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!

Darkestnight

It swings both ways. You get some really snobby customers who turn there nose up at you...

You have to accept that if you are in a servile position. No it does not cut both ways: the customer is in the superior position not you, the shop assistant.🙄

Zara definitely have the most rude staff on the high street. I do feel a bit sorry for them though as they only ever have one cashier serving with a queue of approx six or seven customers and everyone complaining.

If you do not like the public - your customers - you should walk. Let someone with manners and good grace do the job.

I work in an enormous bookshop and I love it. I learn so much every day from random book discoveries & conversations with customers. I love it when a customer comes in looking lost and I can show them to the specific book they wanted & didn't have a clue how to find. I actually enjoy serving people well and take pride in it. My self esteem is healthy & I have no problem with taking a (meagre) wage in exchange for my best service. In my experience the workers who are providing poor service are often unhappy with their particular situation and I feel a bit sorry for them. Working in a retail position can suck. It's seen as low status by almost all of your customers & some of them like to remind you of your place. It can be surprisingly emotionally/mentally draining. My retail environment is redeemed by all the books & so is more bearable than others.

People who work in bookshops are exempt from criticism. The best bookshop I have ever been in is Topping in St. Andrews. The staff are fantastic, there are comfy sofas and they offer you tea or coffee and biscuits. 🙂

Zara staff are super rude! Wilko staff are usually lovely. I find good and bad at all levels.

I've worked in different levels of retailer and the same basic courtesy was expected, although we had more problematic customers in some stores, which meant you needed a tougher manner at the till from the get go- no excuse for out right rudeness though. I'm talking about the sort of problems that we couldn't resolve and standing firm here, not just processing a run of the mill exchange etc.

One thing that might skew service atm is that it's still peak xmas return time. Big queues, customer weirdness and rudeness and staying on top of sale. People go a bit robotic to cope sometimes! I know the day I got stuck on till as a sole refunder whilst also duty managing, I went magically perky and then dipped into slightly hating everyone, despite gritting my teeth and being nice.

The Post Office staff can be snooty too.
I remember a few years ago when me and my Husband were visiting his parents here in the UK and so we went to the post office to change some Euro's for sterling.
My Husband who is British did the exchange, i was stood beside him looking at something or another.
The lady in the Post Office said in a snooty voice 'You would be better hanging onto these'
Followed by ' I suppose you need the money' in a sneery tone.
Me and my Husband were before he tore a strip off her.
Of course we needed the money, we were visitors to the UK and the shops didn't accept bloody Euro's!

I came on here to say how rude Zara staff are.
It shocks me every time I shop there.
Being paid minimal wage is no excuse for rudeness. My first job was in a fish shop and it was bloody hard work ( unless you have done it you will never know how hard it is getting red hot chips into a small paper bag !!!)
I could make a list of careers and jobs I have had. I have never been rude to customers or clients regardless of how much I earned.

DShathaway

My current manager worked in a very nice town and was then transferred to what she had been told was a fairly rough city

She said she had more problems from customers in the 'nice' town, the customers in the 'rough' city gave her no problems whatsoever

**katekat383

Possibly the rudest comment I have read in a while. People in retail are not servants! I cannot believe in this day and age that attitude still remains.

I find Wilko staff also very friendly. John Lewis staff are hit and miss, many years ago the staff in my local John Lewis were terrible and would really look down on lot of customers.
Then they seemed to have taken part in a customer service course and were very good for a long time but since the store was extended a couple of years ago it seems to be going back to the poor customer service again.
My parents needed help in the TV dept and had shocking service so much so that they asked to speak t the manager of that dept only to find out the man being a really unpleasant individual was the manager.

There's an independent shop in our town where one of the owners (family run business that's been around for years) is just so rude and abrasive it makes you wonder why he bothers and doesn't just sell up.

He's well known for it too - if ever you say you've got to go to/have been to this shop someone always comments on his grumpiness.

You would think that by having a vested interest in the business that he would make an effort but, no...not even a fecking smile.

PS - meant to say that it's high end products that this place sells. Certainly not cheap.

Our local town suffers from thinking its more prestigious than it actually is. The assistants in the shops afflicted with the Hyacinth Bucket effect I.e. Boots, M&S, Joules, Debs etc are just hilarious. They look down their noses at anyone who isn't wearing the 'correct uniform'.
I have no time for this nonsense, I'll shop in lower end shops that don't pretend to be posher than they are

@katekat383

Darkestnight

It swings both ways. You get some really snobby customers who turn there nose up at you...

