The posher the shop, the grouchier the staff?

[LEMtheoriginal]

So last week we were shopping in fenwick - woman jad to be asked to serve DP by her manager who had been talking to her previously. Highly made up woman continues to inspect her nails begore grudgingly helping DP with hus purchase. I just said to DP "I'm going to walk away now" and walked off. DP felt an inconvenience.

Today we were in M&S which im not sure even qualifies as posh these days. Was queing to buy Dd's a couple of bras. There is an old lady struggling to complete her transaction (a younger man, her son? was helping her) telling her to swipe her card. No engagement from the dragon behind the till. Just stoney faced, rolling her eyes and waiting until the poor old dear had paid to offer a bag "well they're 5p" so little old lady now fiddling around for 5p. No smile no engagement from cashier.

Exactly the same with us - stoney faced, mechanical. Looking like the quintessential M&S dragon.

(Our local M&S food however has really nice friendly staff)

So twice in department type stores we have felt an inconvenience to staff.

We then popped into Wilkinsons for some bits. Young guy behing the till "hello, how are you?" Please thankyou have a nice day!

Bet he isnt paid as well as department store harridans who are clearly only working to fund their make up bills!

M&S staff have always been friendly to me. Didn’t realise there was such a term as quintessential M&S dragon 🤣

Well I always find Zara staff incredibly stuck up, like they are doing you a favour by serving you.
Generally I find supermarket staff the friendliest our local Tesco staff are good and the Aldi staff are superb.

Not we have any posh shops, but the independent shops tend to be friendly.

House of Fraser and Roman OTOH, I refuse to enter because the staff are so horrendous 😮

Not for me. I tried a £10k brooch on in the Burlington Arcade last week - really obvious I couldn't afford to buy it, they couldn't have been nicer. Held my bag and gloves while I pinned it to my coat and swished about

They were so nice.

I’ve always found the staff in Wilkos and B&M really friendly, so maybe there’s something in this!

My local co-op is about 50/50 lovely and awful staff. Can't say I ever go anywhere which would be considered posh

Harvey Nichols in Leeds and Manchester have amazing and lovely staff, never seen any sign of grouchiness or snootiness.

New Look and Sports Direct are both fairly down market and have, in my experience, spectacularly rude and disengaged staff.

I work in a similar priced dress shop as somewhere like mint velvet with dresses at £80ish, blouses and jumpers at £60/£70

So a higher end high street store

I get Minimum wage

So for my minimum wage i am very friendly and very helpful

Its nowt to do with the shop in my personal experience of shopping...which i do a lot of there are grumpy and helpful staff all over the place

they are condescending in expensive shops. because I dont look well heeled and wealthy, they assume I can't afford to buy anything and so shouldn't be in there.

I wouldn't restrict to say it was only the posh shops, customer service in general retail is pretty poor.

I'm not sure you can attribute attitude to specific shops. Some assistants are lovely, others are rude - they would be equally lovely or rude, wherever they worked.

I've never had a problem with staff in Fenwick. I had one help me tip up a sofa to see how the feet attached, a while back!

Most of our M&S staff are great, but I do remember falling foul of certain members of staff who thought rather highly of themselves in years gone by - mostly staring disapprovingly at my choices in the lingerie department or vehemently denying that trousers that had heavily pulled after a few hours wear were anything other than a problem with the wearer.

Another one for New Look. Couldn’t believe how sullen Lady Lah-Di-Dah at the till was when my daughter went to buy something on Saturday. And that was after some other, presumably senior, staff member had corrected me in that “you’re so stupid” tone of voice when I thought upstairs was the men’s department. It’s obviously in the staff handbook to leave your manners at home! Hilarious. Yet a lovely polite friendly girl served us there before Xmas.

@dementedma I think that’s a sweeping generalisation. Most people I know who are wealthy don’t flash it. You wouldn’t know by looking at them, unless you recognised the brands they wear to death.

In higher end shops its more about what they think of you by looking at you. If you look a bit lower middle class you're not going to get great treatment. They know what their average customer base looks like and if you're not up to scratch, be prepared for attitude.

LaurieFairyCake I'll grant you that. I took dd into Harrods to use the toilets and we were a right scruffy pair that day. The staff were so lovely and chatty. Even when i told the guy i could maybe afford one chess piece in the set dd and i were admiring if i saved for a few years, he still chatted to me about the artist etc.

Maybe its the hyacinth bucket stores that have dragons

I had several great experiences with the staff in Prada in Chicago, despite me turning up wearing trouses from Asda and having sandy feet (I'd just been paddling in the lake). The staff were all absolutely charming! (although it may have helped that my ex who I was with was collecting God knows how much in altered clothes from them). I went back several times (without the ex) and they were always lovely, always remembered my name and gave me some great restaurant recommendations. Since then, I behave no differently in a 'posh' shop than I do in a 'normal' shop and I've never had bad service in the 'posh' shops. I've had great service in places like Harrods, Lalique, Jimmy Choo etc.

Places like Boots, M&S etc though is a different story. Some times I have been tempted to shout "do you not want my bloody money then? sorry I thought this was a business!" but I keep my grumpy thoughts to myself and still treat them politely rather than lowering myself to their level.

Totally see this one. In posh make up counters I notice it a lot. The woman in Estes Lauder when I said I’d purchase two things said ‘it’s expensive mind’ wtf! I’m 35! Also in M and S I’ve noticed a lot of ageist treatment. Ie my mum goes through, super chatty and friendly. I went through immediately after and got grunted at. Hubby has noticed this as well.

Totes im pretty surei didnt even qualify for upper working class onmy visit to harrods - thats cos they proper posh i guess 😁

One of my most fun window shopping experiences was in a Chanel boutique in London. We had our noses pressed to the window like kids looking into a sweet shop. The doorman saw us and ushered us in, and the saleswoman was lovely encouraged us to try on a few things even though we said we were just looking and absolutely weren’t going to be buying. We had a great time just going round squeaking at expensive things. Same in Selfridges with the designer wear, assistants weren’t snooty, but friendly and helpful and seemed glad to have a chat.

@HundredMilesAnHour re boots/m&s etc, They're on nmw, I doubt they give a toss.

I work in a very customer service based role. I think you can get amazing staff and very rude staff all under one roof.
Some people I've worked with in the past, I've often wondered how they even managed to get the job despite it being a minimum wage role.
If you aren't happy then definitely complain. People who can't even be arsed to smile at customer who are paying their wage really shouldn't be working with customers.

I agree Harrods is great. I was in there just before Christmas because DD(13) wanted to see it. While she pottered about stationery, I drooled over some exceptionally expensive lights. A member of staff approached me and even when I made it absolutely clear I wasn’t buying anything, she chatted away to me.

Was gobsmacked by the £36,000 Smeg fridge though.

I find high street overworked, stressed and rushed and boutique store staff snooty. I have far more sympathy for the high street staff.

The Estée Lauder counter staff drive me mad (luckily I only buy stuff for my mother there...too old lady-ish for me, and I’m 46).

EL don’t display prices on their counters, so you have to ask. I can’t bloody stand that: puts you in the position of having to do the work, repeatedly, having them standing near you putting you under pressure to buy whilst they tell you what each individual item costs, and them being able to give you the “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” look.

I could buy their entire effing counter if I wished, but no way am I going to stand there like a supplicant saying, “how much is this? And this?”. Fuck that. So I asked the assistant for a printed price list, and she wouldn’t give me it “because it’s not our policy”.

Fine, I said, I’ll buy it online instead. There’s your commission gone (I thought that bit). And shops wonder why bricks and mortar retail isn’t doing so well!