Why is customer service so horrendous in shops nowadays?

[whyohwhymetoday]

No eye contact. Often chatting away to colleagues and looking disinterested at you whilst continuing their conversation as you hand over £££

Nobody to help on shop floor

Poor knowledge about returns and items sold in store

No interest in helping me choose. That type of thing

I recently went into a high street shop and held up two tops. I said to a nearby woman with a label on for that shop ''Oh I just can't choose! What do you think looks best, this or this? :D''

She sort of looked like I'd ask her to inspect my undercarriage and said 'it's up to you, they're both nice' and carried on with what she was doing

I know these (mostly women) aren't paid loads but come on, surely it feels better to do a good job?

Hats off to M&S, such lovely and understanding staff in there well, not the cafe. They all seem to be rude

Lady servicing me at No7 in Boots yesterday looked like she genuinely couldn't be less interested when I asked her what shade would work for me

My 2 local B&M stores have really nice staff, always helpful and make you feel like you're not disturbing them or being an inconvenience by wanting someone to scan your shop so you can pay

My local Waitrose has hideously grumpy women who appear to be taking up a job post retirement and feeling very bitter about it!

McDonald's always pleasant too!

Vue Cinema, awful

Amazon delivery men, amazing. Once again, proving why Amazon just works for a lot of stuff

Honestly, be warned High street, you'll all be gone within 10 years and bargain stores like B&M/Poundland will be there, alongside maybe Boots because it has a Pharmacy

If no customers entered the business would go under and you wouldn't have a job.

But they don't actually pay my wages. I am still paid whether we have a very quiet day or a very busy day.

I feel customer service now (2025) is hugely better than when I first came to UK (early 1990s).

That's also not necessarily true. I've worked in shops which were constantly busy and still closed down.

You can be completely polite (I always am - I worked in a shop myself as a teen, as I said) but still get dreadful rudeness presumably because they've been brutalised by all the previous rude/stupid people that week.

Same effect though. Customer will buy online. China gets the money.

I must say though that the customers I served in the 80s and 9s in the newsagents were rarely rude. Mad, odd, lost (location meant we spent a lot of time trying to direct people), mumbly or occasionally a bit pissed, but rarely rude.

This! It's the ethos of the shop's management that permeates down to the staff. New staff come in and see the other staff being helpful and nice, and they just follow suit. But if they come in and the staff are trying their best to ignore the customers, talk amongst themselves all the time, and are generally unhelpful, they'll do the same. It comes from the management of the shop.

We have a medium sized Tesco in our nearest town. Almost without exception the staff are amazing. We get a click and collect food order every week - whoever brings it out is friendly and helpful, happy to pass the time of day, happy to help with packing the car etc., happy to take things back and refund if short dated, even happy to take something back into the store to swop for another, i.e. a squashed loaf of bread or leaking milk container etc. Same inside the store, ask someone where something is and they take you there in person, not just vague pointing and saying "over there". Same at the tills and customer service.

If we go to the bigger store in the main town, or the smaller "local" stores, the staff can't be arsed at all. Yet, these are paid the same, work under the same contracts, etc. The difference can only be the management!

It's the same with McDonalds - some staff are grumpy, don't make eye contact, barely speak, yet others in different outlets are ultra friendly - again, same pay, same working conditions, so must be the management!

Hats off to M&S, such lovely and understanding staff in there well, not the cafe. They all seem to be rude
I have noticed this in the M&S cafes, it never used to be like that. The staff are disinterested and offhand, so much so I have stopped going in. There are a lot better coffee shops out there that I'd rather give my money to.

I also agree about the B&M staff, every branch I have been in have friendly and helpful staff.

Agree. Plus I hate the whole ‘I pay your wages’ shite because it’s always aimed at lower earners by people who think they are superior.

If you are a doctor then the NHS, funded by tax payers then everyone in the country ‘pays your wages’ if you work for an oil company then the end user ‘pays your wages’ if you are in banking then the banks customers ‘pay your wages’. Except actually your wages are part of your contract of employment, paid by the organisation that employs you so no, someone going into a shop and spending fifty quid is not then paying the bloody wages of all the workers in that shop.

If no customers entered the business would go under and you wouldn't have a job.

True.

But, having worked in retail for years, I actually found that the vast majority of customers don't actually care all that much about customer service. They just want to buy their stuff and leave.

They don't care about refund policies and it would never occur to them to ask a shop assistant which t-shirt looks best. They just want to buy the item they came in for, pay and get out of there as quickly as possible.

If no customers enter your store, sure you'll be paid but you'd probably best be looking for another job.

