Page 8 | Customer demands to charge her phone at supermarket

Jdot · 2025-09-10T05:54:02+00:00

She came into the supermarket wanted to pay for her shopping on Apple Pay but her phone is dead. I saw her talking on the phone in the store. Supermarkets and other places that people pay for products and services - restaurants, retailers, leisure places etc are NOT responsible for people’s mobile batteries and them not carrying their physical cards on them.

Ratafia · 10/09/2025 08:33

Buddrinker84 · 10/09/2025 07:03

Unless they were really rude, then the safety implications of a woman on her own without phone charge for the journey home would be more concerning for me. A little compassion doesn't hurt and phone batteries get zapped with how much the are used in one day for shopping apps, loyalty cards or the 20 million school platforms. You don't know what that phone call was for.

Women have been managing to travel on their own without phones for centuries. It's not the first thing that would occur to me.

However, it just seems to me common sense for a supermarket to allow someone to charge their phone enough to pay for their goods, given the inconvenience to them of putting everything back. They could even use it as.a moneymaking opportunity, charging a pound a time.

GleisZwei · 10/09/2025 08:33

It's a bit cheeky to expect you'd let her charge it, and if company policy doesn't allow it then fair enough, but I'd allow it if I could.

Lanzarotelady · 10/09/2025 08:33

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 10/09/2025 08:32

That only works if you are healthy and able bodied enough to walk and hour or so home though.

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But it still hasn't stopped your car breaking down and you could still ask for help

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 10/09/2025 08:32

AnnaFrith · 10/09/2025 08:27

How far do you travel to get to a supermarket? Unless you live in rural Scotland, surely the worst that could happen would be having to walk an hour or so to get home?
Not having a phone would have been inconvenient, but not dangerous.

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That only works if you are healthy and able bodied enough to walk and hour or so home though.

Funnywonder · 10/09/2025 08:31

If that happened in front of me in the queue I’d be massively pissed off. I’ve already stood there more times than I care to mention while someone attempts to scan their phone and it doesn’t work. Then they try it a couple more times. Then they start tapping it and trying again, rebooting the app or whatever. It’s the equivalent of waiting for someone to count 2p coins out of their purse one at a time. One woman called her husband who was waiting in the car park and we all had to wait until he came up the travelator at 2 miles a century and paid. Another one just abandoned her shopping. Technology is brilliant when it works and I’m all for it, but it’s crap when it stalls for whatever reason. I have thought about switching over from paying by card, but I have a tendency to forget my phone. And, despite the concerns of the poster upthread, I have survived😆

BoredZelda · 10/09/2025 08:31

Buddrinker84 · 10/09/2025 07:03

Unless they were really rude, then the safety implications of a woman on her own without phone charge for the journey home would be more concerning for me. A little compassion doesn't hurt and phone batteries get zapped with how much the are used in one day for shopping apps, loyalty cards or the 20 million school platforms. You don't know what that phone call was for.

Women are safe on their own without phones. 🙄

BlueandPinkSwan · 10/09/2025 08:30

AgnesX · 10/09/2025 07:21

I wonder how you think how we used to manage pre mobile phone and are still here to tell the tale.

Especially after doing the shopping!

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Heck, I've been taking risks for years then, only got my first basic phone when the kids finally left home in 2019 😳Now I'm on an iphone but don't use apps for anything, probably will in about 10 years time though, I'm an old fashioned girl with modern tech, don't really see the point of a lot of it but there you go...

Ddakji · 10/09/2025 08:30

BananaPeels · 10/09/2025 08:04

The same can be said for a wallet surely? You lose your wallet then you have to cancel all your cards. You lose your phone you just get a new phone and download it all back on to it. No cancelling required. Much better.

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You wouldn’t cancel your cards if you lost your phone?! I would.

I always keep a small wallet with my main cards in it in my bag as well as have them on my phone.

And I never use my phone to tap in or out at the station - it’s always people using phones to do that getting stuck and causing hold ups for everyone else. Use a card, people!

Lanzarotelady · 10/09/2025 08:30

Buddrinker84 · 10/09/2025 07:30

The OP mentions restaurants and hospitality too. So, yes my point still stands, safety at the end of an evening is important for women on their own. That doesn't account for rudeness though, that's not on at all.

Are you always this melodramatic?

AnnaFrith · 10/09/2025 08:27

MySaintedAunt · 10/09/2025 08:14

My engine seized on a trip back from the supermarket recently, would've been in trouble without my phone. I do carry a power pack in the car but lots don't.
Given the huge profits supermarkets make and the fact someone needing to charge their phone there & then is probably a rare occurence I honestly think helpfulness over 'computer says no' from the store should be the way to go.

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How far do you travel to get to a supermarket? Unless you live in rural Scotland, surely the worst that could happen would be having to walk an hour or so to get home?
Not having a phone would have been inconvenient, but not dangerous.

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 10/09/2025 08:27

Pigeonpoodle · 10/09/2025 08:15

How did we live before the year 2000?!

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God alone knows. All those 90s muggers waiting around outside Tesco's!
Although if you'd have told me in Y2K that my Nokia 3210 would one day be able to pay for my shopping (assuming it was charged) I think my mind may have melted.

