to not understand why everybody is so surprised...

[fluffles]

... that the service in shops like primark is shit???

seriously, what's with that mary whatsit on the news this morning? of COURSE service is crap in primark.

The clothes cost almost nothing, so aside from what they must pay suppliers in developing countries, they certainly can't make a profit and also afford to train staff well or pay them more than the minimum they can get away with, particularly managers and supervisors who are key in my experience to a 'customer friendly' approach on the shop floor.

Itsjustafleshwound - I was going to say John Lewis :)

I hate all the false 'have a nice day and can I help you madam shit'...if I need help I will ask , leave me too shop in peace thanks

Rudest person I've ever encountered in a shop was Tesco.

She's been there about 20 years so they probably can't get rid of her cos she's unioned up or something.

I actually like being left alone in shops...if i want help i'll ask.

Yep, I agree emo, I probably look like a shoplifter as well.

A bit scruffy and unsavoury looking

I worked part time in Primark when I was 16, for £2.88 an hour (well, it was over 10 years ago now, I expect the wages have increased a bit). I was always lovely to customers, and don't think there's ever an excuse not to be. If I was away from the tills restocking the rails or whatever and someone asked me if we had something in a different size I always, always looked in the stock room. Not everyone did, and I'm always suspicious when big shops say they definitely don't have it if it's not out, as most places have stock rooms. They just can't be bothered to look!

Agree with previous poster about the shoplifting Not that I ever did, of course

Seriously, I don't usually know what I'm looking for until I see it. Then I can't afford it anyway so it's sort of embarrassing if someone spent time looking for something that I never really intended to buy in the first place.

Unless it's a DIY shop. Then I seek out assistants and live up to the women-being-crap-at-DIY stereotype

Agree with Emo, I don't want staff badgering me and saying hello. I want to have a nice look round and then I want someone to be available and helpful if I need them. It's not America you know!

What pisses me off though is when you ask "have you got this in a 14/another colour" and they just shrug and go "just what's on the shelves". OK but I haven't got 5 hours to scour every shelf in H&M, which is laid out like a jumble sale, and you fecking work here so it's a reasonable question!

But OP you're right, there's no reason to expect good service in a cheapo shop. Shit service in a posh shop is annoying.

The only things that annoy me in Primark are a) finding something I really like, and then rifling backwards through twenty-odd hangars on the rail to find that every single one is a size 8 (apart from one random size 18), and b) when the size on the item doesn't match the size on the hangar - this seems to happen all the time but I've learned to double-check now.

Otherwise, I don't have a problem with the place - it is usually mayhem in there, but that's because it's cheap and thus usually rammed with shoppers.

They have always been very nice in the Stirling Primark on the odd occasion I have been in. Yes, the queues are huge but they move pretty quickly.

I don't like the scripted chit-chat either. In my local Accessorise, it used to be that you couldn't buy anything without the person on the tills going into raptures over how fantastic it was. I'm all for a bit of spontaneous banter, and the first time I was very gratified that I'd evidently made such a discerning choice of bracelet, but it got old pretty quick.

When in the UK, I found Primark staff, in every store I've been in, to be helpful and pleasant.

I know what you mean EmmaBemma about the scripted chat.

One they do in Melbourne, usually "young" shops such as Diva, Supre, Sportsgirl, Ozmosis is to say: "You're grabbing this today, then?" They all do this, word for word. I hate the "grabbing". They must all be sent on the same shite customer care course.

The staff in ours are lovely. I don't go often though as nothing in there fits me gah!
The staff don't get a staff discount I heard.

The staff in the one I go to are friendly enough.

I think the 'jumble sale' is a result of them putting too much on the racks/shelves and the layout.

If I unintentionally knock something off a rack, I pick it up and put it back. But then while putting it back I knock another 1 or 2 things off, and so it goes on, so I eventually give up.

For the shelves of jumpers and jogging bottoms, if they had one example displayed then fewer people would open one up to look at them.