Just because I work in a shop...

[LunasOrchid]

... doesn't mean I'm thick! 😡

I had a woman approach me on checkout and demanded (didn't ask) that I convert the size of something for her from mm to inches e.g. 270mm by 540mm.

I get my phone out and use google to convert 27cm and 54cm. I tell customer is x inch by y inches. Customer immediately says I'm wrong? That the box says medium and y inches is this long whilst holding her arms out to show me. I explain it is correct and show her my phone. She says no you can't be right. There's no way it's that big.

At this point, I reiterate what I've typed in, and explain that it is definitely correct. She snatches the box from in front of me and says she's going to ask somebody who actually knows what they're doing

I have to admit I did lose my temper here and told her not to bother coming to my till as I won't be serving her. Luckily my supervisor heard everything and backed me 100%.

I was fuming. Why do people assume that people who work in shops are thick and speak down to them. I have a first class degree and a post graduate degree. I work in a shop because it's stress free (most of the time), flexible hours and I enjoy it. I am not thick

Lol at the flouncing 😂😂.

OP, I would have done the same. There is nothing wrong with my mental maths but you wanted a exact measurement quickly. It's faster and easier to ask SIRI. What's the point of carrying around a sophisticated and expensive phone if it's not to help me.

It takes less than a second for SIRI to tell me the answer - what possible reason is there NOT to use it 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I work on checkouts & mostly really enjoy it but some people can be unbelievably rude. I always try to look for the best in folks & give them the benefit of the doubt. That can be challenging! I don’t have a degree but have a bunch of qualifications right up to Open University level. I have learning difficulties & there are many jobs I can’t cope with so I find being on the till suits me. Being a very warm friendly person certainly helps as I don’t get much abuse. If someone is rude, I immediately start being extra polite to try to take the wind out of their sails. You don’t know their story & they could be in terrible pain, just lost a loved one etc.

Surely the issue is not that the customer thought you were thick, but that she didn’t treat you with respect.

Do you think it’s right to treat thick people badly?

People with high IQs still get things wrong and those with low IQs still get things right.

Everyone should be treated with respect.

That kind of implies retail staff aren't motivated or ambitious Nixby. I kind of get what you're trying to say but possibly there's not the work they've done the degree for in the area they live in and so need a job? Also maybe, just maybe, they prefer the retail over the career they thought they wanted? Sure, I work retail and have zero interest in a 'career'. This is my career. It's easy, pays my bills and I don't want a high pressure job due to suffering depression. I simply wouldn't cope. Doesn't make me unmotivated or lacking ambition. Just means I've had to adapt to what's best for my circumstances.

As a side note, boy, I really do want to organise a day where all retail staff go on strike so those who are snobby about the job realise how damn important we are. It's a perfectly valid job and I fail to understand why it's looked down on. It's not lesser than working in an office or anything else. People are suited to differing sectors, and people are needed to be. That's why there's problems in some areas of business (farming for example), where there's such a struggle to get employees. Snobbery about the jobs do not help, and is totally unnecessary

"Do you think it’s right to treat thick people badly?"

Literally no one has said this.

Actually it is becoming more common than people think for supermarkets to have employees with masters, phds or other qualifications. One of the great things about supermarkets is they are incredibly inclusive when it comes to their employees and are far more willing to employ older people than a lot of other places. Therefore a good number of employees have worked in various other roles and are now of an age where they want to reduce hours, don't need huge income and find suoermarkers far more accommodating and willing to employ them than the sector they have spent a large part of their working life in.

I don’t think your thick, but I am horrified that phone culture / lack of basic arithmetic teaching over the last 20 years means in society 2 adults cannot rough divide simple figures like 54 by 2.5 in their head

Well I'm not thick, but in all honesty I wasn't aware of the formula to do this (maths was never my strong point and as a pp said its confusing when there are two commonly used units of measurement) so I've learned something today. And it's you're not your.

I have recently had some experience of this having come from a senior mangement position within a FTSE company. There is a great deal of looking down on the people working in retail (as though they couldnt get a role in the REAL world). The older 55 plus women I am afraid are the very worst.

I wonder what they have done in their lives that makes them feel they can do this? Did they work full time whilst bringing up children, did they manage to have nice holidays, private schools etc? No, I didnt think so....

To the PP who said that when people are like this (cue man demanding his newspaper at 1930 on a Saturday) we end up laughing at them and wondering what it would be like to be living with these people in real life!

"You have a first class degree and a postgrad degree and you chose to work in a shop?"

