To think that if you’re even slightly rude to retail staff you should be banned from the store.

[ThisAquaCrow]

Based on a conversation I’ve just had with a family member who has left work today again in tears because approximately 90% of the people she deals with range from low level rude right through to ‘you fucking bitch’ rude.

What is WRONG with people and if you are rude to retail staff on a regular basis, WHY?

You seem determined to blame retail workers. ‘I’m not serving you because you’ve jumped the queue’

The normal response ftom a civilised human being would be to join the fucking queue and wait their turn. Why would anybody need that spelled out to them?

That sounds horrendous. It seems quite far from a subjective ‘slightly rude’ part of the question though. With the assaults, can or will the police not prosecute the assailants?

DD works in an incredibly busy retail store(clothing) and gets abuse regularly, mainly based around people wanting to return stuff. The vast majority of people are fine/nice fortunately. DD is very good at interaction and is polite and smiley so luckily also gets a lot of praise and the pay is decent so just puts up with the shit.

The replies here say it all

@ThisAquaCrow sorry your family member is having such a hard time.

The police are rang and if they bother to show up,they walk in with an air of 'what do you want us to do?'
It's all on camera,there are witnesses and they do fuck all
It's not worth phoning them

Does it work both ways? And not only retail. I've been yelled at by staff several places in London this week for daring to want to go about living life in a wheelchair. Apparently, I should know to be invisible...

Not at all. I worked in retail jobs. Thankfully unlike the other poster, physical or verbal assault was never directed at me. I’m just saying I wouldn’t refuse to serve the person presuming they joined the queue in the correct place.

I’m curious as to what ‘slightly rude’ is though? Unfriendly, or abrupt was present. That didn’t bother me at all. In fact, less effort.

Seems like that would be a reversal of the customer is always right to the staff are always right.

I've worked in retail a lot over the years and while rude customers are a pain, being in tears seems a little over the top unless they are actually threatening.

My 16 year old is having this at the moment 😭 she said she didn't realise how bad people were until she had seen it with her eyes .
Grown men shouting out her for getting his own order wrong etc

Primark? I think retail is probably fine, but like pubs and partners, it pays to be picky…

That's awful. I would complain to their head offices.

Absolutely people shouldn’t be rude to anyone but I think shops would quite quickly shut down due to lack of customers sadly.

I think that it’s fine to say that you won’t serve someone who is being rude at that time but long term bans won’t work.

I don't live in the UK anymore, but I felt so small. It was awful.

Well, I suppose you can see why some places have those screens with the openings. It is not practical in many circumstances. Of course, the people who do these things are the ones who are solely responsible for their actions. However, I think the management should try to come up with some measures to keep you safer. Or, to persecute the people who do this.

Hope it improves.

I don’t think it’s always feasible for staff to have a full blown conversation with customers, they are too busy. Gone are the days when the shop assistant had all the time in the world to chat about the price of fish.
The population has boomed, places are ( usually) busy. Then you get other customers huffing and puffing because the cashier is taking their time with an elderly customer. I don’t work in retail, thankfully, but I do work with the general public and sone of them are aresholes.
Also remember, many people feel very hard done by having to do their job day in day out whilst knowing others do all and are no worse off for it.

My sixth form age daughter is working in a very naice local gastro pub and is horrified at how rude people are. In fact, what was really funny/horrifying is that a family that we know went there and she was their waitress. They know her and would normally engage pleasantly with her but they were evidently in their 'retail/hospitality' zone and completely and utterly ignored her i.e. they didn't even look up from their conversation to thank her for handing over their meals.

Members of the public can be so entitled. Some people treat retail and hospitality staff as if they’re an entirely different species. They may serve you but they’re not servants and there is no excuse for speaking to them like that!

I don’t think low level rudeness is acceptable in any way, shape or form. However, I am not sure how sustainable retail would be to ban every rude customer, even though they deserve it.

Calling someone a “fucking bitch” is verbal abuse and deserves a ban.

Others do sod all

It depends what you mean by 'even slightly rude'? Obviously swearing, foul language and being downright nasty isn't acceptable, but those things are way beyond 'slightly rude'. Slightly rude could just be forgetting to say thank you (maybe your young kids are distracting you while you're trying to pay), or not making eye contact at the right time. And there's lots of neuro diverse people out there who might come across as 'slightly rude' just because of how they happen to communicate. Do you really think people should be banned from a store just because of minor things?

Ultimately retail and hospitality staff do need to be pretty thick skinned because part of the job involves dealing with the inevitable occasional unhappy customer.

Where does she work, OP?
90% of people being rude seems really high.
The majority of people I overhear in shops are polite.

Companies seem so desperate for business it seems they will not ban customers or respond to unacceptable behaviour. Not realising how short sighted it is as staff of good quality are less likely to remain.

Just to give a contrasting experience for Iceland - I went in last week looking something which they didn't have - the staff member who was restocking the freezers couldn't have been more helpful, directing me to a nearby store where it was in stock.

👍😉

Currently on maternity leave from my retail job and customers’ behaviour has definitely got worse over the years, it’s really shocking how awful someone can be to another person for no obvious reason at all. Customer service has taken a hammering too, mostly due to job becoming harder to do- hours being slashed, minimal staff to save money, more and more demands being put on colleagues for little thanks and it does affect morale.

I can mostly ignore low level rudeness even when it irritates me but the brazenness of shoplifters is astonishing. The sheer number of customers who are outraged that nothing is done to physically stop them does my head in as much as the thefts themselves- no I’m not going to risk my own safety or the safety of others for the sake of a backpack full of steaks/washing powder/whatever. Yes, we do call the police but they don’t even come out when it turns violent until days later. If they come out at all.