Customers’ rudeness and impatience is causing retail workers to leave

[Auburngal]

I have worked for a supermarket for 16 years. The rudeness, impatience and aggression from certain customers is making retail workers leave retail.

Just under 4 years ago customers were ok in queuing outside for 30-40 minutes to enter the store. Now they tut and sigh if they need to queue for 30 seconds.

I have changed departments from customer service to shop floor due to panic attacks as one problem is that customers think we are only open for 16 hours a week when my store is open for 100. It’s the elderly who think they have to shop between 10am-12pm. Only about 5% of them travel by bus. The other 95% are not helping themselves or us on insisting shopping then. Stubbornness is a sign of weakness.

We are so short staffed that at least once a week i have to go on the kiosk and hate it as get moan moan moan. How would these moaning Minnies like it if we moaned to them for 5-8 hours a day?

No wonder half of us are on antidepressants.

There needs to be something done to tell people that their rudeness towards retail workers is making the workers leave. Have seen two colleagues having mental breakdowns over the constant abuse, rang in sick then hand in their notice in ten weeks.

There’s no positive gain from being rude n nasty towards retail workers. Those who are rude and nasty towards shop workers have never worked in retail and wouldn’t last a minute.

Like with other retailers, staff leave and not being replaced fully. We get it in the neck from customers. They don’t contact HQ about their complaints. That way they are recorded on a system. Whereas moaning to us does nothing apart from getting headaches etc.

Hmmm @RavenFox I've had 'I hope your day gets better' from a checkout assistant at a time when I was grieving. I think you need to be careful saying that because you don't know what's going on in the customer's life.

YANBU

I worked in retail 20 years ago and it made me hate the general public.

I'll have a look now , I think he probably needs to stop going to asda, he's always gone there since they opened in our area but they have gone down hill now .

I actually think it's really awful that there need posters and reminders that abuse and rudeness to shop staff/station staff etc is not acceptable.

However these sort of signs are generally only read and adhered to by the people who don't need the reminder in the first place.

I'm glad I don't work in a customer facing role, I think that often people have reason to be frustrated and take it out on the nearest (loeest paid) person even if they are nothing to do with the problem. I see it at the train station all the time.

Just under 4 years ago customers were ok in queuing outside for 30-40 minutes to enter the store. Now they tut and sigh if they need to queue for 30 seconds

Actually I wasn't. I used to carry on walking if there was a queue and come back when there wasn't.

Not your point, I know.

People will tut and sigh if they have to queue/wait because the member of staff is having a chat with their colleagues or not doing their job properly.

Customers can be really rude, but staff can be really incompetent. It works both ways.

Like with other retailers, staff leave and not being replaced fully. We get it in the neck from customers. They don’t contact HQ about their complaints. That way they are recorded on a system. Whereas moaning to us does nothing apart from getting headaches etc

Also companies make it very difficult for customers to contact them. If customers complain to you, you should be passing their complaints on. Although I realise that the HQ idiots in their ivory towers who seemingly never do any shopping themselves don't listen to their underlings.

There are plenty of knobheads out there, but equally most people are polite and cause no bother. I have worked in retail for many years so I know this is true. I always use self scan or smartphone, it's not rocket science learning to use them. Everyone seems to think the "elderly" are thick and can't get their heads round technology. That is incorrect. Many have smartphones and are more than capable of navigating their way around. I have Facebook friends in their 70s/80s and they get heartily sick of being told they can't use technology.
Yes they can!!

I think the point was that they all come in at the same time, and it's not because of the bus times, they just choose to shop then even though they could shop at other times.

Personally it's the ones who insist on going shopping on Saturday mornings who annoy me, when they've got the rest of the week to shop.

They can shop when they like. What a horrible comment. Their money is as good as yours.

@enchantedsquirrelwood
I do so agree. I think that once people are over 67 ( that being retirement age, so before then you qualify as a real person, even if you have grey hair and wear glasses) they should just apply at the local town hall for a permit to go out, and an extra endorsement to enter a shop. At a designated time, of course.

And if the shop is busy with real people, the oldies should just be sent home without anything to eat. Serve them right for surviving and cluttering up the world, n’est ce pas?