Tryingtokeepgoing · 10/09/2025 08:26

Moonnstars · 10/09/2025 07:34

Surely most people know how charged their phone is and wouldn't rely on it as a payment method if they went out knowing it was low.
Unless the shop has a clear policy regarding use of a shared charger for this reason I would be hesitant to let someone do this. There is the possibility they are chancing it and have a broken phone which they will accuse the shop of breaking claiming the charger is faulty/phone was fine before and also the issue of where do people wait to do this. Are they stood to one side, shopping kept back til they have paid?
It sounds like more hassle for the shop.

I am clearly not cut out for customer service, as my first thought was that the sort of person disorganised enough to completely flatten their ‘phone battery and then demand to use someone’s charger is exactly the sort of person to blame the other person, or store, if the charger doesn’t work, is incorrect and damages the phone!

Pigeonpoodle · 10/09/2025 08:23

Needlenardlenoo · 10/09/2025 07:27

Southern trains advertise that they have power sockets so you can't get out of your contact less payment - it is in their business interest?

That only works if you have a cable with you!

AnnaFrith · 10/09/2025 08:23

Buddrinker84 · 10/09/2025 07:03

Unless they were really rude, then the safety implications of a woman on her own without phone charge for the journey home would be more concerning for me. A little compassion doesn't hurt and phone batteries get zapped with how much the are used in one day for shopping apps, loyalty cards or the 20 million school platforms. You don't know what that phone call was for.

I travel all over the place and never carry a phone, have been doing this without any consequences for nearly sixty years. If there are 'safety implications' it's amazing I've survived unscathed.

Lanzarotelady · 10/09/2025 08:22

MySaintedAunt · 10/09/2025 08:14

My engine seized on a trip back from the supermarket recently, would've been in trouble without my phone. I do carry a power pack in the car but lots don't.
Given the huge profits supermarkets make and the fact someone needing to charge their phone there & then is probably a rare occurence I honestly think helpfulness over 'computer says no' from the store should be the way to go.

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You would still have been in trouble with your phone? Would you not - your phone didn't stop it happening - you were able to call for help - which I presume you could have done anyway - by opening your mouth and asking?
Pretty sure if you're holding up traffic - someone would come to help??

Original poster

Jdot · 10/09/2025 08:22

Some retailers may have policies that they can’t use their own chargers on the shop floor. As the ones you plug into the mains require testing. Plus limited to what they can have on them. As when I worked in retail, I was only allowed my locker key, a pen, a pack of tissues and a cutter for undoing cases.

OP posts:

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 10/09/2025 08:20

Buddrinker84 · 10/09/2025 07:30

The OP mentions restaurants and hospitality too. So, yes my point still stands, safety at the end of an evening is important for women on their own. That doesn't account for rudeness though, that's not on at all.

But OP doesn't anything about it being the end of the evening either.

MySaintedAunt · 10/09/2025 08:20

Pigeonpoodle · 10/09/2025 08:15

How did we live before the year 2000?!

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Well people didn't use their phones as a means of payment and generally carried cash/cards, and public phone boxes were 10 a penny, for starters

SushiForMe · 10/09/2025 08:19

Ddakji · 10/09/2025 07:16

She was probably in a tizzy that she couldn’t pay for her shopping. Just because she was speaking on the phone earlier doesn’t mean it couldn’t have then died on her.

You’re coming across as quite unkind and unpleasant. The store could easily have charge the phone for a few minutes so she could pay. Or lose the sale, of course. Which shops don’t usually want to do, though given the attitude of some of their trained staff, you wouldn’t realise that nowadays.

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I agree. What difference does it make to you? Why the animosity against her?

Pigeonpoodle · 10/09/2025 08:19

ThisJadeWriter · 10/09/2025 07:11

Even if it’s just for a short time.
There are liability risks

Liability risks? Really?! I mean, there’s a risk I may hit by an asteroid this morning, but it doesn’t impact my life…

PollyBell · 10/09/2025 08:17

GCAcademic · 10/09/2025 08:11

Personally, I never left the house until they invented the mobile phone.

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I didn't exist before mobiles (i am very old enough to remember those days) and I take a chaperone everywhere ans can just about not hyperventilate when my battery is low funnily enough

Pigeonpoodle · 10/09/2025 08:15

Buddrinker84 · 10/09/2025 07:03

Unless they were really rude, then the safety implications of a woman on her own without phone charge for the journey home would be more concerning for me. A little compassion doesn't hurt and phone batteries get zapped with how much the are used in one day for shopping apps, loyalty cards or the 20 million school platforms. You don't know what that phone call was for.

How did we live before the year 2000?!

Katiesaidthat · 10/09/2025 08:15

autienotnaughty · 10/09/2025 07:01

True but if she has a massive trolley of shopping the store would have to allocate a staff member to return items. Any perishables would have to be binned. It’s probably cheaper and easier to charge a phone for a few minutes

The voice of reason.

LlynTegid · 10/09/2025 08:15

Unfortunately retail staff are not supported enough for it to be easy to say no. Which it should be, and consistently.

If you cannot plan ahead to have a charged phone for your visit to the supermarket, you should have to go through the inconvenience so you don't forget again. If you are repeatedly forgetting, I am not sure you should be driving.

MySaintedAunt · 10/09/2025 08:14

Oneeyedonkey · 10/09/2025 07:07

Safety implications really.....really
Are women really incapable of getting home from the supermarket without a mobile phone??!!

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My engine seized on a trip back from the supermarket recently, would've been in trouble without my phone. I do carry a power pack in the car but lots don't.
Given the huge profits supermarkets make and the fact someone needing to charge their phone there & then is probably a rare occurence I honestly think helpfulness over 'computer says no' from the store should be the way to go.