NanaNina
"I think some of you who are complaining about bad service stop to think that these shop assistants are most probably paid the minimum wage............wonder how Mary Portas would manage to smile, speak and serve on that kind of money!"
I was, for a long time, one of those shop assistants. I also had severe depression. I still knew that I was paid (albeit very little) to smile, speak and serve. That was my job. So I did it.
I also knew it made my job easier.
You smile at someone, they smile back, the whole interaction is much more pleasant. You end up dealing with less arsey customers per day, therefore the job isn't quite as crap as it could be.
As for the charity shop, I think most of the volunteers forgot that they were there first and foremost to make money for a charity by selling things. I think she did really well there, and they were infuriating. Reminds me of one of my old local charity shops, so totally unable to adapt that one member of staff refused to sell me one part of a set (trousers and blazer) even though they were actually vastly different sizes. It was too much effort to just separate and re-price them.
MIL works in a charity shop and said she wishes someone like MP would come in and help make the place run better, as she has to work with nutters like those all the time who just refuse to change anything, even if it would;
a - make the charity more money
b - make their job easier