Two minutes silence and refusing to serve customer

[BalugaBelle]

At work today I was on the checkout (large retail store) and the silence was announced over a tannoy.

A woman (on the phone) came up to the checkout during the silence, so I shushed her. Motioned to poppies next to till!

She then said, "I'm going to miss my train, please continue serving me!"

I refused, shook my head and sat silently for the two minutes.

At the end I put her items through, she moaned at me and called me rude and petty and then went on her merry way.

So was I being unreasonable to respect the two minutes silence, even if it meant a customer was unhappy at me doing so?

I know good customer service is needed but surely the two minutes silence takes priority? She clearly had no respect!

Quite frankly I didn't give a damn about her train, I was paying my respects as was everyone else in the shop. It was literally almost silent apart from young children (understandable) and general noise, i.e., heating making noises!

No she wasn’t being U, the 2 minute silence was announced over the tannoy, the OP was quite correct not to serve the lady at that moment.

I’ve seen that in previous years, it’s not a new thing.

I work in my local shop too, and we also observed the two minute silence, luckily as all the customers are regulars and well known they totally respected our desire to do this

To the poster that said to just take a day off-
I wish it was that simple! If I decided to do that, not only would my request be flatly denied, if I took the day off anyway I wouldn’t get paid and I’d likely be facing disciplinary action

It’s not that easy to “Just take the day off”

Asking someone to be silent and wait for two minutes isn’t a big ask

... and those back-slapping the OP as some kind of poppy-warrior should have read her subsequent post at 23.23:

Perhaps I would have served her but the fact she was yapping away loudly, laughing at her friend on the phone.. plus the rudeness, meant I felt absolutely nothing wrong with not serving her.

If she had whispered "excuse me, could you serve me silently" and not been laughing loudly on the phone perhaps I would have.

That is a far cry from the first post of earnestly 'showing her respect'. It's anything but. All the laudable and deferential tones are so much smoke and mirrors.

I don't like hypocrites.

Most of us would not leave 2 minutes to catch a train or if someone said cannot serve you now would leave the goods and run for the train (presumably the shop was in the station).

People have many different views on the wars. I don't think my great grandfather who was badly hurt in WWI and invalided out in 1916 and died in 1917 had great memories of the "Great" war or what it "achieved". I hope we can all respect the views of others but that including shutting up whilst people observe the silence in my view. I was very proud of my son today who was picked to play the Last Post on his trumpet after the silence.

@swansong81 - They looked ridiculous pumping away on their cross trainers.

I expect they looked like 2 people carrying on with their own business while not interfering with anyone else's desire to observe a silence. In contrast, you are coming across as being judgemental and intolerant of the opinions of those who disagree with your opinion on this subject.

And I know the question wasn’t asked of me, but yes, in years gone by I’ve always observed the silence at home

My dad used to go further, he’d switch off the electric and we all had to stand for the silence

Just my opinion but I think that NOBODY has the right to make somebody observe - or not observe. There's no reason to impose your wishes on anybody else.

Perhaps the stores will have the sense to move checkout operators away from tills. It's not rocket science and shouldn't be beyond the wit of managers to see that this would reduce or remove any potential issues.

Maybe there should be a campaign to make next year's Remembrance day the last one that's actually enforced to this extent. 100 years after the event it was designed to commemorate would be a good time to drop something that is progressively more tainted by jingoistic wankers and progressively less relevant to more and more people. Those who want to observe it can carry on doing so, but those who have other priorities or opinions can just get on with their business, free of self-righteous, officious twats getting in their way and shushing them, or berating them for not displaying a paper flower.

If she had been polite I may have served her silently as so not to be awkward and to avoid the confrontation, hence keeping the shop quiet for everyone else.

And yes I would have observed the silence at home, have done so since I can remember and will always observe the silence. Last year I just sat down at home for two minutes and stopped what I was doing, for example. It is just two minutes. And I also encourage my children to be quiet, although if they make noise they make noise.

