Customers’ behaviour has made colleagues leave

[Hmlp]

This year had:
. Colleague A left because he was grabbed by the wrist and told to FO
. Colleague B said to me that she will work another Christmas and retire after that. She mentioned this in Jan. Three months later she left
. Colleague C has worked for company for 45 years - first 5 years at a different store. She handed in her retirement notice as she is getting fed up with customers’ behaviour. She came home on Thursday in tears - the first time in 45 years. She is not retiring until next month.
. Colleague D had two weeks off sick and handed in her notice as customers have upsetted her.

These colleagues will not be replaced as according to head office we are 320 hours over a month!

We are stressed. We can’t cope as it is. No idea how HQ say we are 320 hours over when it feels 320 hours under!

Customers need to understand that shouting at retail and hospitality workers is bullying and totally unacceptable. What happened to treat others as you wanted to be treated yourself? Ie don’t talk down to retail workers like they are piece of dog shit on your shoe.

We can’t say to customers that we are 320 hours over. They will go ballistic.

Any ideas on how to stop customers being rude and bullying

This is John Oliver (comedian) discussing how badly the staff are treated at Dollar stores in America - coming soon to Supermarkets in the UK!

The 'realistic' advert from 18.10 is great, in a tragic way.

@BrightYellowDaffodil really? If you can't follow an arrow on the floor then you should stay at home. If customers saw people not following said arrows they would then start screaming at us to enforce it, likewise with masks.

You honestly have no idea how many staff came close to breaking point for little more than minimum wage, we'd have loved to been home furloughed but we had no choice.

In some towns and cities, pubs have a mutual list such that if you are banned from one, you are banned from them all.

May not be practical in some places, but there must be some where it is.

As for having some people choosing to shop at quieter times, financial incentives or even things such as a free cup of coffee might be worth pursuing.

Once we have a working court system, I wish the sanctions could be something other than a fine or suspended sentence. Deny people their fortnight in Spain abusing locals, for example.

Remember that many supermarket and essential retail workers may have applied for jobs for retailers which were deemed non essential (based on 2020) when job hunting. Just got the job at their retailer as better hours (more hours and/or hours suited for their outside work life), more convenient to travel etc.

We were essentially thrown at the deep end with the loo roll gate then the selfish shelf stripping. Saw people we never seen before. It was horrible seeing empty shelves. Only things on the shelves were sun tan lotions, posh face creams.

@spuddy4 i once walked down an aisle the wrong way. The only way to get to the aisle I wanted was to walk through one that was packed with people to get to the top to go into the aisle I wanted.

I wasn’t going to do that. So I just walked into the empty aisle. Was told by someone behind me I was endangering people by doing that.

Hence why I don't work in retail anymore (along with inconsistent hours and clopening shifts).

What I observed was that the majority of customers just want to get in and out. Then there's large minority who are very pleasant to serve. Then a smaller minority of people who are really annoying, but ultimately harmless. Finally the smallest minority is nasty the abusive chancers. Unfortunately, there the ones who are most notable.

I'm quite shocked by this thread and the amount of people complaining about older people doing their shopping at a time of their own choosing. Absolutely vile actually.

That sounds really difficult. Thinking of you OP. Everyone should have to do a job in retail/hospitality and see how they cope.

OP, normally I’m on your side as I’ve worked in retail and the general public are absolute nasty twats, but this is ANOTHER thread by you which is about about old people shopping on a Saturday. I’m sure it’s the third one?
It really is time for you to look elsewhere. Im not saying customers will improve, and whoever takes your place will get shit as well, but at least it won’t be you!
Try and find an office admin job (although you do get office twats, there doesn’t seem to the violence of customers).

Bad behaviour to either other customers or retail staff is unacceptable, and stores should ban offenders who behave badly in store. With no exceptions.

But, as an elderly person, I demand the right to shop when it suits me (during opening hours, obviously!) I know Saturdays aren't ideal, but, you know, we old folks often have other commitments/interests etc during the week and sometimes need to shop at the weekend. So let's please avoid ageism, OK? Thanks.

I went into a small Health Food shop in the early 90's. The only staff was one female. She was distressed and asked me to stay as the only other customer in there was a man who was masturbating behind an aisle. There was no telephone on the premises. Of course I stayed. I'm not a big or brave person but I'm six feet tall and the cowardly wanker ran away as I approached him with my best death glare.

This is actually quite common seen it multiple times were people will literally try stepping over an unconscious person to get down an aisle

There is absolutely nothing wrong with elderly people shopping on a Saturday as long as they realise we won't have time to have a chat with them even if where the only person they have spoken to all day, we won't have time to put their shopping through on self scan if you don't want to queue at a checkout, we won't be able to walk them round to do their shopping, we won't always be able to call them a taxi and wait with them. However if they do need/want all these things its best to come when it's quieter.

Where I live the transport links are abysmal, most of the villages don't have any public transport, there is a charity volunteer bus that picks up and takes the elderly grocery shopping to the nearest supermarket but it only runs in our area on a Saturday, so some old people have no choice!

Honestly I am surprised yours is the first message I have seen about working in retail for as long as I have seen on here.

The past few years I have been utterly shocked and disgusted the way people think it is ok to speak to others (who are just trying to earn a wage to pay their way in life). Students trying to earn, young people trying to get on after school, parents working and adults wanting to get on in life and prosper.

