To think fake "niceness" from shop assistants cringey....

[tinglyfing]

Just that really.
I'm ship today and the woman who served me had clearly had scripted greetings to relay along lines of "Thank you for your purchase have a lovely afternoon". She barely made eye contact with me and obviously couldn't be arsed with it. Cringey for them and the customer? 😕

Walked into a shop the other day:

"Hey doll! You look fab!"

I'm in my late 20s and certainly did not look fab.

It was really fucking annoying.

Another shop

"Hey, have a browse and just let me know if there is anything at all you need" said with a really warm smile and soft voice. Much much nicer

I hate forced interaction, however having worked in retail I always make an effort to go along with the chit chat. I must say it did used to brighten my day when customers asked how I was and took an interest in me rather than just answering the (required) questions I asked.

I hope you don't think I was insulting retail workers with the dead behind the eyes comment melj1213, I know what a hard time you must get, a lot of the general public are assholes. My point was I feel for the workers being forced to ask such silly scripted questions, a hello and a smile does me. You can tell the difference between genuine interest and I'm saying this because I have to type conversations.

YANBU on the rare occasion i offer to work on a till in my store I never use these cringey lines i just scan and say the price and take payment. Job done and the customer is happy and on their way out. I've never had a customer complaint because i don't talk to them or sound like something out of a cheesy 1950s sitcom

The 'darling' and 'love' calling in shops makes me want to either walk out or ask for a refund.

There's a woman in our local part supplies type shop who calls any female of any age "chick" in a real little-girl-lost voice.

"Did you find what you needed today chick?"
"£24.99 please chick"
"Have a nice day chick"

I've stopped going and order stuff off line simply because of this woman, even though the shop itself is cheaper!

I've worked in retail. The poor soul has had to deal with 600 arsey customers being mean to them all day.

I find being nice to them helps. They don't have a choice, but you do.

Yh I do try to keep it natural so it's probably not so much the issue.

Yolofish, I need to brace myself for 'Lush'! Their unilateral chirpiness can either be quite sweet or bloody annoying depending on the day I've had. It also bothers me that the 'niceness' is imposed on workers rather than them being allowed to just be natural. I feel a sort of pressure to be 'nice' back in case one of the poor Lush lovelies has a dragon manager somewhere lurking and ready to pounce (other shops selling pungent bath bombs are available). I am sure many shop assistants really are happy 'people people' but others probably fear sanctions unless they follow the script.

Oh great, not enough that we put up with being treated like shit by 80% of the general public for minimum wage now we have to genuinely be happy about it.

I don't want to rhyme off those words for the millionth time that day any more than you want to hear them. At least you only have to hear it once.

I always go along with it for the sake of the employees who clearly have no choice, but I'm secretly cursing the management of Sainsbury's, Pret (particularly guilty) and White Stuff for inflicting this on people. It helps no one.

I'm outraged! No one in the 99p store or LIDL or even Sainsbury's local called me darling today .

I

i smile and and say 'thanks, you too' but it gets up my sniffer though big time.

It was lovely to get back to the uk after 3 weeks of fake friendliness in Californian shops and restaurants.
When they used to ask "How are you today" dd 19 used to say" Very well thankyou,and how are you?" that would throw them and they would look very confused and not know what to say