Understaffed high street stores.

[2littleguineas]

Has anyone else noticed high street stores are becoming more and more understaffed as time goes on? The only staff I see in-store now is those on the check outs. There's rarely anyone around to ask for help and there's always queues when you're trying to pay.

I work for a large pharmacy chain, taken over in recent years by a US Company. Since they've taken over, they've drastically reduced the number of staffing hours in store but still expect business to grow.

I live rural and a lot of shops locally wouldn't be chains so hadn't noticed this much in other stores. But recently I've been on shopping trips to large cities and have been surprised to see how bad it's became in most stores. I found most of the staff weren't friendly more so in clothing stores. It was much better in supermarkets though. I can understand the staff feeling frustrated at been expected to do the work of two people, bearing the brunt of customers annoyance and also their managers who expect them to cover check outs and complete other jobs simultaneously but I don't understand their rude attitude to polite customers.
Anyway I'm wondering how long these companies can get away with the poor service they're providing. Does internet shopping mean we now have to put up and shut up and this is the future of high street shopping?

I like a bit of online shopping, it's fine for makeup, skincare and accessories but very hit and miss for clothes. I'd be really frustrated if I had to buy my bras online. It's bad enough having no fitting service or help but at least you can keep trying on until you find a comfortable one.

I saw a closed off changing area in Debenhams but hadn't realised this is now a thing too.

Yes I stood in TK Max the other day ( busy Saturday morning). There was one checkout open and the queue was building up. Another person came over to the till and I thought they were about to open up another checkout . However the one already serving then began to have a conversation with the other one ( whilst customer waiting) about why she had not added her as a friend on facebook !
I was also in M&S at the same time - no staff around and no-one to ask where itmes were.

DS is 19 and has occasionally been left in sole charge of three floors of the shop where he works.

Yes, he'll be bollocked if stock goes missing or if sales are down for the day.

On the plus side, hurtling from floor to floor has made him fitter than school PE ever did.

Our local Boots is terrible for this - there is rarely anyone serving on the row of 5 tills at the front of the store, so you have to go to the back and wait at the pharmacy till, where the staff are often busy sorting prescriptions out so it can take ages for anyone to be available. I've ended up abandoning my shopping in there on several occasions as there was no end in sight to my lengthy wait to be served and I had to get to work!

Yep I agree. I had to ask the person on the perfume counter in Boots to point me in the direction of something I couldn’t find as there was no one else around. There’s often only one or two check out staff with very long queues in stores too if you go in at the weekend.

Yes absolutely. I went to be talks the other day pretty much all the changing room were locked and the one that was open had a huge queue.

I've also noticed that most big shops m and s Wilko hennes etx only have one place to pay per floor with usually one person on the till.

I hate boot with a passion. It's meant to be a chemist and tries to make out it's about wellbeing etc but in my local shop has rows and rows of unhealthy snacks and sweets right by the tills.

Yy boots appalling for this.

However I do find my local super drug is good.

I agree they actually want us to shop online instead, much cheaper for them!
I wonder if things will eventually go full circle and our high streets will start to have independent shops again? Mind you business rates would have to drop dramatically for that to happen.
We actually have a brand new John Lewis opening soon on our high street, I will be very interested to see how well its staffed.

Even when there are staff, they're usually just gossiping between themselves and doing their best to ignore you. When you do manage to catch someone's attention, they're seldom able to help (more like can't be bothered to help) and just vaguely point towards something, or say the usual "if it's not there we don't have any". M&S is awful for this "can't be arsed" attitude these days.

I actually find supermarket staff generally a lot more helpful. I've had very good experiences in Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury recently when I've asked someone stacking shelves where something was - every single time, they've actually taken me to where they were - none of this vague pointing lark. Just Friday in Tesco, I asked if they had any cucumbers (none on display) and the guy went off and brought me one from the storeroom with a smile.

Definitely down to individual attitude and good/bad store management.

Definitely down to individual attitude and good/bad store management
It is down to individual attitude. I'm over worked and frustrated but I won't let myself down by been rude. However I'm also not going to jump through hoops for rude customers or those who won't help themselves. Think someone who wants a red lipstick and expects assistants to show them every single one the shop stocks rather than looking themselves. Some customers think it's acceptable to insist you stand with them for 40 minutes while they choose an item for a few £ despite other customers waiting.

I work in one of the big 4 supermarkets, when our store opened 7 years ago we had a total of 450 staff members. This was to run a store 24/7 only closed Christmas day and we had no online shopping this was done elsewhere.

We now have 150 staff members, the store is still open 24/7 we now have online shopping and clickcollect. We have lost a couple of departments no photo centre or deli counter any more. Hardly anyone has a contract of more than 20 hours. It's ridiculous. They staff that are there will always help a customer but there is not enough of them. If there were enough people to get the stock onto the floor then they wouldn't have to go looking in the back for cucumbers.

We used to have about 20/25 people per night filling the store and making sure it looked great for the days trading. Now we are lucky if we have 5 people doing the same work, we are lucky if we can get delivery worked never mind making it look good. Then the home shopping pickers come in like a plague of locusts and any customers walking into the store must be raging that there is nothing on the shelves.