I suppose unless it's a front for something.

Busy stores that shut down have perhaps overextended themselves with debt or are taking money but not covering their costs sufficiently.

That has happened to numerous shops in my town. There's plenty of footfall but not enough purchasing to sustain Decathlon, IKEA etc. Partly no doubt as people want to collect large things by car.

It's a phrase and everyone knows what it means. Do you always take everything so literally? If you have a lot of very quiet days the business will close.

I worked in retail a while..it is rubbish. Your on low contracted hours, but on rota randomly and constantly. Your told when you can take your holiday (generally split about randomly), no sick pay. You work all christmas often overnight due to the sales. Your talked down to by customers and people are rude. There's no promotion or working up unless management but it's hard when your in a big store with a large staff turnover. And obviously minimum wage.

But I found Next, M&S and Amazon delivery great with customer service. The employees imo have been lovely and give a good natter or are just pleasent. Boots I've never had a good experience, they just ignore you 😂😂 waitrose in my area have been great and Sainsbury's. (But it's local people I see most days and they are just lovely anyway)

I work for a well known store ( not High St) on the tills & always try to treat customers as I would want to be treated myself. As a result, I get lots of compliments & some people actually wait so that they can come through my till. It is getting more stressful at work generally though as we are short staffed so often queues are longer. I sometimes have to apologise for my colleagues who have apparently spoken rudely to customers. Really no excuse for this, even if they’re under pressure. The main thing that gets to me is no praise from the Store Manager. We used to have a lovely sales Manager who would always say “ Thank you for today” at the end of the shift & it really made a difference. The Store Manager often speaks to the staff like naughty children. We have lost a fair number of staff because of the way they are treated by her.
OP you say about customer service - well, my colleagues on the CS desk have to put up with unbelievable behaviour from disgruntled customers sometimes. No way would I work on there! One ex colleague had a boxed hoover thrown at her - luckily it missed! And the verbal abuse!

Because shop staff are paid shit wages.

Because people generally lack manners and courtesy these days.

Because generally people are pissed off, angry, struggling with their own pressures and stresses in life.

The future in this country is pretty bleak.

That said, I often come across staff in shops and delivery drivers who are very polite, especially if you are polite and respectful in the first place.

That said a smile cost nothing.

Not so. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_mask_syndrome

Yeah, I'm not sure about the smiling.

Good manners cost nothing. You can say, I'm so sorry you've had to wait and try to sound like you mean it.

I spent a year in Canada and the clothes shop people were much nicer. I think they may have been on commission though.

This is fascinating!

there are plenty of mad, entitled types out there who treat shop workers as their personal verbal punchbag

This was true over 20 years ago when I worked checkouts and it remains true now. I would be suicidal by shift end, some days.

I have worked in shops which are extremely busy and have had lots of lovely customers but still have closed down, due to the bigger departments. So it is not necessarily true.

If someone dare says that to a shop worker, they're often the rude ones themselves who think that retail workers should bend over backwards to them and are argumentive.

This is the key. There doesn't seem to be a boss anywhere anymore. Staff just do what they want. So many call centre staff work from home now with barking dogs and parties going on in the background too. There is no one to check their performance and they clearly don't care a lot of the time. Also I get the impression that training is virtually non existent, so they don't know what they're doing and can't offer any sort of service to speak of.

I have to go into my Mother's Bank quite regularly. I bank online so am not used to going into a physical bank. It's really shocking how the staff behave. Lounging around eating and drinking, chatting, gossiping, leaning on counters. Dressed sloppily. Dont greet me, don't seem to know much. I have to keep repeating what I need. Then their laptop breaks or they need to escalate something to someone who actually has some knowledge. It's really hard to get to speak to a member of staff at all if you don't make an appointment. I can't easily make an appointment because there is no direct phone number. Absolutely no sign of a bank manager. I used to work in a bank many years ago, none of this behaviour would ever have been tolerated then. The manager and the boss were watching everything.

I haven't experienced any issues that you're describing. It seems like you might be the problem. You're coming across as a bit needy...just crack on with your shopping.

If customers don't enter your shop and buy things, your shop will close and you won't be paid anything at all.

But if customers do enter my shop and it's extremely busy constantly. Shops still do close. So that phrase is not necessarily true.

That's what I meant actually.

Old Mr (owner's name) was watching us with his beady eye from the back room and would have been straight out there if he didn't like the look of a customer interaction. It was HIS business!

He was also quite kind and helpful under the grumpy exterior and would treat his staff to a Christmas dinner and always paid promptly and accurately in a little paper packet, in cash.