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

They were probably talking about work and maybe she wasn't trained on that counter. This is what people mean about the entitlement and lack of understanding to retail staff, what impact does this really have on your life??

My 16 year old niece in her first job was working in primark. She was working in the changing rooms and there was a bit of a queue. A woman tried to push in and my niece apologised saying sorry there's a queue here, the woman threw the clothes at my niece, called her an ugly fucker and stormed off. This was a middle aged woman speaking to a child!
My niece didn't report it or tell us about it at the time as she thought she would get into trouble as a customer shouted at her and the customer is always right!

Whoever coined the phrase the customer is always right clearly didn't work on the shop floor. Totally shitty behaviour from that woman towards your niece and absolutely no need for it.

I hope people will stop and think the next time they shout at retail staff, imagine that was your son, daughter, niece etc, would you be happy for them to have to put up with that and not be able to retaliate? I'm all for a retail style purge where we get to tell customers to fuck off for one day without getting into trouble.

The trouble is you either get the over familiarity and pushiness -people asking what you’re doing for the rest of the day, sometimes asking really personal questions in an attempt to be chummy/ constantly in your face asking if they can help, or you get rude, bored and ill trained staff. There doesn’t seem to be much in between these days.

That’s disgusting.

I semi agree with this, I work with children and we prepare them for a long time for independence of course, but part of the narrative, sometimes implied sometimes said overtly is that 'you dont want a job just stacking shelves at Tesco' and there is a drive, as for all children, that they must go to university and anything else is failure.*

When I'm serving on the till The amount of people who say to their kids if you don't work hard at school you will end up working on a till like her!

Although I've had some shocking customer service over the years, I'm still polite and kind to shop staff as they are only doing their job.
I've been an assistant myself and it's not easy and people do look down on you.
There has to be some give and take

Yep, I have a degree and for various reasons ended up in retail for a long while - people really looked down on it - told me what a waste it was and how I was so much better than that.

Now okay, that's not an insult to me as such, but it shows what people really think of retail staff deep down.

Because although I don't like people, I'm introverted and despise society as a whole, for some reason I was given the job and therefore I must suffer it to pay the bills.

Not retail, the railway.

It's the truth!

I'm not the only one.

They were probably talking about work and maybe she wasn't trained on that counter. This is what people mean about the entitlement and lack of understanding to retail staff, what impact does this really have on your life??*

She was on the customer side of the counter and they were talking about their plans for New Years Eve. And even if they were talking about work a quick sorry I'll be with you in a second would suffice

I haven't RTFT but I agree that it's gone downhill and I'm really not usually a "back in my day" kind of person.

I remember working in a supermarket between 16-18 and I just really don't think we would have got away with doing the things I see now?

I remember the very worst thing some people used to do on the checkouts was talk to each other while scanning and I hated being on a till next to a chatter as it would inevitably result in a complaint about us. Even then, the very worst staff always said "hi" and "would you like help with your packing" and "thank you" etc to the customer.

I remember getting complained about for the tiniest things. I asked someone if they had a clubcard twice by accident. I said "no problem" instead of "you're welcome". I didn't give enough eye contact. I put more than one item in each bag. I was to blame for the price of tuna.

I remember getting screamed at by customers and expected to remain calm and finish serving them and sometimes even apologise to them when I had done nothing wrong. There was just really a much more prevalent "customer is always right" attitude.

I'm not saying it to sound like a martyr. It was just how it was. Essentially the job we were getting paid for was, in large part, to maintain politeness towards customers even if they were being dicks. We still of course rolled our eyes afterwards or moaned in the break room but we just wouldn't have dreamt of being rude directly to a customer or we wouldn't have had jobs.

I'm glad that we have moved more towards retail companies defending their staff, making clear they will not tolerate abuse, and generally clamping down on that stuff.

At the same time I am baffled by the number of times I get served and the person literally doesn't say a word even when I say hi and thank you cheerily. Or I ask where something is politely and they literally sigh in my face.

