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.

Blimey. Waitrose too. If it was Asda I wouldn’t bat an eyelid, but Waitrose!!

Never should cunt be thrown about in any Waitrose. Especially not in the fruit and veg aisle.

I always take things from the back.

Seriously?

my reply was deleted because I was warning people to be careful and think twice about confronting someone as there are many very angry, disturbed or mentally ill people who may be carrying knives?

even if you are being mugged they tell you to just hand things over because it’s not worth your life

Just noticed your user name

Are you Kerry Katona or a WAG OP?

😂😂😂😂 sounds like me a couple of decades ago! Still reading, just had to post that you're not alone.

Sounds like you just need to go back and ask to apologise. The manager did try to speak to you.

You could write in to head office too, explaining yourself.

OP tried to move on. The assistant just kept on at her as she started pushing her trolley away.

You've been arguing with complete strangers for almost 5 hours.

I'm with you on not wanting to chop melon when I can buy it already sliced.

But 'too busy'? 👀

You’ve conveniently skipped over the important bit of the story. You know, the bit where OP calls a woman a name which many identify as a misogynistic slur, whether made by a woman or a man. In the context of the story told minus the swearing rant, it may be funny, but prob just required an eye roll. It’s a classic example of customers thinking that anyone who is in customer service isn’t worthy of a considered respectful response. Would OP have responded in this way to a teacher, or a nurse or her GP if spoken to in a similar way? Nope…..I’ve seen this sort of behaviour towards shop staff and hospitality staff. It’s usually done by people to make themselves feel more superior, who don’t have the intelligence to respond in a measured way, and direct it generally towards people who can’t answer back in a similar way, because of course most of the time (fortunately not in OPs case) customer facing places operate under ‘the customer is always right’ and they face being sacked. Awful behaviour….

Why did you feel the need to swear? Just saying 'oh give over you ridiculous woman' would have been much more effective and probably wouldn't have got you banned. Self-important people hate being laughed at. Your effing and blinding gave her the upper hand.

OMG brilliant 😂😂

So in other words you really don't care how you spoke to the assistant.
What a thorough disgrace you are.

You need to accept it. By your own account she did her job and maybe was irritated but you were vile and likely agressive and frightened her

Stop making excuses for your behaviour.

The manager did an excellent job. Dont go back and maybe consider therapy if thats your response to this kinda inconvenience

@Alderedge1 so you’re banned
You accept you were wrong
That’s the end. What do you want from us? You have to shop somewhere else now.

What a horrible choice of words. I can stand Up for myself very assertively when needed but have never in my life used the c word.
Yes the shop assistant was out of order to speak to a customer that way but you were way ott.

RTFT and you’ll note I changed my mind.

Although I disagree that any shops in the UK operate a customer is always right mindset. They have a lot of trust and appreciation for their workers and couldn’t care less about shoppers most of the time. It’s not America, managers are aware that shoppers can be wrong.

Take wilting flowers that are on their last day, or (dead like most of the plants in Waitrose)

Many places where staff experience abuse from public eg NHS staff, retail & hospitality workers, security etc now take a zero tolerance approach & do report this behaviour.

It's something police deal with as a priority over things like shoplifting.

Assault (which can include verbal) on an NHS worker or on a ship worker are now specific, standalone offences.

You are right though that there should be much better reporting as the majority of offences are never recorded & much tougher penalties.

Wow well that makes me feel better about the odd short tempered remark I make!! Who the hell says that.

By complaining politely and calmly you could’ve maybe weedled a voucher out of them- especially if you’re a regular customer and it was a big shop (I’ve done this at Sainsbo’s over a different issue). That escalated very quickly! No excuse OP to be that abusive. Calm and nice gets you further in shop complaints- should’ve just ignored her and gone to customer service/requested a manager.

I dont believe you. I think you're bored.

Ugh how awful no wonder you ve been banned

If witnessed and evidenced then yes most customer facing companies will come down on the side of the worker. But where there is denial from the customer that it happened, and they counter it, then the company will err on the side of the customer. Losing a customer means losing business.

I could understand your behaviour if you were in morrisons or similar but Waitrose-how dare you!