Or was this a little rude?

[Boredbumhead]

I have not long moved to a new area. I discovered a lovely new cafe today that seemed to be in the middle of the country side. I didn't know the area very well at all though. I took the children and dog there by myself (I'm a single mum so often go out as a threesome just me and the kids). We sat at an outside table and ordered. We waited a good 20 minutes for the food but I want bothered as it was a nice day. About 15 minutes in the cafe owner (a middle aged woman) walked passed so I grabbed the opportunity to politely ask if she knew of any good dog walks in the surrounding area. She looked really annoyed and said, I'm busy with another customers question, it something to that effect and walked off. I thought she may come back later, apologise and answer or at least say sorry I don't know, but nothing. WIBU to think this was a little rude and dismissive? Thankfully we did manage to find a nice walk through trial and error. I realise it wasn't a tourist information and she may have been busy, but I would have expected a polite response as a customer that just spent £20?

All she needed to say (as we later found out for ourselves) was turn right and then you can walk across the golf course as it's a footpath. Nothing complicated!

[quote Boredbumhead]@DDiva she wasn't carrying plates or anything. She had nipped to an outside shed, so didn't look like she was dealing with anyone else.[/quote]
Did you consider that the reason she had nipped to an outside shed was because she needed to get something?

It sounds like the woman was quite shirty, but my guess is that you misread the situation and picked a poor moment to ask about walks.

YABU

You stopped a member of staff, who was clearly in the middle of doing something, to ask a question totally unrelated to their business and were surprised they weren't falling over themselves to stop and become tourist information, especially after you had paid them a whole £20 for food and drink for 3 people!

I work in customer services in a supermarket and I am constantly interrupted by people demanding my time and/or attention when I'm in the middle of doing something else and often seem surprised when I ask them to wait. Just because the woman wasn't juggling plates doesnt mean they werent doing something more important than playing your guide.

Last week I had an elderly customer come to exchange a faulty microwave and there was nobody available in the department to help so I walked with them onto the shop floor to carry the new one back to my desk. As I'm carrying the awkwardly large box and chatting to the elderly customer a different customer walks up, stops literally 1 step in front of me and says "Er, scuse me but where's the hair dye?" I had to stop quickly so I didnt run him over, but I tell him exactly where they are, including awkwardly use my body (still holding the heavy box) to generally point the right way. The guys next words were "Can you come and show me?" and he genuinely seemed shocked when my response was "Sorry, I'm in the middle of helping this customer here with this microwave. I have told you the hair dye is in the next aisle, half way down on the left hand side, but if you need me to show you personally then you'll have to come back to the customer service desk and wait in the queue along with the other customers needing my help."

Not EVERYONE can simply "brush things off". Some people are more sensitive and there's nothing wrong with that nor is there any need for them to justify why it still irks them. Perhaps we can learn to give a little more thought to those who aren't like us, hmm?

@Boredbumhead, she was downright rude. Busy place, my arse. Being busy doesn't make one incapable of politely saying something like "I'll be one minute" or "I'll come back to you, I'm currently with another customer", etc.

It's not about OP stopping her mid walk and demanded attention - I assume she wasn't waylaid - it's about her lack of customer service skills in a customer facing role.

Possibly rude, possibly people just underlying stress due to Covid and trying to be mindful of regulations.

I would say pretty stressful working in cafe at the moment.

Meant to write "It's not about OP stopping to ask a question and it's not as though OP stopped her midwalk and demanded attention..."

Not sure how i accidentally erased that part.

She was definitely rude.

@Boredbumhead

All she needed to say (as we later found out for ourselves) was turn right and then you can walk across the golf course as it's a footpath. Nothing complicated!

Well, not really. Because apparently as a single woman you’re at high risk of getting lost. She’d need to draw you a wee map, detail how to turn around and reverse the directions - and possibly take the time to add you to “find my phone” so she could check you hadn’t veered off course.

How can she possibly know that you wouldn’t have wanted to know more?

We're you in Royston Vasey OP?

@melj1213 but you provided a perfectly polite response whilst carrying a heavy microwave. Not really comparable when this woman wasn't carrying anything. Why be in a customer of facing role if you don't want to interact?

We're you in Royston Vasey OP

She told you she was busy helping another customer, why is that rude? She may have looked annoyed (I look annoyed all the time, I have one of those faces,) it doesn't mean she was rude.
I worked in a cafe before lockdown, a lot of people seem to have the air of thinking they're more important than anyone else, the amount of times I've been stopped while carrying food or drinks for someone else is insane, they can see I'm doing something, could they not wait for me to come the other way? They also seem shocked when I've told them they need to wait, I've also possibly looked annoyed because I'm trying to concentrate on not dropping someone's dinner.

