To think "well you don't have to shop here do you?" Isn't appropriate from a shop worker?

[littleblackdoggg]

Just that really. It's very inappropriate isn't it!? She was a young girl as well and I don't want this to sound 'ageist' but I do find a lot of younger employees rather rude? They seem to have a lot of attitude.

AIBU to complain about this girls attitude?

I think she was very restrained

It's very hard to be polite to customers who are being twats. One day I will just lose it and turn into Basil Fawlty.

she wasn't explaining things! Why didn't she say at the very beginning that there isn't any available right now, instead of the teasing or oh yeah there is but you ain't having any attitude.

But you just quoted the conversation and she wasn't teasing

She was explaining a pretty straightforward situation and you seemed to be struggling to understand it. I think she wasn't really prepared for you not to get something perfectly obvious.

She didn't tease, OP. In her exact words she said:

yes but it isn't put out for sale right now.

So it's not out for sale. Therefore you can't buy it.

There was no attitude from her; it was all from you.

Yep. OP you were very patronising, demanding and rude to her.
She answered you immediately and politely. You were pushy, annoying and one of "those customers"
HTH.

They can't just nip into the back and grab you a cucumber or some lettuce. It doesn't work like that; deliveries have their own processes and storage and so on.
Exactly
Why didn't she say at the very beginning that there isn't any available right now
She told you she couldn't leave her til and nobody could bring some out.

Let's be honest, it's not ideal when that happens but it sounds like you'd probably been one of those customers with a tone that suggests 'I need it now so stop time and bypass all procedures for me'. Sure, it wasn't the most professional thing to say but if I was her and a customer was pushing and issue after i politely explained then I'd probably have been more sarcastic.

she wasn't explaining things! Why didn't she say at the very beginning that there isn't any available right now
Go back and read what you wrote!! She did!

I would have told you the same thing OP for being a pest.

OP - you were rude and condescending!

I would have replied in exactly the same way as that young girl and I am 46 years old with lots of life experience, a PhD and experience of dealing with people who are often difficult because they are stressed out. For that reason I take a lot more flack than what I would be willing to take from one of "those customers" , in fact I bend over backwards to ensure that they are given what they need. I would have given you very short shrift indeed.

I don't work in retail but I imagine that the delivery will have had to be "recorded" before it could be opened up and put out. The cucumbers may not have been instantly accessible. Quite frankly, you sound like you don't have enough going on in your life if this is the sort of thing that has you investing so much time arguing the toss over the internet.

Me: so you have a stock out the back and you won't get any of it? There really was no point in coming here!
Very rude! I'm sure there was other stuff for people to purchase? I'm assuming the shop doesn't just sell cucumbers?
If it does then I understand what is the point of anyone going there.
How is she supposed to know the point of you going there?
She'd already told you quite politely she couldn't get you one. So what's the point in being rude about it?
I honestly can't think of any other response to that.
What would you have preferred her to say?

OP, I agree with the others here. You were rude, and the assistant explained clearly enough the reason you couldn't have a cucumber.

so you have a stock out the back and you won't get any of it?

There is massive massive difference between won't and can't

She explained to you that she couldn't get it, it simply wasn't possible. You interpreted that to mean that she wouldn't get it for you.

I've worked in several supermarkets, customers are not always right and it is hard work being reasonable sometimes. I personally wouldn't have the guts to tell a customer to shop elsewhere, even if I was (and have been) dying to. Sometimes we have to get customers out the way so we can carry on serving, it's all part of the targets for queue lengths and scan rate and can't be dealing with customers who aren't buying anything when theres a queue of people to serve. I have worked at Aldi, and it's part of my job to encourage customers to move as fast as they can. Not always easy as I very much lack self confidence. There I am, 8 hour shift, 8 months pregnant, and I told someone they had to pack at the packing bench (did I want to? No. But it's my job) the customer shouted at me till I cried. I think people do forget or don't realise just how much is going on under the surface. Everyone says customer service has gone to shit in this country. Thats because 1 person is expected to do the same job they used to employ 5 people for.

