What's going on with retail workers?

[IWouldRatherBeOnHoliday]

Recently I've found it really irritating going to supermarkets/large chain stores and finding that the store assistants don't seem to be doing their jobs the way they used to. I often pop out on my lunchbreak to run errands and, whilst I accept that sometimes there might be queues due to customer demand etc, I don't expect to have to wait 5 minutes to be served while two colleagues have a chat! The worst seems to be my local Asda, where every member of staff seems to find it annoying having to deal with customers.

I don't want to put people down, and I know many store assistants do work incredibly hard. I'm also well aware that some customers are extremely rude, and so I don't feel like I should say anything when I am being inconvenienced.

Is it because staff feel disengaged and underappreciated by their employer? I have a lot of sympathy for their feelings if that's the case. BUT can they not also recognise that customers are just trying to get their shopping done, and its actually really rude and disrespectful not to serve them properly?

Just make eye contact and say excuse me can I just ask a quick question - can you tell me which aisle the paint is thanks

That would have saved your 90 sec wait.

Worse than rude assistants, in my local Waitrose they keep most of the lights off until 10a.m. I spent £180 in there the other morning in near darkness. I don't know if this is a central decision of if that store manager just thinks that they'll singlehandedly save the planet. It's massively rude and disrespectful to customers who might want to read ingredient lists etc. I hope that they suffer a lot of shoplifting as a result.

You can't please everyone , some regular customers like a bit of a chat and some customers like to get in and out and some from previous experience even when you are finished want you to stay late , when you've got a child to pick up !

Do you mind saying roughly which part? My husband and I are moving to the UK from South Africa and are trying to work out where would be best for us to live. South Africans tend to be very friendly and open with people but apparently this is not appreciated in some places, which is fine, but we'd just like to know where to go.

They do the same thing in my local Waitrose so it must be a central decision. It's awful!

Hi @ButternutSoup North east England. Hope you find somewhere that suits you. xx

That's Vera country! Thank you xx