@SapphireSeptember She told you she was busy helping another customer, why is that rude?

she actually said "I'm bay answering another customer's question" which is obviously just flippant and sarcastic

@SapphireSeptember

She told you she was busy helping another customer, why is that rude? She may have looked annoyed (I look annoyed all the time, I have one of those faces,) it doesn't mean she was rude. I worked in a cafe before lockdown, a lot of people seem to have the air of thinking they're more important than anyone else, the amount of times I've been stopped while carrying food or drinks for someone else is insane, they can see I'm doing something, could they not wait for me to come the other way? They also seem shocked when I've told them they need to wait, I've also possibly looked annoyed because I'm trying to concentrate on not dropping someone's dinner.

In my opinion (you may see it differently), this is slightly different and i agree those people seem entitled and rude.

I know about "the face" though - I have one. Ruddy thing, that RBF! I empathise with you.

but you provided a perfectly polite response whilst carrying a heavy microwave. Not really comparable when this woman wasn't carrying anything.

Tbh my answer definitely comes across as more polite when written down as my tone and (I'm sure) my facial expression was one of incredulity and shock that anyone could be so idiotic to assume I'd drop the microwave to hold their hand to find an item I had already directed them to.

She told you she was busy with another customer, that is not rude. And as I said, just because she wasnt carrying anything doesnt mean she was free to stand and chat. Sometimes I might be walking the shop floor sans microwave but I'm actually doing an important job that I cannot just leave (eg on the way to a First Aid call, looking for a lost child, monitoring a shoplifter while security calls the police etc). She could have been doing anything and she doesnt have to explain her entire job to you. She is there to serve food and drink, not play tourist information. If you want to ask questions of staff that are not important and/or time sensitive do it when you already have their attention when they are at your table or when you're paying.

Disappointing when you’re new to an area and find a cafe you like but the staff are rude. It puts me off going back. I hope this was an isolated case, OP. Don’t be put off talking to people — most are better tempered than that one, and with luck you’ll meet plenty of friendly folk who are glad to share their local knowledge with you.

Rude and totally unnecessary. And bad business sense.

Basic first principle of any business is not to be rude to customers. It doesn't matter how busy you are, there's always a way to disengage yourself without making someone feel you've pissed them off.

Mumsnets a weird as fuck place, i think many posters actually live in Royston Vasey tbh. No yanbu op. She was rude. Normal people are polite to paying customers no matter what excuse is going on in their lives. Its also totally normal to ask questions about local things in such an establishment contray to the weird mn belief that you should never ever ask staff anything and if you do it must be a compliment of their business or nothing at all. People are weird as fuck like i say. In the real world people chat and ask harmless questions.

She probably doesn’t like “outsiders”. I got rubbish like that for years till I moved home. Very rude and I would give her my business again

Think this is one of those "you had to be there" things. She might have been rude to you, but you seem to be overthinking this a lot. Maybe she doesn't go walking herself so doesn't actually know the area very well? I live near lots of lovely walks, but some of my friends never go walking and haven't heard of the areas if I mention them, even though they live really close to them.

Well she failed miserably if you were a mystery shopper didn't she
She was very rude and there was no excuse for it, busy or not!

She was rude and incredibly dismissive of you. Manners cost nothing. Stop fretting about it now, don't go back to that cafe and tell everyone you speak to how rude it's owner is.

Christ if I had a £ for every customer that's pounced on me while trying to do something for another customer, including talking over the top of that customer and me mid order, I wouldn't need to work!
I bet you'd have been moaning had she stopped and chatted at another table about dog walks and that had delayed your food! Been lots of following comments then about staff being rude standing around talking while paying customers wait for their food. Sounds like she was a bit off hand but I also think you're making a big deal out of nothing.
I realise that the expectations are that anyone in a position of serving people needs to be 100% without fail or fault, but unfortunately until service robots are introduced then you're dealing with humans.
Just because she had nothing in her hands doesn't mean she wasn't doing anything, I've had customers want me to take their order on my way back from administering first aid to call an ambulance for someone else and covered in blood, and get shitty with me when I immediately didn't jump to it. That's an extreme example but the point is the same - as long as they get what they want no one cares what effect it might have on anyone else.

I think it’s interesting that in a scenario that clearly shows you as lovely and another party as a complete bitch, that it’s you still thinking about it hours later, wondering what you did wrong.

This is a weird place, to be sure: in which people are encouraging the OP to badmouth an establishment and possibly destroy someone's livelihood based on her perspective of an interaction. I'm not sure I'd take as gospel, the recollection of a woman who decided someone wasn't busy because they weren't carrying a load of plates . . . Is this a carton world? Do you assume a builder isn't busy if he isn't carrying a hod of bricks? Or a nurse if she isn't clutching a bedpan?