Yup. From the second I read the OP I knew that was exactly what happened. If I had a nickel for every time I've had that same conversation with a customer who just refused to believe that I knew our system of checks and balances a little better than she did!

For what it's worth, no, I wouldn't have told you to shop somewhere else. I've earned my retail callouses - I would have smiled (though my teeth would have been somewhat gritted) and apologized for the system showing stock that was currently inaccessible. But I would have lambasted you in the staffroom, and on the internet.

Points to remember here:

1. What you see on the shop floor (stock, staff, and tasks being carried out) is literally the tip of the iceberg of the Things That Need To Be Done in a store. In other words, "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy".
2. The customer is NOT always right. By all means, ask, to clarify if something is really unavailable. If you are told that something is currently unavailable, and you persist, and you insist that the staff member break policy (or the laws of physics) to get you the item that you want and devil take the hindmost, then you are the problem, not her. Your cucumber is frankly not even slightly worth her ability to make rent/feed herself this month and going forward.
3. People like you, who take offense every time they hear something they don't want to hear (like something is unavailable to you) are why retail workers are so battle worn and shell shocked. Just think. You had one "bad experience" (bad because you behaved badly, as it happens). We have to get up every morning and put on a uniform that guarantees we're going to be treated as sub-human for the day. We're expected to take your abuse and be all Dickensian "Please sir, may I have some more?" So basically, suck it up, Princess Prissypants. You didn't get a cucumber, and you got asked to shop somewhere else. Your wounds will heal. I, on the other hand, am just on my way to get treated like crap for eight hours straight. In the Olympics of Suffering, I win.
4. I managed to reference not one but TWO very famous authors in this comment, and that is making me unreasonably pleased.
5. I'm very pleased that so many people enjoyed my use of the word "fossick"!

Poor OP being teased with a cucumber just out of reach. So close,but yet so far..

Honestly OP, get over yourself and get a grip. That post is dripping with attitude and entitlement.

OP The conversation you posted on page 9 was much closer to snickersWasahorse's second example that her first.

Please don't complain and get the poor girl fired/disciplined.

faithinthesound
You are my retail crush now.
Everything you say is correct, but you are much more articulate than I am!

@MrsTrentReznor

Thank you, thank you. (takes a bow)

For our first date, we can go on a trip to throw cucumbers at the OP? Maybe then she'll stop whining and harassing innocent retail staff!

You sound like one of those customers that all retail workers utterly fucking detest.

Why would someone working on the tills know when the produce delivery was going to be put out?

Do you know when different depts in your area of work do things?

Probably not.

Fist bump faith.

I think she was rude. If she was smart she would have said i am sorry that's all we have til the next delivery. I worked in retail for years and I remember one particularly busy day I was under pressure to price stuff up and get it on the shelves asap but I had to serve customers as well. I dealt with a customer (very helpfully and politely) then went back to pricing and she said I will give you a tip dear, it would be much better if you would just concentrate on the customers. Well no shit sherlock that would be fab all round, unfortunately there is other work to be fucking done, and finding you your fish fingers it only a tiny part of my work load. Sorry, rant over, I have been holding that in for a long time.

Everyone says customer service has gone to shit in this country.

What they fail to factor in when they say this is that the behaviour of customers has gone to shit as well. It's all about people stamping their feet and demanding their rights and having no regard to their responsibilities.

Hmm.

I find that in the retelling of interactions like these, the person telling the tale will overstate the 'rudeness' by the other person and understate their own part in it.

If the person telling the tale makes themselves sound rude you can be pretty sure that the other person in the situation was pretty much at the end of their tether by the time they bit back.

Op, I don't know what you were expecting but next time a) ask someone on the shop floor as they are more likely to be able to go and look for items and b) take no for an answer the first time. Or maybe the second. But you really shouldn't be pushing it further than that.

I love this thread

@faithinthesound
Sounds brilliant! I shall bring lettuce too for variety.