The defence is always that it's a miserable job on minimum wage. I remember how miserable it was! We used to put a piece of receipt over the clock on the till so it would go faster. I remember I used to feel like my body was itching as I was so desperate to be done and it so was mind-numbing.

I'm autistic and it was unbearable to do the small talk. I actually learned a lot of small talk from being there - I used to listen to what the other staff said and copy it and try it out on customers later. I learned it like a script (once resulting in a very embarrassing situation where I copied someone's joke in the wrong context or tone of voice and it didn't quite land the same).

I am glad I did it. I was exhausted and drained and hated working with the general public but I learned a lot of valuable social skills and it humbled me.

It is a miserable job but so are lots of jobs. Society as a whole seems more miserable now that the cheery forced politeness and the bumbling stereotypically British over-apologising has long gone and even exchanging basic greetings is no longer something we should expect. (And no I'm
not blaming immigration before anyone jumps on "British". I think society has changed for lots of reasons including screens, increasing individualism, and loss of local communities)

I worked in retail for a while years ago. I remember one woman complaining to the manager that I didn’t smile enough. It was a long, physically exhausting day in a badly paid job. Apparently I was supposed to grin all the time too. I’ve never forgotten it.

I was talking to a colleague about this the other day, and we've both noticed our younger colleagues aren't as subservient or deferent as we are, or were, to management or customers.

I also think companies have realised they spent a lot of money on staff to deliver this expectation and that's money that could be profit, less staff interacting with customers means more putting stock out and filling tills, meaning less staff all together.

The focus on staff there to keep the customers happy in whatever way necessary has shifted to them making the company profit That's how companies train their staff, that's how they want them.
I've failed the aptitude tests for some big companies because I've chosen the wrong answers on the questions, because my answers have basically been stop what you're doing and walk the customer through whatever their query is, because being older and trained, your answers are customer focussed, they don't want that, they want you doing the job assigned with no deviation, or wandering off with customers, or using your initiative because that costs more in man hours.

That's created a disparity between what customers want and what companies are willing to deliver.

I think this change is what people are kicking back at, I don't think refusing to be treated badly simply because you're in the service industry is such a bad thing to be honest, someone up thread mentioned self worth in relation to doing your job properly, well many are doing the job they've been employed to do properly, as they've been trained, customers not liking that doesn't change that's what the company has decided and going off piste puts a target on your back. And refusing to be treated with no respect, or abused, is the opposite of having no self worth.

The days of workers in the service industry being subservient and deferent are coming to an end, and I don't think that's a bad thing really.

I agree with so much of this.

I've worked several retail jobs, my first job was when I was 16. Yes it was sometimes mind numbingly boring and you got unnecessary shit from customers. But there were good days, busy shifts when there was no time to clock watch. It was what you made of it.

Customer service was drilled into us as super important. We had mystery shoppers. Management weren't perfect but for the most part they understood that if they treated us fairly then they'd have a happier team. Happier staff = more willing to help customers = more sales.

If there were long queues at the till we were taught to ring the bell for help. To say, can I help? Did you find everything you were looking for today? That's £8.55 please. Would you like a bag? Thanks so much, have a great day. Nowadays I'm lucky if I get told the total amount of what I need to pay for. Never get anything else.

Nowadays a lot of staff are too busy gossiping amongst themselves about their relationships to even notice customers waiting to be served. Often on their phones. Let huge queues form while they are chatting away. Sometimes you get to the till and there isn't anyone to be seen! If you ask where something is they point vaguely in the direction where it might be. When I worked retail, talking about your personal life in front of customers was considered very unprofessional. Phones were absolutely not allowed on the shop floor. We were told to ring the bell for help if more than 3 people were waiting and someone would come along promptly to open another till. Someone needs to be in view of the tills at all times, to keep an eye out for customers but also for security. If someone asked where something was we'd take them to where it was.

I don't blame the staff, I blame the management who obviously don't train the staff up very well. Some of the skills I learnt while working retail I still use today! If 16 year old me on £4.30 an hour knew to ask a customer if they needed help, then most actual adults can learn to do the same.