I was in Boots in an area of the UK known for summer holidays a year or two ago and a gentleman had forgotten to take his meds on holiday, understandably stressful as my DP has daily important drugs he has to take. His GP had promised to send the prescription but it hadn’t arrived and he was yelling / screaming in the face of this poor gentleman behind the counter to just give him the drugs. The poor worker was shaking. A few of us had to step in but he got worse. An area of the country there was no Security and little Management Staff around. If it’s urgent then go to A&E. The worker had to leave and was crying.

That’s just one example, I see people shouting and being so aggressive to workers and seen people throw McDonalds milkshake at their employees faces for fun on a lunchtime let alone a Saturday night. No wonder they’re pushing screen ordering.

not just rude but how people treat products in store, I have worked in retail and hospitality, but I feel very sorry for retail and hospitality workers now, many jobs are not filled or left quickly, customers moan there isn’t enough staff and I think the reason is they don’t want to listen to you being so damn rude all day!
I wonder if when youngsters worked more easily in shops at 13+ it gave people an insight to what it’s like and having compassion. Although the rudeness doesn’t just stem from younger people so that might not work.

It is little comfort, but I do still see people saying thank you, being courteous which makes me feel better and I always make a point of saying please and thank you to whoever serves me and hope for better times for you all.

There have been loads of threads about retail, included ding others from op about when she feels "elderly" should shop.

She's totally ageist and I'm sure it shines through when she's dealing with customers.

I worked at ASDA about a decade ago for 12 years its was such a lovely company , lovely Christmas party every year, staff share scheme and free shares every year colleague canteen with nice food. All my colleagues worked there for years as it was such a nice place to work yes it was very busy but we had plenty of staff. Anyway then it was bought over by Walmart , and you could see the changes, so after a few years I got a new job out of retail. Anyway it now owned by two brothers , I still know a few of my old colleagues have a few year left before they retire, they tell my it just terrible, no managers, no night shift to fill shevels, hardly any cleaners. They just hate it can’t wait to leave, most are in there early sixties and say it is effecting there mental health and physical health.

320 hours over a week? a month? a year?

If you're not happy in your job, start looking elsewhere.

If you work in retail, you should have access to HR. You can start logging customer conflict incidents.

But it sounds like you have very poor quality managers.

I'd look to change jobs - and list up all the positive experiences you've had at this job.

All your next employer needs to know is that you're reliable, have a positive attitude and the right skills for the job.

It's disgusting how some people treat staff in the public sector! The fact there are signs in hospitals warning people not to abuse staff is beyond belief they should be needed.

Frankly I think abusive customers should be told to leave and banned…. Zero tolerance approach would make these idiots think twice about being idiots!!

We were in our local Tesco store this evening and were shocked to witness a couple stealing alcohol…. The security guard asked to check their bags and they went ape shit!!… meanwhile all the staff stood and watched and no one sees to help…. Group of strapping young lads didn’t help…. I wanted to but having had a hysterectomy a fortnight ago thought it best not to risk being knocked over!

Sadly the thieves made off with the bag and alcohol…. Shame no one helped .. I hate thieves!

I would love to report issues higher up without revealing my name. Can see myself contacting HR “can i have your colleague number please?”

320 hours is the number of hours per month that we are over contract according to HQ. The average colleague works 25 hours a week. That’s more than 3 colleagues’ hours of work they want to get rid off. No we need 320 (at least) more hours per month.

I am seriously considering leaving but how to get management to have time off for interviews? I did one interview several years ago and made some excuse. Don’t want to attend too many interviews during work time. Plus my feet are in so much pain- no sitting down jobs, apart from tills which management doesn’t want me to do plus I fed up of it.

Take annual leave, go sick, have an emergency dental appointment, go before or after your shift, go on day off.

That issue is not unique to you, we all have that problem.

I worked in retail all my working life, initially as a management trainee with Sainsbury's in the early 70s. At that time, we had sugar shortages, paper shortages, 3 day weeks, power cuts, IRA bomb attacks, and the problems with arsehole customers was just as bad then. And your comments about older customers. In those days the shops closed at 4.00 on Saturdays, difficult to believe now, but it was to allow for stripping and cleaning displays, and getting ready for the following week. At one branch, Golders Green, almost every Saturday, at about 4.10, the same drunk bloke would hammer on the door demanding we open for him to buy some fans, we were the cheapest. This resulted in a slanging match between him and the Irish cashier supervisor, who gave as good as she got, usually ending with her telling him to feck off. It was quite funny to be fair, and she had the support of the branch manager. The customer was a famous actor, Tony Booth, who was also Cherie Blairs dad. He was an arsehole. The shortages caused fights over bags of sugar or toilet rolls, most customers were understanding, but it was tough. Complaints did get sent up to HQ but we felt that management supported us, which helped. Oh, the staff shortages are nothing new, we always felt understaffed and were told we were overstaffed. I enjoyed it when I was younger, but moved away from grocery to less frantic retail. Supermarkets are hard graft.

As now an elderly shopped myself, I think what is worse than us are the families who stick together like a slowly moving roadblock, preventing anyone getting past, not realising they have to pay so don't have their card or cash ready. Standing in the middle of an aisle arguing about what to buy. FFS one of you take a list and get on with it. Thank God for self scan tills so us oldies can get through quickly and get home for Countdown.

Over 20 years working in retail and I’ve seen that a few times. People reaching over someone who’s collapsed to get to the item they wanted, complaining that they can’t get to a certain area of the store when someone is receiving medical treatment there.

One time we had to kick a guy out of the store because he insisted on staring at the paramedics who were working on a gentleman who’d collapsed and cut his head open. They asked him nicely to move and give the man some privacy and his reply was “You can’t make me” Luckily we could and told him to leave the store. He then stood outside glowering at us through the window.