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.

Not at all. I'm perfectly free to respond to a comment with 'I would have done this'.

Just like you're perfectly free to 'disagree' by saying 'I wouldn't do that' or 'I've been told that I shouldn't do that'.

But you don't get to disagree with what you think I should have done, because that's of no concern to you.

This is 'am I being unreasonable'. The whole topic is dedicated to people giving opinions as to what other people should or should not do. It's kind of the whole point of being here.

In response to the OP, yes. Not to other posters! I wasn't asking AIBU.

Just be nice everyone. Life is actually easier and more enjoyable when people are nice. X

And always have been. 🙁

you're being ridiculous to say that people were ok with queuing during covid. Lots of people weren't - I deliberately went at quiet times because I found it so annoying, and even those who did weren't 'okay' with it, they just didn't have any choice (and in lots of cases nobody had anything better to do).

I fully agree that some people are horrible - but (having worked in shops and several other areas) those people tend to also be horrible to police officers, teachers, waiters, call centre staff, etc as well.

Also SOME retail workers are just really rude. I have a very high tolerance for customer service, I don't expect 'yes madam' ing or even basic interaction - I literally don't care if someone is on their phone or talking to their mate as long as they are putting my food through the till (or whatever) at the same time.
But in the last WEEK alone I've seen 3 people walk out of (different) places because the staff were just standing around chatting to each other while a queue builds up waiting to be served.

Lots of places (less so big supermarkets but food places for example) are so focussed on serving their online customers that the people actually in the shop are ignored.

So yes SOME people are horrible, and I'm prepared to accept they've gotten worse, or even that behaviour/aggression overall has degenerated, but it's not specific to shop staff, and the retail profession (admittedly a lot of it is senior management) needs to take some responsibility itself.

The queuing during covid would have been less annoying if it was fair. A teacher being allowed to queue jump (during school hours) ahead of a lorry driver coming off a night run is an example of the lunacy that went on.

It’s suggesting that the other 95% who drive or walk have more flexibility than those who wait for the first free bus.

Last month, I had a hospital appointment at 9:30am so took the bus just before 9am. There were about three elderly people by the bus stop. Offered them to board first. “We are waiting for the first 9:30am”. WTF are they standing outside in the freezing cold for 45 mins is beyond me

The trouble with retail the staff turnover is so high, the initial training is poor and its not the easy job everyone thinks it is. There is a lot to learn and it takes time. Some customers not all are very entitled and can be vile and abusive , the inexperienced staff leave because they dont know how to cope with it.
Hence a viscous circle inexperienced staff and poor service.
I did 8 years in retail and left a couple of years ago and would never go back, the abuse became to frequent, i am not talking about people complaining, i expected that but the aggression, the threats to our personnel safety became all to frequent.Never again not worth it.

This, all of this!

Maybe some of the people who are complaining about the lack of customer service should leave whatever jobs they do & move into retail/CS, show us all how to do it right!

I'll never set foot back in retail thanks to the attitude of far too many customers, give me animals any day.

Treat others as you wanted to be treated yourself.

Obviously customers who spit, grab staff by the arm don't have this morale in their heads.

Ime, it depends on location.

Where I worked retail, I can count on one hand how many rude customers there were including during covid. I could also go to any shop on the street and the staff were lovely.

The area I live in, mixed bag. My nearest Boots, the M&S, Sainsbury’s, B&M, Aldi’s and several shops in the town centre no issue with staff nor have I seen any abuse from customers (not saying it doesn’t exist) despite me finding other shoppers rude.

My nearest Tesco though, the people at the self-service, nice, those on the shop floor, some are polite, the rest nope. I don’t ask anything unless I absolutely can’t find it and my standards are pretty low.

I worked in retail many years ago. There have always been rude people around. I agree people seem irritable and more impatient now and i also agree with pp - customer service seems worse.

You need to blame the company for not staffing the shop well enough. Its not just shops either - most employers seem to be not replacing people,squeezing every penny out of staff, which is probably part of the reason people are stressed and grumpy!

I complained to head office about morrisons cafe not being well staffed enough. The waitress brought out the food 40mins after ordering and one person's was missing. She broke down crying and she she couldn't cope anymore due to rude customers and staff cuts. I offered to buy her a drink and talked to her until she had calmed. I said I would write to head office to say I could see how staff cuts were putting pressure on the staff and causing stress and dissatisfied customers, despite staff trying their hardest, going above and beyond. I receive a generic half ased reply from morrisons

Don't blame the customer it's poor leadership from above!

Well i just went into a shop, wax served by quite honestly the rudest most aggressive young man ever! Mauve I should complain to HO? Unfortunately, it's a one off shop, so couldn't get what I wanted elsewhere.

It works on both sides.

I do agree with you about rudeness and aggression and there is no need to behave that towards staff.
However I don’t really understand your comment about elderly people and when they shop and of what relevance is it whether they get the bus or not??? If you are objecting to the fact that they might need more assistance and are often slower then you are probably in the wrong job

I work in retail and the general public can be absolute dicks. Christmas brings out the worst in people; they're rude, demanding and expect everything done for them (we can absolutely happy to show you where you need to be, but we're not your personal shoppers, we have jobs to do), the rest of the year they're not much better. People are exactly the reason I don't like people. I have been shouted at, demeaned, condescended, treated like absolute shit. I've seen colleagues break down and quit on the spot because customers have treated them so poorly. I had to put myself and my family at risk all throughout covid because I couldn't afford not to work, all while customers came in touting the literal laws, refusing to protect the rest of us. Don't even get me started on the shoplifters. None of this was any different before we moved to self service either, there were just more staff customer facing, and therefore available, to harass back then. On the subject of self service, they have not cost anyone their jobs, they've allowed staff to be actively on the sales floor to stock and assist there where it's needed.
We issue verbal bans to offending customers and shoplifters, but there are so many of them that it's hard to keep track of. People are awful. No worker deserves to be treated badly by nasty, entitled, arseholes. Difficult to slap a smile on your face when this is a reality that so many people can't comprehend.

The inexperienced staff should not have to cope with it, people need to learn some manners. There is never an excuse for some of the awful behaviour that retail staff have to deal with.

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.

Maybe if you treat your elderly customers with a modicum of respect then you might get a better experience at work.

Now we can see why so many customers are rude to OP

I work for a supermarket and honestly I wouldn't choose to work in one again due to the small handful of people that make my job awful

Wow, where do you work. I'll avoid it like the plague. What age do you consider elderly and an inconvenience.

More supermarkets have less staff and expect customers to do their job for them. That itself pisses me off.

My colleagues and I who work in retail, kill our customers with kindness.
If they're lovely in return it's a good feeling, and rewarding.
If they're horrible, we roll our eyes and laugh at them behind their backs.
Win win ... we're happy, they think they've won 🤣
I agree though, customers have forgotten that nobody is perfect, assistants don't have all the answers and they're not always right. Abuse is not acceptable.
Treat others as you wish to be treated. Be kind, you'll get what you need faster.

I treat customers with respect but some are not bothered. I am not rude. But if I get a moaning Minnie about Saturday mornings being busy “what do you expect if you decide to shop now”

In a previous job, at a call centre, I got told off for doing too much customer service! If I didn’t do what I did to that customer, she would have left us! She was a big customer for us.

General Public need to learn this phrase “treat others as how you wanted to be treated yourself”