The customer isn't always right, but there's a big difference between shitty customers not being allowed to be abusive, and general manners towards a customer who is asking a question or just being polite.

I don't think you can compare modern retail to retail 20-30 years ago.

Systems are different, society is different and, rightly or wrongly, retail is generally no longer seen as a solid career or job. It's a stop gap, or something you do as a student, or something that you do when you're too stupid to do anything else.

I don't agree with any of that btw, but that's how society sees it.

Nail on the head. There seems to be a new excuse that because a minority of customers are shitty to the retail staff, then retail staff have the right to be shitty towards ALL customers. The pendulum has swung too far.

I had Saturday jobs in retail, I actually don't remember people being abusive or a pain in the neck, it's interesting isn't it? And I am definitely not the sort of person to suffer fools gladly.

I don't remember having any complaints made about me, but the supervisors were very picky and used to pick up every last thing. I got told off for running out of bags and change, for example and not ringing for assistance as soon as I realised I was getting low. Quite rightly, but it wasn't a customer complaint.

Working on the till all day was soul destroying. I had a job in my local Boots where I spent nearly all day on the till. I only lasted 3 months and then got a job in the local library instead. Bliss!

I worked in other retail outlets as well but didn't have to spend the whole time on the tills.

Was it different 30 years ago? I think there was always a view that it was for people who couldn't do the more cerebral jobs. Or maybe not, as fewer people went to university. That said, it was mainly women (it was interesting that the managers were inevitably men, although I did have a supervisor who was female, though she was older so either didn't have kids or they were grown up).

When I worked in the library it was an all female workforce except for the other person who worked on Saturdays who was a year above me at school, and the guy who worked in the reference library.

It's just not recently, this was Boots in the 1980s

Gig economy workers, not employed by the shop but an agency who exploits them horribly. Sometimes having to sacrifice a percentage of their wages to get paid quickly.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/11/so-immoral-gig-economy-workers-forced-to-pay-fee-to-receive-their-wages

Our local Peacocks have very good staff, as does Superdrug, the status of the shop has no bearing on how good the staff are.

I was in CS before I retired and I've really had to bite my tongue in some places. I think sometimes the area plays a part, we're in a small town and service here is definitely better than in the local city

Agree, I went in recently to buy something from a locked cabinet. I asked a nearby assistant to get them out for me, he looked annoyed that I asked him but went to ask someone to get them out for keys. She then quizzed me as to if i just wanted to look or actually buy them and said ‘well, you wont be able to try them, just look so do you still want me to get them out.’ I felt like a nuisance and hurried to get out of their way. Also annoyed because I had gone for the sole purpose of buying them that day! I have had similar experiences the last few times I went in. Not sure why I keep going back for big purchases!

@dynamiccactus my recollection is that it was used to be perfectly acceptable to have a nice, steady job in a shop or in a cafe. I knew a lot of people who spent their entire working lives in Woolworths (or similar) for example.

Yes, it wasn't the best paid job but I don't believe it was looked down upon in the way it is today. It was seen as nice, respectable work with sensible hours.

Nowadays, shops are expected to be open longer but with no extra manpower or training. People are expected to work at 5am or get off at midnight, to work Sundays and Bank Holidays for practically no extra pay. To come in on Boxing Day after working late Christmas Eve etc.

When you erode the pay and conditions, get rid of the perks and tell people that they're only in retail because they're too stupid to work elsewhere, I don't think you can then complain about staff morale and poor service.

Working in retail should be just as respected as working any other job. But it's not, and until that changes, I don't think morale and service will improve.

Well our B&M is on the High Street.....

Woman working makeup counter should imo have an understanding of what makeup works etc. Random person working in Poundland, probably worried if they pick the wrong top you'll complain and try to get them sacked.
Agree chatting to other staff etc during serving at the till is rude, it's poor training and management but then those chats likely make their job more tolerable so I set aside my annoyance and would never report it.

Perhaps you need to take it all less personally, I honestly couldn't recount all the service I've had over the last week.

If you're looking for connection, perhaps try the local library and see if they've got any groups on etc