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AIBU?

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Original poster

to be pissed off with snooty shop assistant in Selfridges in kids clothes dept...

107 replies

blighter · 03/04/2012 15:19

twas' similar to the scene from pretty woman. i love going to selfridges with dd, we like a good mooch & to have lunch in the 4th floor restaurant. dd wanted to have a look at the clothes in the childrens section so i obliged although not my scene, dressing kids in designer clobber, so it was a mooch. tbh i enjoyed looking at the price tags, unbelievable. anyway, the lone women assistant was giving out vibes that i irritated her. she may as well come up to me and said 'fuck off, we don't want your kind here, it is obvious to look at you that you aren't going to buy anything'. she came up and no sooner had i let go of the price tag to one garment than she had immediately tucked it back in. i don't dress in a typical way of alot of females that shop there, rebellious but i tend to dress down rather than up when i go there. i do like good labels but not for a 9 year old, no way (each to their own). i am sure that if i had been dripping in prada & dior she would have been full of smiles/arse kissing. makes it all the more vile

OP posts:
Original poster
blighter · 03/04/2012 20:32

people go in shops, sometimes people that work in shops are snooty in the way they behave and make people in the shop feel uncomfortable. nothing complicated. this is the way it was. i don't see why the handbags need to come out, this is boring now anyway, cheerio

OP posts:
CountryMouse27 · 03/04/2012 20:37

I dont have a Prada handbag though from Selfridges. I think thats why you've realised you're being unreasonable.

Thank heavens for that.

IAmBooyhoo · 03/04/2012 20:40

people go in shops. sometimes people go in shops with a chip on their shoulder and throw out all sorts of vibes that make shop assistants feel uncomfortable. nothing complicated. i'm pretty sure this is the way it was

Nyac · 03/04/2012 20:41

Snoot shop assistants are a nightmare. YANBU.

wherearemysocks · 03/04/2012 21:11

she's only a shop assistant ffs - well aren't you a charmer.

I run a pub, we get all sorts of customers from the guy who washes the dishes in the hotel round the corner to the head of a multi-national trading company down the road, (and even Prince Charles once last year). We treat all our customers equally (with possible exception to Charles), and with respect. But as soon as I get someone with the attitude of 'you're only a lowley bar maid' then they get short thrift from me. And believe me they stand out.

Someone else up thread refered to herself as 'better' that service staff, you may have scored it out but it was still extremely disrespectful. Service staff may 'serve' but they are not 'serfs' and deserve as much respect for the job they do as anyone else. Don't forget if she works in Selfridges she may well be used to being treated like shit herself.

sparkle101 · 03/04/2012 21:14

wherearemysocks that's what I was trying to write but not as succinctly!

IAmBooyhoo · 03/04/2012 21:49

well said wherearemysocks the country would fall to it's knees if all the service staff in the UK decided not to come in to work. i hate snobbery, inverted or otherwise.

ladyintheradiator · 03/04/2012 22:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

wherearemysocks · 03/04/2012 22:10

I threw two guys out of my pub once for taking the piss out of one of my staff. She was a young French girl, she had an accent but was completely understandable, and they were basically taking the piss immitating her accent and pretending that they couldn't understand her.

I gave them their money back and took their drinks off them and told them to go somewhere else. They were completely shocked! Had no idea that it was unacceptable to treat someone like that - very sad attitude indeed.

McFluffster · 03/04/2012 22:21

Corn waiters and shop assistants are our equals. Or do you think somebody is worth less as a person because they might not earn as much as you or I?

scottishmummy · 03/04/2012 22:27

worked in. shop at uni,lol at patronizing middle classes speaking really S-L-O-W-L-Y Inc asking if I regretted not sticking in at school. unfortunately some folks do think they are superior to those in retail or service jobs

McFluffster · 03/04/2012 22:30

X posts. Glad someone else picked up on that ugly attitude.

cornflowers · 03/04/2012 22:39

I did say 'snooty waiters and shop assistants', in my post, sorry, no intention of tarring whole industries with the one brush! I have worked as a waitress myself in the past. There is a snooty type of individual I've encountered occasionally, particularly in the high end of the service sector, who behave in a superior way - these people are sycophantic towards affluent customers and slightly sneery towards those that don't look the part. I once worked in a very expensive French restaurant - the spiteful comments that the maitre d' would hiss under his breath about the more 'common' clientele were astonishing.

kickingKcurlyC · 03/04/2012 22:53

Gosh. The things you hear on mumsnet.

Someone with a nose ring has enough money to buy TWO pairs of jeans in Selfridges.

AND

Someone else, who wears a leather coat, is capable of doing the crossword, in THE TIMES no less.

Someone pass the smelling salts! It's like I've fallen into another reality.

BupcakesandCunting · 03/04/2012 23:02

I think that you're being a bit arrogant, tbh. You're assuming that she gave two shits about your choice of attire rather than the timewasting. When I was about 15 I used to get gleeful about "grown-ups" being shocked by my piercings/blue hair. I've grown up now.

"Selfridges or Aldi, she's a shop assistant."