Lots of huge generalisations here, I work in one of the small branches of a big chain and I can honestly say our staff and customers are 95% lovely (we are in a very mumsnetty "naice" area which definitely helps)

Staffing is the main issue for us. The quota given by head office for staff levels is woeful. I had a week off recently and was contacted 3 times and asked to come in due to staffing issues. I said no because I am entitled to time off but it's a huge cause of stress for everyone and it does start to make people resentful.

I think every Asda is the same, ours is terrible now.

People have every right to go to a shop at any point during opening hours. Some people will have more options about when they can go than others. Sometimes, people who are in a position to choose will pick a time that make the experience more difficult for themselves, staff and people who don't have any other time they can get there. They're still allowed to do this, and other people are allowed to talk about it.

Perhaps businesses should stop unreal portrayals of 'The Shopping Experience! in ads. Shopping Malls and Centres do it, individual Supermarkets show scarcely populated aisles with cheery attentive staff always handy to help.
Airlines still build up hopes of a relaxing flight in a wide reclining seat. seat and a cocktail brought to your seat with a smile and a napkin.
Of course we get grumpy at the gaps on shelves for our favourite products or the obstacle course which the employees create with their trolleys when picking orders for delivery.
They build unrealistic pictures, that unfortunately lodge in our brain subliminally even though we know the truth when we discuss it consciously.

What the hell

People seem to be leaving all public dealing professions in droves and I really can't blame them. People should treat workers with respect.

I love Booths. I could seriously consider moving to the other end of the country just for the pleasure of shopping in Booths.

I hate self-service checkouts and they seem to hate me. I invariably get at least one item that won't scan, and have to wait for a member of staff to come and sort it. I think there should be a law that if an item doesn't scan, you're entitled to take it for free.

My local supermarkets have lovely staff, but it's a small town where everyone knows each other and if you had a strop in Tesco or wherever, all your neighbours would soon get to hear about it. When I go to a superstore sized shop, I notice people are much more inclined to be rude.

I think people who take out their frustrations on staff who are doing pretty crappy jobs for not much money need to have a word with themselves. It's unpleasant, and unnecessary.

Customers don’t seem to care about our lives outside work - family, health, financial issues etc. We are human.

My Store gets its share of elderly customers shopping on Saturday esp the mornings. Even working aged customers are annoyed with them.

What I hate are those ECs who have the cheek to complain about it being busy. Well if you are so insistent on shopping on the busiest time of the week.

Before anyone asks my parents are in their 70s and they don’t go grocery shopping on Saturdays. My mum changed her shopping time as soon as she retired. I didn’t influence her.

Back to the original idea behind the post.

How are we going to communicate to customers that rudeness isn’t tolerated towards shop workers?

My Store gets its share of elderly customers shopping on Saturday esp the mornings. Even working aged customers are annoyed with them.

Working aged customers are annoyed at the presence of older customers at the same shop as them? Unless you have queues of 20 people all visibly 80-odd, this is just vicious projection. In opening hours, nobody has a greater right to enter a shop than anyone else, on the basis of age.

Mil often goes shopping on a Saturday morning, in her late 80s

I think it's a way of getting out the house and interacting with people which is probably true for others

Older customers can shop when they like , you don't know they can go anytime they like during the week as you don't know their circumstances. 🤨

It works both ways, I went into my local express store of a well known supermarket and I politely said excuse me to the shop assistant as she was standing in the middle of the narrow aisle, she moved but tutted at me as I walked past!

Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and with politeness, that's for sure. You have chosen to work in a supermarket. It's a private company, people can shop as and when they wish. Some people may need more assistance or help than others. If you don't like fulfilling your job description, just leave? You have a PAID job to do, it's not like you're doing anyone a favour.

Its a real shame people are being rude to you at work.

Your employers need to hire more staff, pay them better, train them better and put in place wellbeing supports.

Your employer should have prominent signage about zero tolerance of abuse of staff and make sure that is supported and enforced.

But stop blaming older people for shopping at a time of day you don't agree with.

Older people can shop whenever they hell they like. Just like anyone else.