Man complained about me re yoghurt brand stopped doing a flavour

Think one of my favourites was working for one of the posh supermarkets and having a man shout in my face about how useless I was (because I wasn’t trained/qualified to serve him on the deli counter) and a passing manager intervening by taking shouty customer FOR A FREE COFFEE IN THE CAFE!!

Nothing like feeling supported by management 😳🙄

And your attitude is everything that's wrong with retail . . ..

'Of course I'll check for you'.
'I'm really sorry we appear to have sold out'. Is there anything else I can help you with?'

The fuck is wrong with people? How anyone thinks kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach is acceptable is beyond me! Did anything happen to this special specimen or did they get away with it? 🤬

If we all did that, then what?

I've actually had enough of people excusing bad behaviour. I had some woman rant at me during COVID, saying that I didn't know what people were going through. This was round about the time I was suffering a nasty bout of depression. Then a few years previously I had guy yelling at me over some scrambled eggs and telling me her had Asperger's, I'm autistic and I've managed to not shout at people in shops.
Meanwhile I was in Tesco last year, using the self service till, and every other item was not being registered when I put it in the bagging area. It was a whole trolley and took forever, and I was getting really flustered/frustrated/annoyed as the shop was closing and I wanted to get out of there. But, I wasn't rude to the staff. It wasn't their fault the stupid machine was being shit.
I work in a different area of retail now, supermarkets are a hellscape. We've also just implemented a zero tolerance policy for abusive costumers. Good.
I also didn't swear at the nurse who took a blood sample earlier, even though it really hurt. 😅 My veins were not being cooperative!

Are we EVER going to get the flavour of this yoghurt?! I've a good mind to complain ...

No it shouldn't. Especially The latter I’m afraid is a part of your job as a customer facing worker that you will have to deal with. You need to take responsibility for ensuring you have the skills to deal with people who suffer additional challenges if you want to be a member of a truly inclusive society.
It's the responsibility of the store to remove/ban people who are abusive to staff, am fed up with the 'meh, you need to accept being abused/assaulted because....'

How do you know they have dementia?
I'm regularly shouted at by people over 70 and not all of them have dementia
A colleague was head butted by a 65yo who had no cognitive impairment whatsoever

I had this when I worked in a supermarket, though it was mostly from women. I remember being asked where the 3 litre containers of milk had gone, and I said that we had plenty of 2 litre bottles. Oh no, they bought 3 litres every Saturday morning, it was 11p cheaper. Could I stop what I was doing and go and check the storeroom? We didn't have any, I had to return and break the news, they weren't pleased. Sometimes I couldn't believe the hassle some customers were prepared to put staff through. Yes, for something important like a certain kind of baby formula or medicine, but to save fucking 11p on a container of milk? Lunatics.

I worked in retail for years. To be honest I would have found this funny, rather than abusive.

That you Hyacinth?

To a degree you expect violence from people who are scared and in pain though. I am not saying it's an excuse but it's quite an instinctive way to behave.

The way the general public treats people working in hospitality or retail beggars belief though. When I worked in hospitality, I regularly had (male) customers asking me my bra size - or trying to guess it - and generally being massively inappropriate. Some of the comments I got were eye-watering. You need a thick skin - well, what you ideally need is a customer base who knows how to behave. This (and the crap money) is exactly why nobody actually wants to work in retail or hospitality. It won't change until the industries start properly investing in their staff.

People can be awful but they are the minority. I guess the question is whether he had the mental capacity to realise his behaviour or whether he had diminished cognitive ability?
As a former NHS worker I was scratched, bitten, hit, spat at and had more swear words directed at me than hot dinners but fortunately, the majority of the incidents where by elderly with dementia / pain and no concept of what they were doing. There are ways to deal with that behaviour which should be taught to you by management. The other minority of abusive people are just assholes which you require protection from by management. V different coping strategies.

People that have worked in retail or the service retail understand. There are a minority of people that are uncouth arseholes.

I am so glad to have my days working with the public far behind me. YANBU.

Do you not think the way retail staff are treated is related to the service received?This is a bit of a bizarre example and likely the other side would tell it different. But most retail staff I come across are completely unhelpful, often rude and almost always uninterested. Then there's the entitlement, we should put up with this to 'save the high st'. No thanks, I get better service and vfm online!

Did he blame immigration? 😁

Come on OP, I think you will get over it.

Clearly the chap in question had some degree of cognitive impairment if not actual dementia which is much harder to cope with than being unreasonably shouted at by a customer.

There is a huge difference between entitled, unreasonable behaviour from fully functioning adults which is NEVER OK, and that exhibited by vulnerable people for example those with dementia or learning disabilities etc.

The latter I’m afraid is a part of your job as a customer facing worker that you will have to deal with. You need to take responsibility for ensuring you have the skills to deal with people who suffer additional challenges if you want to be a member of a truly inclusive society.

Perhaps you could request some training, for example your employer should offer a course on Dementia awareness.

It isn't just retail is it, it's any job you have to interact with members of the public as lots of people are just awful. I have friends across lots of front line roles (retail, council housing team, hospital medicine etc) who have had horrendous behaviour from customers/patients/service users including violence. It isn't even just manners is it, it's as basic as don't be a complete dick.

On the more mild end of the scale I saw an elderly man in a cafe arguing about why they charged more for decaf than caffeinated tea. The lady explained that the teabags cost them more. Simple explanation, job done you'd think. Except the man then proceeded to go on and on about other cafes not doing the same, and decaf removing caffeine and therefore it is less good as it is missing an ingredient (?). The lady was reasonable and polite but he just went on and on until she managed to excuse herself. I wouldn't have been able to be so polite.

The general public are bellends. I work for a social housing company and oh my god, all I can say is thank god the money is good otherwise we'd all have quit.

I've been saying for decades that we need to bring back National Service in the form of making everyone work in retail for two years. Maybe if rude customers experience it first hand, they might think twice before they go off on one at retail staff

I would have googled the brands number, wrote it down for him and told him to direct his complaints to them. End of, goodbye.

I can. But the OP never said, despite the question being asked, how the 80 year old flipped. He may not have been abusive at all and be just simply upset.

I wonder if it's to do with the percentage of people getting shopping delivered or click and collect. Where want such a big thing a few years back so you had more of a variety of customers where now a percentage have gone online

I am sure the OP can understand why he is upset, but that does not give him the right to be abusive to staff. Can you understand that?