to think behaviour of retail workers has got worse?

[todayday]

I do mystery shopping audits of retail stores. I have been doing it for quite a few years and have noticed the standards for shop workers has really slipped.

A lot of basic politeness is missing. If I ask where something is, often they say over there which is not very specific rather than taking me to the item. Other staff will not move so I can access an item if they are doing an online shopping order. People restocking often refused to move or sigh when asked politely.

Knowledge of accessibility is poor. Staff often look miserable and look like they don't really care. Others will be chatting away and ignoring customers.

There are great retail staff too who go out of their way to help and always have a kind word to say. In one store, the shop worker would not just assist people struggling with self scan but she would scan their entire shop for them.

I used to work in retail and totally agree that customers can be very rude and entitled.

On top of this I had management breathing down my neck to up sell, promote stone cards and charity donations. Then there is the constant undermining from management: in a returns dispute where customers didn't like an item anyone, then failed to produce labels and / or receipts so we were not allowed to take it back as per store policy. (You basically couldn't override the till) However, management would be called as customer is difficult and making a scene and suddenly it's possible after you calmly explained NO for a 1000 times.
... and all that for NMW- no thanks!

Bloody hell —- is this in the UK? The imitation gun incident is particularly worrying but the sheer nastiness of some of the other incidents. I’m really sorry you and other staff have to put up with this.

The reason why co-op staff seem to be busy is that they are always (deliberately) understaffed. They claim to be this caring organisation, but you can go to our local shop and there are no staff there, because one is out back dealing with a parcel, the other on a break....no health and safety of one of them was sick/injured.
I'm really laid back in shops, very smiley and nice but last year I had to say to the check out assistant "look it may not be the job you want, but if you smile and interact with the customers you'll get more out of it"

About 10 years ago we had a lovely lad in Homebase, Nigel, who was so popular because he really was interested in the customers, that the he turned on our Christmas lights!!! He was even interviewed on talk sport about it....

I live at the same place where my former work was. Still have my lovely regular customers who bump into me in the street, in other shops (not been at my work since the day after my last shift dumping my uniform) asking how I am, job hunting going on etc. That's nice.

Supermarket worker here - I am a picker for online orders 👋 I am qualified for a professional role but this suits my current circumstances and I don’t mind the work - it keeps me fit and my colleagues are great.

In my experience the rude customers vastly outnumber the lovely polite ones. Sorry but it’s true! My colleagues and I try really hard not to be in anyone’s way, to answer queries to the best of our ability and we get huffed at, ignored, leant all over (really don’t want to be in your armpit thanks), sworn at, even pushed out of the way.

People come up to me and bark in my face “liver!”, “spinach!” walk right in front of me so I have to screech to a halt with a really heavy fucking trolley. And then they just glare at me. The rudest and most entitled are the older women (I am an older woman too and I really don’t understand why they are like this).

We are told off by managers if our pick rates are not high enough (which they aren’t if the store is busy and we get lots of enquiries). We work pretty much non-stop for the duration of our shift and it’s hard physical work - there are never enough pickers to get the job done.

We get lots of regulars who are lush but everyone else is just in their own bubble. After a week of being either ignored or tutted at constantly then my self esteem is usually rock bottom.

If you don’t want pickers in the shop then tell head office - not me!

There aren't as many staff as there used to be, but still the same amount of work. So staff who have a lot to fit in before their shift ends don't really want to be dragged round the shop every five minutes when they can just tell the customer what aisle it's on.

The one or two words that customers bark at you like @FlyBristol mentions are so rude. Usually when I have my head between two shelves reaching the stuff at the back. I say two words back “aisle 9”. If they said “excuse me could you tell me where the (product) is?” I am show better customer service by asking do you want me to come down there or give you aisle number etc?

Seen an increase in customers who literally enter the store and ask the staff on CSD “where’s your milk?” Why not walk and see yourselves?

