Have you noticed a change in supermarket workers customer service?

[pretzele]

I know they are working really hard at the moment but the past couple of times I have been in the supermarket I've been shocked at how rude the staff are being to customers.

Obviously not all of them.

For example I asked someone where an item was as I couldn't find it anywhere. Their reply was ' I don't know' and that was it. This is someone who has worked in this shop for a good few years.

I tried to clean my trolley with the spray and cloth provided and a member of staff shouted at me that it's already been cleaned. I hadn't seen them do it and had already sprayed the handle bar so continued to wipe it so they tutted and shook their head.

This is just to name a few.

I get it that they are all overworked and tired but its bad when people haven't been out for weeks and when they do they get talked to with little respect.

Has anyone else noticed this?

No - o have found them if anything more cheerful and helpful. I have had a joke with those manning the queues and last time I wen I got near the end and realised my purse wasn’t in my bag. Told a member of staff who didn’t make me feel stupid or a nuisance, just put my trolley in a safe place, told me to go and get the purse then come in the exit without queuing again and returned my frozen goods to the freezer. She even offered to bump me up the queue to pay when I got back but I refused as it was my own stupid fault.
It must be grim working in supermarkets -I hate going for my shopping at the moment. If they were a bit grumpy I’d completely understand, but it isn’t my experience.

They are probably just sick and tired of the selfish bastards coming in day in day out for non essential items and not giving a damn about social distancing, thus putting them at risk.

Customer service will always vary between stores. Our Morrisons has always been pretty poor for helpful/friendly staff, but Covid has really brought out the worst in them. Whereas our Tescos has always been a lot friendlier and even more so at the moment. I think it's a "group" thing - if you have a group of nice, helpful people, they'll feed off each other and new joiners will copy the existing staff, but the opposite will also happen. The last time I went to Tesco, I had 1 bag of compost in my bag - the checkout woman said it was 3 for £10, and when I said yes, she called for someone to bring me two more who then took my trolley to my car for me as it was very heavy. Some people are just genetically wired to be helpful.

A family member was charged twice for an item through checkout, when she went to customer services the lady said she was not giving a refund because it wasn't an essential item (it was a bag of dates).

Obviously when the manager was called he was apologetic and refunded plus gave a giftcard.

I get that they're stressed (I worked in a supermarket once) but no need to be an absolute bitch!

It's the people that are usually really polite and helpful who are being off now.

I absolutely understand how annoyed they must be with people ignoring the rules, but being talked to like that by the only person you might have seen in weeks could really get you down.

No. I find being in a supermarket deeply unpleasant and anxiety inducing. I reflected the other day that working there must be truly awful.

They don't have masks or protective clothing, they have to police ignorant cunts that can't observe shopping singly or two metres apart from each other and people lean right across them to get what they want or stand tutting until they can move out the way.

For £9 an hour. Fuck.that.shit

My Mum (63) was in work at 3am on Wednesday to try and get shelves stocked before the store opened. She is putting herself at risk every day and dealing with verbally abusive arseholes who think it's her fault that their particular brand of wine/butter/ chicken isn't in stock.

I'm not surprised if she's not always as cheerful as she would normally be.

I would imagine this is all wearing very thin now for supermarket staff, and any other people in retail.
Day after day of making sure they and the customers are safe and following guidelines that may change daily.
Don't forget it was only a month or so ago they were absolutely deluged by greedy stockpilers fighting over loo roll and buying all the pasta. They haven't had a break before entering this new phase where they have to have some sort of control over the situation.
They must feel like they are always about to get shouted at about something.

Enough to tip the most mild mannered staff over the edge.

@Madvixen Not expecting them to be cheerful but not expecting them to be blatantly rude either.

@LittleBoyJuly2020 exactly my point!

Try having to still work with customers who don't understand social distancing.

Then you might understand.

That’s interesting. Dd works part time in a supermarket and is finding that some customers’ behaviour has got a lot worse.

Ours are really lovely! I'm most impressed by Morrisons staff who, at mine at least, are really going above and beyond and are really helpful. They get spat at by irate customers! And deliberately coughed on. It's a hard job.

