Banned from my local supermarket after an argument with a member of staff- my language was bad though.

[Alderedge1]

So today I’ve been banned from my local supermarket, I’m not proud of what happened but I think that the member of staff was also in the wrong.

i was in the fruit and veg aisle looking to get some pre- chopped melon. The ones that come in sealed plastic pots. They were stacked quite tightly and some of the dates were quite soon, so I decided to go towards the back, in doing this I accidentally knocked 5 or 6 pots off the shelf. Immediately a female member of staff was on me- telling me “ you’re supposed to take the ones from the front”. I apologised for knocking some of them from the shelf but explained that it was my choice to choose the date that I wanted. By this point I had reassembled the display, so no harm done. She carried on chuntering so I said something like “ it’s really not a big deal, let’s move on”. As I went to walk away she said, “ it’s just not on”. I’m afraid this is where I let myself down. She was a small pointy woman of about 60 with short dyed red hair. I asked her what her problem was and she said “ customers like you thinking they own the place” to which I replied ( I know this is bad) “fuck off and shut your cunt up you fucking crackhead Anne Robinson lookalike”. It’s not often I take such a low blow but I had a rough upbringing and when I’m really pushed it emerges. The lady stormed off.

as I was leaving a manager asked me if I could step into an office for a chat, I said no thank you. She then said well I’m afraid that you won’t be able to shop here moving forwards.

so that’s that. Not proud of my mouth but she was a fucking horrible twat.

Oh gosh I'm also a terrible person, because that made me laugh. She totally deserved it. But maybe use your inside voice next time 😂😂

"small pointy woman"... "fucking crackhead Anne Robinson lookalike” 😂😂😂😮‍💨 Honestly I wouldn't worry about it. Annoying to lose your local supermarket but sometimes people need to be told. The "small pointy woman" sounds an annoying busybody, it won't be the first time someone has spoken sharply to her.

😮‍💨 There is something particularly satisfying about your language here 🍉👌🫡

Ah you really lost the moral high ground there OP!😆

But if that's the attitude of the staff they're employing, I wouldn't want to shop there anyway. Waitrose is very overrated, don't bother apologising, just go to the nearest Aldi.

Dreadful, no apology is going to neutralise that outburst.
Poor woman, probably getting paid very little to take abuse from you.

I'm surprised you've posted this.
You had 'a rough upbringing' - clearly.
That poor assistant.
I suppose it is too much to expect a sincere - and I mean SINCERE - written apology and some decent flowers?

Probably not but that makes it worse not better. Who needs to endure that kind of abuse.

I don't see much evidence that she feels bad about it.

Jesus fucking Christ OP 😂 I thought I was hotheaded. You’re brave for posting this I’ll give you that, you’re gonna get one hell of a telling off. I’ve worked retail and tbh she probably heard worse, but what you said was really not on. I used to write down all the horrible things customers said to me and rank them, and this would have got a solid 10.

I think you should hang your head in shame but at the end of the day it’s not the end of the world. The unfortunate reality is that when you work with the public, you see the worst of people.

lol that’s actually hilarious op 😂

I don't know if the OP is genuine or not, but, it wouldn't surprise me if she is.

I've worked in retail, and I've seen the abuse customers hurl at staff for no reason. It's like they let all their pent up anger issues and insecurities spill out on people that they think can't or won't stand up for themselves, it's just a form of bullying.

I used to always stand up for myself against arsehole customers, no one has the right to speak to people like shit. OP, you've said you've shopped there hundreds of times, so clearly a regular.
I reckon you're one of those irritable customers who think nothing of messing up displays with your carelessness. The assistant probably got fed up with you rummaging through everything again and snapped, but she didn't deserve that response.
Best to not bother going back in that store as you're not welcome.

Reading this has made my day, I am roaring 🤣

You can't even debate on here with people without losing your temper.

Well deserved. I wouldn't be keen ever to go to that supermarket again if I had behaved like this.

Hold on a minute. You are cross about HER nastiness and rudeness!

Blimey!

OP- you won't get anywhere apologising even with flowers. You won't be banned from all branches. And you won't be banned forever- try going there again in a few months- the employee or manager may have left by then anyway.

She was wrong to make the comment, but by launching into your childish, foul-mouthed tirade you lost the opportunity to ask to speak to the manager to enquire whether customers really aren’t allowed to choose whichever carton they want, and whether he thinks what she said was acceptable.

I don’t blame them for banning you. I would refuse to let you back even if you apologised. Shop workers don’t have to put up with abuse like that, even if they’re being silly.

We don’t have a local Waitrose so I’m pretty jealous that you had that option. I’d be very gutted if I was banned. Is it a lifetime ban? Can it be reviewed?

Having said that, I’m a bit terrified by your reaction and I know you said it hasn’t happened before but I would worry that you’ve got that in you and next time you may end up having someone thump you or worse in retaliation

perhaps do you think about it some more and if you need to get help to work through some issues? I don’t mean that in a sarky way.

Whereabouts was the supermarket? In the land of make believe?

Yeah, you snatched defeat from the jaws of victory there, assuming this even happened. I'd ban you from my store, too. The right thing to do would have been to make a complaint about the member of staff to the store manager, without resorting to personal insults.

You've been banned? Good for them. There's enough customers with foul mouths and the manners of alley cats. The staff attitude wasn't great but yours was even worse.

This is the reason we wear body cams.

The stupid thing is at this point (that she made the comment about owning the place) you should have said 'i dont think that's the most appropriate comment to make to a customer actually' and walked over to customer services and made a complaint about her. Then it would have been her in trouble and you could have held your head high and walked away.

Instead you launched a foul mouthed slew of abuse that young children could have heard (and plenty of us would have found really offensive) and ended up banned.

Please, please learn from this and stop being so awful it makes everyone around you at that point feel scared and umcomfortable because it's aggressive and abusive.

Can it be reviewed? The store manager has a duty of care towards his staff and has done the correct thing. It’s not an automatic right to shop in Waitrose (or any other supermarket).

Actual cherry on top that it was Waitrose. If this isn’t real it’s really good bait.