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?

Mlou32 - people are still allowed to buy “non-essentials.” You don’t get to tell people what they can purchase. There is no “rule” saying you can only go to the supermarket one a month either. Or once a week.

I witnessed a staff member enter into a shouting match with a customer the other day. He was incredibly rude but my sympathy was with him. I imagine that he was at the end of his tether with the general public and the customer was being selfish.

Recycledteenager24, are you calling retail workers scum?

I used to work retail. If I still was and in a retailer that has remained opened I think my tolerance level towards idiot customers would of lasted a week before I would of cracked and possibly walked out.
Sorry but that's the truth.
Retailers works on here - you are fantastic all of you.

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).

How bizarre. Perhaps they shouldn't have job essential items on the shelves then. Saying that don't a lot of Muslims eat dates when they break their fast during Ramadan so you could argue they're essential in that instance.

Anxiety manifests itself in many ways including agitation, irritability & anger. I’m not surprised they come across as rude. Imagine going to work and risking your life and have people moan at you all day that they can’t find this, that & the other.

Starting should say non-essential

Aren’t we all anxious? And millions of us are key workers. Perhaps we should all go round telling people to fuck off then.

Just one member of staff at my local Lidl who I avoid at all costs

Sauvignon could you get some type of sign to wear on your clothes that says something like "I am deaf, please be patient with me". Or get a Hidden Disabilities lanyard (you can get them at supermarket customer services).

I have found them more courteous than ever. Security staff manning the queue welcomes everyone. Very friendly at check out too.

Yep, they're totally sick of it all, and you can tell!

To the pp who said we are probably scared, yes we are, so scared.

No. I’ve found them all to be really nice and helpful and smiley

Haven’t step foot in a supermarket in nearly 6 weeks and glad not to have to from some of these posts

I couldnt blame them, im sure they deal with lots of shite on daily basis from customers who think they r entitled to items out of stock

to supermarket workers and delivery drivers

I've found the supermarket staff to be lovely. They've all been pretty smiley and a few have said that they're delighted to still have a job and even to be able to pick up a few extra shifts.

Mind you, I think that supermarket staff are, almost without exception, much more customer focused than other shops anyway. I always find that supermarket staff are really helpful, and don't seem to begrudge it. Everyone I know who works in a supermarket likes it, and I think it comes across. Whereas in a lot of other shops people seem fairly miserable and it shows...

Oh, excep Lidl. They all seem stressed as hell in there, and the customer service is, accordingly, terrible.

I feel for supermarket workers right now. Must be awful.

No. I feel for them. Working with people sucks at the best of times.

Staff I've encountered have been great. My mates who work at supermarkets are being battered by incredibly rude, aggressive and demanding customers - one friend saw an 18yo who'd just started working there because he university studies were on old reduced to tears on her first day.

So if staff snap, I'm not surprised from what I've heard.

I have a relative who works in a supermarket. When he's trying to stack shelves, the customers treat him like a piece of furniture and push past. The customers shout at him like it's his fault there's still no flour/whatever. When he's on the till, he has to continually tell people in the queue to spread out and not stand too close together.

He gets treated like shit day in day out (not just by customers, but his employer too), is exposed to the risk of catching CV every time he goes to work and gets paid fuck all for the privilege, so sometimes he can be a bit terse with customers, yes.

I don't blame him.

Our ones are doing a great job. They've changed the cleaning station to outside the shop because customers had said, obviously, they were already handling the trolley whilst lining up to go in. They realised the queue was getting longer with customers self cleaning them so you just line up without one now and they hand you a 'just cleaned one' just before you go in.

I was talking to a till operator at my last shop - she had to remind me to stand behind the line to load the conveyor belt. It was just automatic on my part to go to the end of the belt nearest the operator. Told me very politely and, of course, I apologised. She said she wished everyone was so polite so that started the conversation...

She's had people throw shopping at her when the hoarding first started and they had to introduce the 'three items only' on some things. One of her colleagues was called everything under the sun because there was no bread delivery by a particular time one day. She herself also had one 'gentleman' refuse to step behind the line, she asked again, then called over the supervisor who asked again. Then security came over and eventually the man was escorted out. He spat on the floor on his way out. And we're in a supposedly 'naice' area where you'd be tutted if you looked at someone the wrong way or your flower beds had weeds in them. Apparently it's fine to insult people doing their job now though.

I would imagine, if I had that as part of an average, standard job I'd start getting a bit pissed off with it all. I think this is showing the other side of some peoples nature (good and bad) and those people who are working are getting fed up with it.

A colleague of mine was told "she was just a worker" when she politely explained that the till she was on was card only (signs everywhere) my other colleague stepped in and said "without us WORKERS you wouldn't have any food"!!! Even her husband told her shut up in the end. Please, please just give us the benefit of the doubt at the moment we are sick and tired of the rules and regs as you must be. And no it's not necessary for us to give you a pound back for scratch card that's won. Hence, card only !sick of repeating myself to people who don't even think why...

I’m teaching keyworkers kids atm and the vast majority are supermarket workers that have to keep working to pay bills. They can’t work from home and they can’t be furloughed. They have no choice but to keep going in to a low paid job at the same time as having to send their kids into school....whilst the rest of the world goes on and on about being stuck at home.

My heart breaks for them. I worked in a supermarket years ago and customers were frequently difficult or abusive all the time. The stories that I’m being told, when they come to collect their kids, are unreal.