It's this sort of charmer who makes my time at work akin to a day hanging out with Jeremy Clarkson and Liz Jones. I may only be a shop assistant but I probably have more qualifications than a lot of the sneering thickos who think that shop staff are beneath them. Jobs that fit around children when you have zero childcare are like unicorn shit and even though DH earns enough to keep us all I like to earn a bit of my own cash. Don't assume that all shop staff are there to wipe your arses because they're too dense to do anything else.

IAmBooyhoo · 03/04/2012 23:10

"When I was about 15 I used to get gleeful about "grown-ups" being shocked by my piercings/blue hair. I've grown up now."

this exactly. rebellion is for teenagers. and even they look daft when they do it.

Cathynclaire · 03/04/2012 23:58

I've boycotted Selfridges after being subjected to snotty behaviour twice by staff there.

The second time, I was in the food hall bit where a woman was giving out tiny samples of marzipan covered chocolate. I'm not normally a "free sample trier" kind of person, but I really love marzipan, so I went up to her, made eye contact and held out my hand - she blanked me and turned around and started offering bits to others. I backed off and watched from a distance - she then turned around three times to avoid giving a piece to a middle-aged black man...he walked off looking really upset.

Obviously, if you're not white (like me) or a bit scruffy, you aren't good enough for them.

Not been back there since!

PooshTunTheTrollFeeder · 04/04/2012 09:24

"you by the sounds of it would possibly treat people the same judging by appearances. i think people should be treated the same regardless of what is or isn't in their purse"

I don't consider myself inferior to people who dress 'up'. I don't consider myself superior to people who dress 'down'. How much money one have or doesn't have does not define me or the other person. However, you seem very keen to define yourself by the way you dress.

"i tend to dress down rather than up when i go there"

Why up or down? It sounds like you deliberately dressed down to provoke a reaction.

"I do like designer stuff but in a subtle way, i don't like to shout it out that i spend money on clothes. I had just bought two pairs of expensive jeans"

Aren't jeans, jeans? You go on about how you aren't a clothes snob. You then go on about your expensive jeans. Is the denim supposed to be better than the denim on my Next jeans :o

PooshTunTheTrollFeeder · 04/04/2012 09:35

"She on the other hand, was probably about to try to offer to help you, and then got the bum rush off your "alternative" attitude towards her"

Interesting point Country. Now that I think about it, when I am browsing I often spot an assistant hovering nearby, adjusting the clothes and generally trying to look busy. As soon as I focus in on an item the assistant is there to see if she can help (and earn herself a commission).

If I had a chip on my shoulder about people looking down on me because the way I dressed, it would be soooo easy to interpret the assistant's attitude as someone who was keeping an eye on me as a potential shoplifter.

limitedperiodonly · 04/04/2012 09:45

Did she say 'Fuck off! We don't want your kind here', or is that you projecting?

So she tucked the price label in.

Shop assistants do things like that. It's called keeping the place tidy.

It's also called 'keeping your job at a time when the supervisor is looking for people to let go.'

I've said it before on these threads: I'd so glad I'm not a shop worker.

PooshTunTheTrollFeeder · 04/04/2012 09:48

Cath - You are accusing a worker that is employed to hand out free food samples of being snobbish?????

That damned cleaner almost ran me over with her mop. Probably took one look at my Clarks shoes and decided that I couldn't afford their shoes. What a snobby cleaner eh? :o

"I went up to her, made eye contact and held out my hand"

She was "offering bits to others"

You are supposed to take the sample off her tray. Its not in her job description to place food on the held out hands of customers. If you stuck your hand out to me I would think to myself that you was the snobby one.

PooshTunTheTrollFeeder · 04/04/2012 09:55

Slightly off topic but I was in Hong Kong recently and there the sales assistants literally follow you around the store. They don't even pretend to be tidying the rack near you. If you even pause to look at something they will be at your elbow telling you that its the latest style, it suits you, why not try it on? It is soooo damned irritating.

Well, one day I was in a store where an assistant was 'stalking' a couple that were obviously backbackers. At some point one of them turned on the assistant and gave her earful about how they weren't going to steal anything so could she stop following them.

It wasn't 'funny' for the assistant but I found it funny.

WhaleOilBeefHookedIWill · 04/04/2012 10:00

Wow OP you sound like an agressive little ball of rage- no wonder you pick up on these kind of issues when you are out and about...

agedknees · 04/04/2012 10:27

I was accosted by a security guard in Harrords once.

My dd was choking/coughing, turning that bright red colour they go.

Security guard rushed over, grabbed her, picked her up and ran over to the bar. Shouldered past all the posh people, and demanded a glass of water (free) for her.

Nice man. I thanked him profusely.

PosiePaques · 04/04/2012 11:14

Bupcakes. You are projecting shit onto me. I think it matters not what shop the assistant works in, if it were Aldi the shop assistant wouldn't be able to make a customer feel intimidated.

So do [eye roll] elsewhere.

And certain shops do have awful assistants that don't seem to like older, fatter, poorer or less trendy customers.