It's very 50/50 where I am. One guy in Aldi that is usually on the grumpier side was so chatty and funny the other week, seriously don't think I've seen this guy crack a smile in 5years and all of a sudden he is befriending everyone!

In the mini asda on the other hand I was bellowed at by a member of staff for "not standing behind the line", I was behind the Line, there were 3 lines, I was stood on the 3rd line, the guy in front of me on line 2 moved forward to line 1. So I stepped forward to line 2. In her words people must be stupid because they can't stand behind a line! When I pointed out there were 3 lines on the floor and I was stood Behind line 2 and the instructions printed out and stuck to the side of the till told me to do, she muttered something about not realising there were 3 lines....
It's effecting everyone differently it seems.

I have had two horrible experiences in Morrisons recently and my DH had had one a couple of weeks before that, again Morrisons. Our local Morrisons obviously encourages its staff to consider themselves 'above' its customers and makes sure they're put in their place. Vile horrible bitch I encountered last week. She made me cry!! Aldi and Lidl staff on the other hand have been lovely. Morrisons can go F themselves!!

Agree Aldi and Lidl staff have been great!

I don't think you can lump all the staff together. They are all individuals with differing ability to cope with all this.
The ones shouting for people to stand on certain spaces might be the ones getting shouted at by customers for not doing that previously.

While these people still go into work every day we can get all our essentials.

The staff in our local stores have been lovely and have gone above and beyond to help people.

I also had a Morrisons delivery last week and the driver couldn't have been friendlier.

I absolutely understand how annoyed they must be with people ignoring the rules, but being talked to like that by the only person you might have seen in weeks could really get you down.

Being spoken to like shit by every other person you see, being threatened with violence, being spat at and coughed on, not having time to do your own shopping, having to work extra shifts to support your colleagues and all for less than a tenner an hour, for weeks on end, can really get you down as well. It’s not just a case of being annoyed because people aren’t following the rules. It’s a case of having to deal with actively hostile fuckers every single day.

Waitrose in Holsworthy staff have been amazing, I don't usually shop there but they've converted me during the pandemic

And no I don't work for them!

I’m finding supermarkets scary as I feel like I’m constantly being shouted at.

Morrison’s have a special queue you have to join before getting to the checkout, I was joining it yesterday when someone an employee shouted at me to join it. A lot of the time staff are wearing masks, I’m deaf and I lip read so I can’t always follow the bellowed instructions about where to place my trolley.

I do find all the shouting stressful and for some staff it’s just a license to be rude to everyone but on the other hand I do realise that for some this may stem from their own fears about being so close to the general public and they may we’ll have been on the receiving end of some vile behaviour from customers so I do understand and make sure I don’t take it personally and try to be extra polite back.

I think they have a very tough job to do and are probably scared at the moment. My BIL works in a supermarket and they have had people spitting at them when they've been out of stock of items. BIL is working ridiculous amounts of overtime at the moment and is exhausted.

I was in a small Co-Op recently and one of the cashiers was shouting at people to stand behind the lines. Everybody was. She then loudly told her colleague that we were “fucking idiots.”

When it was my turn I politely asked her how she was. “I would be a lot better if people didn’t keep coming in, you should be at home.”

Bear in mind it was my first time in a shop in a week, I followed all instructions and was polite. 🤷🏻‍♀️

all the scum is crawling out of the wood work at present and showing themselves in their true light.

Most of the supermarket staff have been fine. Some a bit brusque at times, but then if I was having to repeat the same instructions 39473943 times a day to a queue of people, I'd probably be a bit 'meh' as well.

Everyone on the checkouts has been very friendly and helpful - had a great natter with a lady in Sainsbury's this morning.

I've only come across one person who was really rude. And although it was annoying I let it go because for all I know they have had God knows how many customers be vile to them and have reached the end of their tether. The checkout lady this morning said that some of the behaviour from customers has been horrendous - so much so that they have additional people on security walk-rounds now ready to intervene if they see something.