I didn't just want to rile her- that would hardly have played well in an otherwise silent shop.

Where I live all shops recognise the silence, some even close the shop doors and stop people entering or leaving during the silence

Some people have said I seem to have wanted to rile her up- not true. I may be a retail employee but I still have self respect. Where I work "the customer is always right" stuff isn't practised and my manager would never be upset if I refused to serve someone who rude or disrespectful.

On a different note, if any customer is rude to me, two minutes silence or not, I won't serve them. Last week a woman swore at me and threw her shopping on the till and called me a dozy cow for asking my coworker how to process something and I told her that due to her rudeness, I wouldn't be serving her and she'd have to head to another till.

So in essenc, my original opinion still stand

Very rude customer- no service
Very rude customer in a two minutes silence- definitely no service

I'd have ignored the rude disrespectful woman who should appreciate the people who fought and died for our freedom.
At our service refugees and people who appreciate the freedom of this nation were prevalent.

What business did she have shopping at all then if time was that tight?

The business of a free citizen in a free country?

You are quoting ShmooBooMoo out of context. ShmooBooMoo clearly meant no more than it was a bit of a daft decision if time was so tight.

If I were standing in a queue next to be served, and someone came rushing up, ”oh please could I go in front of you, going to miss train, etc, etc”

I think I’d be inclined to let them go in front of me

I probably would too - but wouldn't stop me thinking they should have thought of that sooner.

Also the different opinions are interesting, a real mix. The silence clearly seems outdated to some- although the majority of these people are still respectful and will show this respect in their own time - whereas some people still fully believe it's necessary and important. (Me)

Thanks for all the responses, will catch up on posts!

Jesus Christ it’s two fucking minutes out of your life. No one is so important that they can’t spare it in remembrance.

Maybe everyone should take two minutes out of every day to remember someone. The world would not grind to a halt.

Surprised by the amount of people who think OP should have served the customer.

The shop chose to observe the silence and notified the customers - customer chose to shop their so must accept their policy. End of story.

You're doing it again, OP. IF it's necessary and important to you to observe and be seen to be doing so... then why would you have served the customer within the 2 minutes silence?

I personally think you were making.a.point.

Jacques, mmm I wonder, would you be so rude and [try] to be so insulting to my face? 😂

IF the customer had not been on her phone or doing whatever else it was that made you decide she wouldn't be served, I meant.

Either you observe - or you don't.

This thread is ridiculous. Now people are being asked to justify what they think about during their silence and OP is blamed for the dimwit customer missing her train. Boo hoo.

Wild, lying, SGB I'd be very interested to know what you're doing to contribute to world peace- obviously something far superior to the common sun reading sheep who fall silent for 4 minutes a year.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe

If "making a point" is such an awful thing to do why are you on here trying hard to make your point

So what if she was making a point, it's human nature.

Jacques, mmm I wonder, would you be so rude and [try] to be so insulting to my face?

If you'd spouted the stuff you have on this thread? Absolutely.

Madbengalmum, I agree with Jacques and I think both 'sides' are getting a bit insulting if there are any insults here.

Yanbu

The silence is not just about not talking its about stopping what you are doing and reflecting on the lives lost. Serving that cuatomer even in silence would of been disrespectful imo

Funnily enough a knuckle dragger who I have the misfortune to know through my work tried to have a little go as to why I wasn't wearing a poppy.

When I had - very loudly to make him look foolish - explained just what I had been doing to help veterans and the local RBL branch, I realise he too was hard of thinking with his daft brand of patriotism

Yeah right. Like that happened

Bubble, why do you care what anybody else is doing? That really is the point. If you want to observe then observe. There's no need to police what other people are doing and if you're doing that, then you're not observing either.

I'm sure I'm not on my own in that I do whatever charitable things I want to do, I support the ones I want to and don't support the ones I don't want to. If I lobby government then I don't need to post about it here.

Get on with your own shit and leave other people to theirs.