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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that shop assistants shouldn't do this???

73 replies

AwkwardMary · 26/03/2012 20:28

Barge past you when you are looking around a store? Today it seemed to happen to me multiple times and I was Angry by the end of the trip! I had no DC with me for once, I am not unreasonably wide or clumsy or anything...nor am I slow or dozy....I was looking around in various shops and in almost every one, assistants, rushing about seemed to think that I should get out of THEIR way instead of the other way round.

I will say that sometimes yes, the customer should move...like when the assistant is carrying a lot of things...but when I am walking to an item of stock and they barge past me...well I think NO! You wait! You are here all day, the job you are doing isn't going away....I however am the customer and I come frigging first!

SO. AIBU? I have been a shop assistant lots of times in the past by the way...I never did this!

OP posts:
DoingTheBestICan · 26/03/2012 21:51

At the end of the day we are easy targets though aren't we? If it makes you happy to slag us off then go for it,I know I do my best at work and yes I earn my minimum wage.

theDevilHasTheBestMNNames · 26/03/2012 21:52

I too have found the customer service at Asda excellent - they seem positively happy to help me locate stuff and it a bit disconcerting but pleasant that the people working on the till do say hello and sometime try and start conversations.

I have had these experiences described in the OP quite a lot - sometimes feeling shooed away from stuff I really want to buy. I tend to go else where. Increasingly else where is often the Internet.

I went in today and found what I wanted in one shop and was told to come back another day Confused I couldn't follow why- had it in a shop as well last summer when I was buying three pairs of shoes expecting to pay around £90 minimum and the shop was empty. WTF - I'm here now with money - sell me stuff.

I have worked with the general public and know how completely rude and generally shit they can be I also had crap management. However when I'm shopping I just want to buy stuff with minimum hassle.

Original poster
AwkwardMary · 26/03/2012 22:03

Can I just reiterate that I have wrked in umpteen shops and know what it's like...this is not bashing for no reason! I just feel that if you're in a job where you need to interact with the public then do so! Cheer the eff up and be nice.

It costs nothing to smile, say excuse me or even to wait for a minute until the customer has moved, or finished looking.

Bertie you could stand and wait until the customer has finished looking? You're not being timed are you?

OP posts:
Original poster
AwkwardMary · 26/03/2012 22:04

Doing Don't be so bloody sensitive. If you're not like the people I describe then fine! I wouldn't leap on board a thread knocking "SOME" Mothers and defend ALL Mothers....

OP posts:
Nanny0gg · 26/03/2012 22:06

Talking to the customer and other assistants joining in is fine.

I am (clearly) talking about when the customer is being ignored.

How can anyone say that is not rude?

Original poster
AwkwardMary · 26/03/2012 22:14

Yes Nanny that happened in Tesco today! I had waited for ages and the assistant decided it was more mportant to finish her gossipy convo with another assistant before she served me or even greeted me!

And last week I was in the soapy type aisle there, when I came upon a woman stocking shelves and another one who appeared to be a supervisor...engaged in a loud and emotional exchange along the lines of "You think I'm low now don't you!?? Don't you! Just because of this..your opinion has changed!"

I was too cowed to ask where the soap was!

OP posts:
SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 26/03/2012 22:15

We're you in Chelmsford? All the nutters and weirdos were out there today! Confused

BertieBotts · 26/03/2012 22:21

I could, but I don't think my manager would like me standing there doing nothing, and TBH I think that would probably make people more uncomfortable - having a staff member wait there until you had finished browsing, probably making you feel like you should hurry up? And people tend to want to browse for a while, whereas I'm just working my way around the shelves. What if I wait for them, they finish and move onto the next shelf and the way I'm headed, means I'm about to tidy that shelf as well? It takes a couple of seconds to straighten things up and I'm not rearranging things.

Nanny, of course it's rude if the customer is being ignored, but I haven't ever seen this happen, as a retail worker or as a customer.

BertieBotts · 26/03/2012 22:23

Oh, xposted - am sure it does happen. TBH I'm more likely to accidentally ignore someone because I haven't noticed them standing there as am doing some other task while waiting for customers to approach the tills. This is general policy in our shop, you aren't allowed to just stand there looking pretty.

