haven't been squashed !

i prefer to pack my own shopping, i'm so pinickity

Some of the women that work in the co-op at the bottom of my road are miserable as sin. They seem to throw your shopping at you!
I just find it funny though, and i'm always polite to them.

I agree service is generally bad in UK.

I went to a beautician's appointment today. I was 10 mins early for my 10 am appt. The shop was in darkness, front door locked, notice in window of opening times said shop opened at 9 am. I went home again (15 mins drive) wondering what emergency had caused it to be shut. Telephoned shop from home (I don't have a mobile) and found owner/beautician had been there all the time. She had not opened up because I was her first customer. She asked had I knocked? She opened the door at 9.50 so must have just missed me. Next time I'm to knock.

I found myself apologising!

I should take a leaf out of Americantrish's book.

feel free to chuck tomatoes ... but i read this once and it resonates ...

you cant always choose your job/tasks/odious circumstances ... but you can choose your attitude

i think service sucks in the uk

mind you

there really are some customers out there who are shits and the chance to abuse an assistant is there only opp to feel superior

not saying that about the OP

but having seen it from both sides...

ha ... i did somewhere in my purse ....actually was taking them all out to find and she couldnt actually be arsed to wait

thought she was joking at first but she kept saying it

maybe i just look like a crim ...

what about this then ...

bought a 2 pack of baby tshirts amongst loadsa stuff ... all pretty inexpensive .. nice long chat with assistant about value etc, vvvv polite

got home -- 2 days later, 1 tshirt still got sodding security thing attached

schlep to shop ... same assistant, explain ... no receipt cos binned bag ....expect a quick 'oh sorry i didnt check everything, hope you didnt have to make a special trip, i'll remove it quickly now'

get

glared at
assessed
'i'll trust you this time'

i was actually too pissed off to retort ... plus baby crying ... still feel i shouldve said oy missus, this is your mistake not mine and would i really risk the cops to nick a £1.60 kids shirt ...

figured it made her happy to assert her self-imposed authority?