To think this customer was downright abusive?

[LittleMissGerardLouiseButler]

In the shop I work in we have half an hour browsing time, which is a pain but it always has done.

Most customers are lovely and when you explain are fine, some get annoyed but appreciate it isn't the staffs fault.

But today myself and a colleague were filling up and a customer came over and said why aren't the tills open?

So then I politely explained that we are not allowed to trade due to legal reasons and apologized. She said can't I just leave the money? I said I'm sorry but we are not allowed to do that.

I've got kids outside in the car I just need a picnic, again I explained its illegal to trade.

She said well what time is it now? I said its 20 past. She said you expect me to stand around till half past? I explained again, and then she threw her shopping at us saying this is ridiculous and stormed out the shop!

Luckily I had my colleague who backed me up and said I was very polite, and another colleague saw her throwing the stuff, and the manager said she would back us up if anything came of it.

I'm just that she thought this was acceptable!

It is surprising how many people still don't understand the trading laws after they've been around for so long.

It's not just Sunday, it's Easter Sunday that cause issues with people too.

Shops over a certain size have to remain shut on Easter Sunday. DP works at a garden centre that shuts because of this. Yet, when we go to do an Easter trail at a NT house near to his work we still see people driving into the garden centre car park, who must be assuming it'll be open.

To be fair it could be clearer about browsing time, however I have told managers this but it makes no difference.

She won't be barred unfortunately, abuse of staff seems to be allowed in our shop, but we have to remain polite and serve them, very difficult sometimes!

There is one supervisor (she wasn't in today) who won't let anyone treat her staff like dirt and will tell them so, not following everyone else but she is brilliant. Another manager is overly nice to people but you can tell its fake but you can't argue with her because she is nice to them.

I wish we could go back to proper Sundays, with no big shops open and no work other than essentials such as emergency services!

Sunday trading/browsing ridiculousness is not the retail assistant's fault. If you are abusive to a shop assistant, you are a disk. And you're having a bad day? No excuse. In fact, I hope it gets worse.

Sorry for the vitriol. I was a sales assistant for many years and encountered some downright vile behaviour from customers.

Doh, I meant 'dick,' not disk!

stuntgirl that's funny. What did he do? (I bet it wasn't apologise )

Funny how the law was relaxed for the Olympics though. Iirc it was so we didn't look completely weird to everyone who doesn't have to put up with this nonsense.

All our large local supermarkets do this on a Sunday too. As does Matalan, H&M, Next, etc.

It doesn't matter if someone is having a bad day, or thinks a rule is stupid, it does not give then the right to physically throw things as staff members.

I used to work in our village shop and someone once called me a cunt because I wouldn't sell them alcohol at 8am on a Sunday morning. It is against the law, I can't scan it through the till and no, you can't leave the money for me to put through the till later. What part of "it's against the law" is so hard to understand? I will get fined and the shop could lose its licence.

YANBU. I fully understand your position, I worked in a garden centre for a while and we had the same rules, I had a yankee candle 'dropped' at my feet when I tried to explain to a customer that I couldn't sell her it for another five minutes. Usually the only people in aty that time were the coaches of lovely little old ladies and gents who would be there on a day trip so we'd have nice long chats with them whilst we stocked the shop but we got the occasional few who went mad at us for refusing to serve them! We had a cracking security team though too who were very on the ball.

Although a very silly rule probably made up by some numpty, it isn't your fault and you don't make the rules, neither can you change them, therefore the customer was very unreasonable & her behaviour attrocious!

YANBU and she was.

You said yourself most customers are lovely. today was the exception.

I've never heard of it and it does seem strange. But I live in Scotland, and that customer has presumably encountered the Sunday trading hours before if she lives in England.

Even if she had never heard of it before, she was a complete arse for being aggressive and throwing things.

Why do customers think they can act like this?

I encountered a similar problem when a gentleman alcoholic went batshit at me when I couldn't sell him a bottle of vodka before 10am.

I'm Scottish and this always surprises me when we are down South. However, it's clearly sign posted in the shops we go to so I dont have an issue with it.

Our English relatives were surprised that in Scotland 24hrs means 24hrs even on a Sunday. They ended up walking round Asda looking really chuffed. Easily pleased.

She was completely unreasonable to throw things.

I hate Sunday trading laws though as it's usually the only day I get to dash to the shops and I hate having to do everything in the 25 minutes the shops are open.

Um...Wales has the same Sunday trading laws as England?

OP she was a rude ignorant fool.

All the people saying "all this Sunday trading laws are a load of shit" are the same people who would see retail staff in work over Christmas so they can go shopping at their convenice aren't they.

I learnt quite quickly when I started working at Morrisons aged 16 that the general public are arseholes. Sad but true.

Shops used to be shut on Sundays and half days on Wednesdays. Funnily enough nobody ever starved to death for want of frozen pizza at 4.05 on a Sunday.

I've never found myself in a supermarket later than 7pm in the week either. 24 hour opening is totally uncessary.

Well, to be fair ali shift/night workers and the like probably find it necessary. In my old job I'd still have been at work at 7pm!

My parents work shifts and manage perfectly fine.

In retail funnily enough.

Your managers should ban this women, it is shocking your manger don't back you up.

I used to work in retail, all day on a Sunday and it didn't bother me in the least. It's not like I wanted to spend the day in church. I'm not suggesting anyone should be forced to work on Sunday if it is a significant day for them but shops should be free to choose their operating hours instead of having to obey government rules that have no place in this day and age. There are people who want jobs who can't find one, surely it wouldn't be that hard to staff supermarkets on Sundays if they were allowed to open until 8pm instead of 4.

Having said that, the customer is question was undoubtedly in the wrong and utterly unreasonable to blame a member of staff for following the rules of their store.

Its a sad state of affairs that shops now rarely do anything to abusive customers. Used to have this one lady who was always abusive if she was with a certain relative. She was horrible. Staff used to literally disappear out of sight when she came in.yet she got away with it.
Iv lost count the amount of time cistomers have been abusive. I would never dream of speaking to someone in the way people have spoken to me.it was never like this when i first started working a decade ago. I can never go back to retail.

I think it is crazy , totally crazy, to open a shop half an hour before tills open but presuming it is widely known that this happens across the UK then YANBU.

Rude and ridiculous. and hungry too due to her antics, silly cow
But not imo abusive. That would be a personal attack in my book, which this doesn't seem to be from your description

FFS who goes shopping at 9.30 on a Sunday anyway :-P
I am sipping a cup of tea in bed at that time while my husband cooks me breakfast and my youngest reads her book to me. Hmmm bliss. Love Sundays, hate Mondays.