You have to accept that if you are in a servile position. No it does not cut both ways: the customer is in the superior position not you, the shop assistant.🙄

And right there is the attitude that leads to bad service. I often wonder if some bad service is a reaction to a customer who feels they are in a 'superior position' and lets you know your place being in a servile position an'all.
I'm in hospitality not retail, and I will bend over backwards for someone who's civil to me. Sneer, look down on me and patronise me and I'll stick to the policies 100%, I'll give you the bare minimum because obviously being in a 'servile position' nothing is going to be good enough anyway. People like this just want to show their self indulgent sense of superiority, no more.
I've waited on and served some seriously rich and influential people in my time, 99% were polite, patient, and didn't expect anything other than good food and service, quietly and civilly.
Others seem to think the rich and influential people boss others around and treat them like shit because they are inferior, and they do it trying to appear something they're not. We know all about that type of customer, we're not as thick as you seem to think we are.

I’m always perfectly polite. My grandad always said treat others as you would like to be treated. I always say good morning/afternoon & cheery goodbye.

katekat383 - retail workers aren’t servants. 🙄

Also katekat383 - you say that retail workers are of no consequence. What about when they clock off and go into another shop as a customer?

We are ALL customers. You might work in banking in the City but those “lowly” retail workers might be your clients and deposit their money in your bank.

If you look at it like that, we are all servants to someone or something. Money? Your mortgage?

The Queen still has duties to do too. I wonder if she considers herself as a servant of God?

Andjustlikethat - I've worked at one of the brands you slagged off there. Nicest colleagues but arsehole customers. They judged us far more than we judged them.

Rufus- I've found that too, to some extent. People more likely to be pissy over nothing in "naicer" places than supposedly "rougher" ones.

I was in b&q the other day, 4 people in front of me not including the person being served (on the returns desk)

Fella in front of me is spoken to by people in front of him and starts swearing and waving his hands about aggressively- apparently he’d been told there was an hour wait to be served. I says to him calm down, it’s not the lady servings fault, hopefully they’ll call another member of staff over.
When I got to her 5-10mins later, I was really friendly and polite and above all thanked her for dealing with me so quickly (I’d been charged twice for a couple of things, so needed refunding) and she looked like she could cry, apparently a few people had been like him in front that day and been out of order. When will people realise? Asda, b&q, harrods, wherever- the people serving are the same as you and me and deserve the respect and courtesy you’d like to receive from them.
And bad customer service needs complaining about, or it simply won’t get better. I can echo the m&s thing, I avoid it now because why am I going to willingly spend money somewhere for someone to be rude!? The exception being the foodhall, I had some amazing help in m&s from a couple of staff members there.

katekat383 is like one of those children who shout 'bum!' Adults ignore that kind of attention-seeking in the hope they will grow out of it.

OP, it's not whether the shop is posh or not but depends more on the way they treats their staff and also in the way it regards its customers and expects them to be treated even if they're not spending much or anything.

I really like Robert Dyas. It might be just a south east chain. It's a general purpose homeware store. Whichever branch I've been in the staff have always been really friendly and helpful.

they treats their staff

I sound like Gollum. Or Buffalo Bill

No correlation in my experience.

M and s food yes to being super friendly!

And Wilkinson has amazing staff where I live, really really brilliant.

With all the huge brands collapsing on the high Street if I was chief of any High street store I'd be giving orders to bend over backwards to be accommodating and polite to customers.

I currently work on a till in a store. I always try to be polite and friendly to the customers. It isn't that hard and it makes the shift go faster. However, I am human and there are times when things get to much for me and whilst I'm not rude I might not be as friendly.

One example before Christmas springs to mind. I was stuck on the till closest to the door, it was freezing from the wind blowing in (bad storm that day) and the heating wasn't on so my hands and feet were like ice. As I was the closest to the door, I got all the customers who wanted refunds, who wanted a trolley as they didn't have a coin, and who wanted lots bags of coal or logs. All these things took longer to do than usual transactions, which held up everything else and annoyed quite a few other customers. I admit, I wasn't the happiest person, but I still made sure to be polite.