CervixWithASmile · 26/03/2012 22:26

I think the idea of 'sales assistant bashing' is ridiculous. Of course it's reasonable to complain about bad service. The economy is terrible and the high street is failing - shops have to be competitive and that includes good service.

I don't go into shops where I have a bad experience. If customers don't complain about bad service then it won't improve, sales will fall, and the good shop assistants will also lose their jobs. When you complain about having more to do with less staff do you not see the correlation?

Original poster
AwkwardMary · 26/03/2012 22:27

Bertie Its just bad practice to tidy where customers are looking...it makes you feel like you are making a mess or are an irritation to them...and puts you off looking at what's on offer.

OP posts:
willbeskinny · 26/03/2012 22:32

I agree with what a few have said. You encounter some rude people and some not so rude people. In shops, at school, in work, etc.
Most people on here seemed to have worked in retail at some point. I have and I would not dream of havin a chat with my colleague next to me whilst completely ignoring the customer I was serving.
I appreciate that most sales assistants work their asses off for min wage and are often overworked and underpaid, but this is not the customers fault.

TheFarSide · 26/03/2012 22:33

Clearly there are good and bad shop assistants - the latter should probably find a different career.

I have worked in retail and (a) I hated customers messing up my tidy displays and (b) I don't like making small talk ... therefore I now choose not to work in retail because it doesn't suit me.

Original poster
AwkwardMary · 26/03/2012 22:36

I know Willbe and FarSide it's only that the barging has become more common. I have worked in a tonne of badly paid jobs and for me the one thing that made it bearable was giving good service. Making people happy.

OP posts:
Sootie · 26/03/2012 23:08

Omg, I went to Matalan last month and the girl on the till was complaining about another staff member to her colleague infront of all the customers! Things like that make a very bad shop assistant.

I noticed in Mothercare today that shop assistants are called "Advisors"!

undercoverPrincess · 26/03/2012 23:10

YANBU, I work in a shop and will got down another aisle rather than ruin the customers shopping experience. I am unfortunately in the minority and people are always doing it to me. It's like putting stock out is more important than the actual customer!!

Aerobreaking · 26/03/2012 23:17

Bertie if you hadn't said it was a second hand shop then I would have been sure you worked in TK Maxx. They seem to have this policy and it drives me mad - staff member is tidying the clothes, I want to look at the clothes, I'm near to the staff member working my way towards them on the clothes rack iyswim, and they will not budge! When I've worked in shops in the past we've always been told that the customer gets priority at looking at the stock. And there is always about three different staff members doing this on different racks at any one time. I don't blame the staff members though, as they all do it, I think it must be what they're told to do by management. Have also heard managers discuss who they are going to fire whilst standing on the shop floor as well so I feel sorry for the shop assistants more than anything else Sad

Original poster
AwkwardMary · 26/03/2012 23:28

H&M is shocking for it! They practically slap you for looking! I can only say that if anyone involved in the layout of shop stock is here....DON'T lay piles of beautifully folded t shirts in towering towery things and then get angry when people want the one at the bottom because it's the only one in the correct size!

I'm not good at folding...I always try to replace things but I'm no good at it!

OP posts:
TheFarSide · 26/03/2012 23:32

Yes Aero the sales assistants in our local TK Maxx are fond of blocking the narrow aisles while they slide things up and down the rails for no apparent reason.

FizzyLaces · 26/03/2012 23:47

In Morrisons yesterday two women were working on the kiosk and, while I was waiting to buy something chocolate, they were having a deep and meaningful about why they should stick together against the management Grin I was quite digging the subject matter, being a leftie myself, but I really was in a hurry pmt and had to get the kids home before I murdered them. When I gave a polite little cough, they actually looked at me, looked away and finished their conversation Shock They are actually lucky to be alive.

Nanny0gg · 27/03/2012 00:15

Nanny, of course it's rude if the customer is being ignored, but I haven't ever seen this happen, as a retail worker or as a customer.
Then I invite you to visit the food section of my local M&S.
Your eyes will be opened!

allotmenteer · 27/03/2012 09:56

my OH loves shopping in France - in every shop we've been in (even supermarkets) every shopper gets a greeting and a goodbye but..... must not, must not, compare Smile

Fecklessdizzy · 27/03/2012 10:08

Bloody customers, always wanting stuff, interupting our chats, messing up the shelves, expecting us to care ... we hates them, we does ... Grin

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