What's your point?

Surely the issue is not that the customer thought you were thick, but that she didn’t treat you with respect.
She did both. She assumed the OP's calculations were wrong and said she was 'going to ask somebody who actually knows what they're doing'.

I used to work in retail whilst studying for my degree and this attitude absolutely did my head in. I'd say I encountered it on almost a daily basis. I didn't find it much better when I worked in a call centre either to be honest.

It made me conclude that people just love to make themselves feel superior. I remember one customer in the shop on a Saturday afternoon commenting to who I assume was his son that he should be pleased he was studying to better himself and not stuck in a shop for the rest of his life like some people (subtle glance towards me). I don't know why, but that's the one comment that irritated me more than any other - possibly because my own vanity made me want to tell him that actually I was also studying .

There's a lot of irritating attitudes in the U.K. towards certain workers and it almost comes across as if the people who serve you your food, your clothes, sell you your clothes, look after your kids and keep your streets clean don't quite deserve the same stability or standard of living as everyone else. It's very subtle but it's there.

On the fish counter another lady asked for two fillets in a cook in bag. When I handed it over, she asked me if I had put two in. Like I was going to loose count halfway?

I do this all the time. Not because I think the person is thick but because I have hearing loss so sometimes people mishear me as I can't adjust my volume in loud environments. So I would have asked that to make sure you have heard I said two...

*it's lose, btw

It can go the other way. I once worked with a law undergrad in a restaurant. She lasted less than a week because no one treated her with the awe and deference she should get as a law student. Constantly complaining that customers were treating her like she wasn't enormously clever and she was a LAW STUDENT didn't we know. Yes, Yes we did know.

I don’t think your thick, but I am horrified that phone culture / lack of basic arithmetic teaching over the last 20 years means in society 2 adults cannot rough divide simple figures like 54 by 2.5 in their head

Why? I am 58 and have always been shit at mental arithmetic- and spent my life being ridiculed for it. Phones and calculators are a godsend. If it’s rude and elitist to correct SPAG why is it ok to laugh at people like me?

No, it isn't so you multiply by 10, halve then halve again. Voila!

Only if you really need to. If you can do the maths on your phone faster, why shouldn't you?

When I worked at a well known chain of chemists a snooty customer said to the young woman repping for the Philosophy products "Do you know what Philosophy ACTUALLY means?"
the young woman's replied "yes it's what I studied at university".
Some people are unbelievable.

People used to think I was thick when I was a waitress.

In fact people hardly ever took me seriously before I was at least 25 because I was female and pretty.

I worked in a shop as a student and graduate and yes some people are incredibly rude but I think they're in the minority. Losing your temper is quite unimpressive though. You are lucky your supervisor backed you up.

I'm laughing all the people being rude about not doing the calculation in the head though. Why would you do it in your head and get only a rough answer (it should be divided by 2.54, not 2.5) if you have a phone or calculator nearby?

How do you divide something by 2.5 in your head anyway?

By two I could do instantly, but would do the 2.5 on my phone.

Whether you have a first class degree a PhD or are a qualified astro physicist is irrelevant OP, she shouldn't have spoken to you like that.

it should be divided by 2.54

Exactly. Dividing by 2.5 wouldn't matter for a general answer, but if you are building something large you need to the mm accuracy.

@Juliette20 halve the 2 and halve it again to find your 0.5, then add that onto the 2

Dividing by 2.5 in your head isn’t that easy

No, it isn't so you multiply by 10, halve then halve again. Voila!

That's how you multiply by 2.5 not divide by 2.5!

“I don’t think your thick, but I am horrified that phone culture / lack of basic arithmetic teaching over the last 20 years means in society 2 adults cannot rough divide simple figures like 54 by 2.5 in their head”

”I'm horrified that phone culture / lack of basic grammar means in society one adult doesn't know the difference between your and you're. Get off your high horse.”

Brilliant!

Oh yes, been there. See also, 'you must be a single mum', and 'why don't you get a proper job?' Both odd and dim things to say.

The secondary inference from working in a store is that you must be scum, own a wide screen TV, smoke fags, and own a staffy. Maybe some of those things are true and maybe not, but I've also been to three different universities here and the US and traveled across the world and done a tone of different charity work. Also my dog is beautiful

People like the woman in the op are snots who want that Harrods experience at a Lidls price. No class or good grace at all.

How do you divide something by 2.5 in your head anyway?

I would probably divide by 10 and multiply by four (although I wouldn't bother in this case because it is 2.54)