Until 2015 the tube station I work at had three rostered staff now it has one, and the powers that be still want targets met, which is impossible when working on a two line, four platform location. TfL have very little budget since George Osborn cut the government subsidy (his comic of a paper, the Evening Standard, is hawked outside tube stations to taunt us).

In retail, the High Street is under threat. Rents are rising, but profits are not. Companies are trying not to spend as much on staff because, well, they are expensive. Also, many retail jobs are being replaced by robots and the internet.

When you get good service nowadays it really stands out. I had a good shopping experience in Fenwicks in Canterbury last week. The sales assistant was pleasant, helpful and professional. But most of the time I seethe a bit at the level of rudeness I experience as a customer sometimes. But looking at some of the posts here about understaffing you can see why some retail staff don’t give a damn.

will never shop at Debenhams make up department again. whilst I felt sorry for the staff, I know before going in to attempt to buy anything, I am going to lose about 30 minnutes of my time attempting to find staff to help me locate what I need then another 10 or so finding someone to pay for the item.
Went into superdrug and found nearly 60% of the make up brands had their shelves next to empty. One after another, Rimmel, Maybelline, Loreal, Make UP revolution, I could go on. Dirty, unfilled and not much use to me.
I don't want to shop online but thats how it is going for me these days. The queuing the air of apathy from staff, the lack of choice and the frustration at completing a less than complex task leaves me determined to avoid in future. It has become the norm for me to put down what I have picked up when I see the lenght of the queue. Or be in the queue, look at what I have picked up and ask myself..."I don't really need this stuf that much" and leave.
It shows a sort of disdain for the customer as well which can't be right if they want return custom.
Not hard.
But fuck em is my reasoning now. And I am determined to actually spend less overall because I am now aware that they are ready to plunder my pocket but treat me with utter disdain while they do it.
No thanks.

Yes so I shop online. B&Q on a Saturday when they know it will be busy and there was ONE checkout open and all the self service stations were chained off. Very few floor staff. Boots too as has been mentioned. Also a service station recently.

Yes there is never anyone to ask in any shop these days it seems. Gone are the days when you would be accosted when you went in to a store and would have to say ten times, I’m just looking.

But fuck em is my reasoning now. And I am determined to actually spend less overall because I am now aware that they are ready to plunder my pocket but treat me with utter disdain while they do it.
No thanks.

That's how I strongly feel now. I want to spend less and only where it's appreciated.
Re makeup, my advice would be not to buy from department stores but order online unless items are sealed or it's a higher end brand where products are manned.
I could spend most of my working hours trying to stop people opening products, testing them out on skin/eyes/lips and then returning to shelf for some other poor person to buy. Unfortunately we can no longer even attempt to stop people or even spot them and remove the used products after as we are so short staffed.

I find the large M&S in the city I live in is particularly bad after 5pm (it's open until 7 or 8pm). I've abandoned my shopping a few times because there are no staff at the tills. Debenhams where I live is a horrid store - I think it will end up like BHS. On the other hand - I went to pick up a parcel in Debenhams recently and discovered they have Maisons du Monde (www.maisonsdumonde.com/UK/en) which is now my new favourite shop. Plenty of staff at that concession and very helpful too, despite having to till all items twice - once for Debenhams and then again for their own company

Please dont get me started on B&Q and Homebase.
I have been reduced to tears in there by the cramped queues, people with those great big trollies, other shoppers trying to get past, the PA sighing and shoving...
I try to go during the week when its a bit quieter.

OP I work for the same company as you, and it’s ridiculous the staffing. Our full time supervisor just left, and they hadn’t replaced her entire 40 hours. It is horrific, my team member spent the entire weekend in Work to get us up to date. That is the only reason our company is still standing, because staff go above and beyond.

It really is like this everywhere now, I think the high street is going to collapse.

Boots and WH Smith's are the absolute worst for this. Also I was in B&M Bargains earlier, it was rammed but there were only two people on the tills. Then someone wanted a refund which held things up, lots of huffing and puffing and sighing from people who were waiting to be served.

It's no wonder the High Street is dying.

I work for a shop that has been named on this thread, in our store we've lost over 50 staff hours a week just over the last couple of months. We now run with 2 members of staff per shift and are expected to be at the till 'only when necessary' eg for refunds or scratchcard payouts, the rest of the time we should be pushing people to use self checkout while we work the shop floor changing plannograms, replenishing stock etc. We've complained about this both from a workload point of view and also a customer service one and have been told 'that's retail these days, it's multitasking, deal with it'. I'm on the verge of walking out of my job and am definitely not the only person feeling that way! PLEASE, write/tweet/email these companies and make it known that customers are also unhappy, maybe the big bosses will care more hearing it from consumers because they really don't care about staff complaints.

They won't care until their profits drop both online and in-store.

I was in Tesco. Locked dressing room. Took ages to find someone. She then had to go and find someone with the key. I had six items of clothing to try on. After 15 mins of waiting I gave up and left the clothes. What is the actual point of that.

I was stopped on the way into local Sainsbury’s the other day by a fella trying to introduce me to the new system they are bringing in whereby you can scan your stuff as you go around the shop and check yourself out or some such.

I told him that I wouldn’t be using it as if everyone did then the staff would be laid off and I would also be paying to do their job. He looked at me like I was a crazy woman!