Then I had a few customers who ask me if (another retailer in area) sells (product). Do customers think that retail workers know the product range of every shop? Don’t be silly. Sometimes it’s pet related. I don’t buy pet stuff as don’t have pets. I say sorry I don’t visit or buy that item. A couple got angry with me! Why not visit the shop in person?

Won't make the slightest bit of difference when a customer wants something, because so many people want, well no demand, individual service these days and everything stopped to serve them. Pickers are already doing something for another customer, that's the point of them.

The customer isn't there with them but they are giving another customer, service, and everyone knows that. They're just not bothered about that customer - people used to at least respect other customers and when they were getting served/helped by a member of staff and wait, increasingly they don't.

Even when the customer is there, with you, people will cut across that interaction and demand to be dealt with like a needy toddler.
I've been on both sides of this as the staff member and the customer being cut across, I've also been complained at for 'being rude' by telling the customer cutting across I'll be with them in a moment, and the customer I'm dealing with already for the way that customer has cut across and me responding that I'll be with them in a moment and then dealing with the original customer. I mean I can't defy the laws of physics unless I missed that days training, and split myself in half, but people expect instantaneous and individual service and attention the very second they demand it, and if they don't get it then there's a range of responses from huffing and puffing and eye rolling, shouting, and the trump card "The staff were rude" well no, they're giving someone else customer service and you think that everything should stop and everyone dedicate themselves to you exclusively.

That's pretty much impossible unless you have a member of staff for every single customer at any given time. But when shops and other establishments are actually cutting staff, or can't get them because no one wants to be treated like that for 40 hours a week, it's even less possible.

Quite frankly as a society that promotes and encourages treating the people who serve it badly, we've really created the whole situation that's now being so bitterly complained about.

@FlyBristol , totally agree with you about older women being the worst. I really dont know why. They are downright rude and have no manners sometimes. And im nearly 60 so im talking about my age group.

Im just so grateful my kids stuck in at school and have decent jobs, Monday to Friday and not working in a shop. I've done it for years and people are getting worse. Its bad enough me having to do it but i don't want that for my kids.

My biggest bug bear is Aldi, since they introduced head-sets, they rarely seem to use them for actual work purposes, all they do is chat none stop to their colleagues about random stuff, their lives & nights out. I find it really rude and difficult to get anyones attention / ask for anything because they are busy chatting away not paying attention and I feel like I’d be rude to interrupt.

I can make my peace with it mostly. But what I'm experiencing more is being stood waiting for staff to finish chatting and treating me like I'm an inconvenience for daring to want to buy something and drag them away from their gossip.

I've read on here that it's because they're no longer willing to put up with other people's 'shit' and are 'empowering' themselves, and that it's menopause related.

In reality it's taking out their frustrations on people they know are a captive audience and can't retaliate because they're at work, so it's the easy option to vent their frustrations at life. And of course it's not their fault the poor things.

A lot of women my age have perfected being unreasonable and verbally aggressive, patronising and condescending while also being the poor hapless 'victim' of the meanie staff. A woman told me she could cry the other day at being treated 'so badly' because I'd continued to serve the person before her, who was there before she even walked in, instead of dropping everything to attend to her very pressing need, when she butted in. I mean if the building was on fire or someone dying then I could understand her reaction, but she was personally insulting, patronising and aggressive while I was calm, measured and quite willing to help her, once I'd finished with the customer legitimately in front of her, yet somehow I was the one who was in the wrong.

For me its the older men that are rude. Though the older women that are more vocal.

Had some sweet elderly people. Though they are a dying breed. Sometimes we discover that another regular customer lives a few doors away and tell us that Betty passed away last month. We said that's sad.

Yet the people in the first paragraph still go strong.🙄

I was at work yesterday (think golden arches)

It was dead (which happens) and some bright spark had flooded the disabled loo

I spent nearly 20 minutes dealing with it,when I noticed two older people (at a guess,id have said they where both late 80's) sat at one of the tables,theyd not ordered anything and where necking neat vodka out of the large bottle

We don't have a license for alcohol so i wandered over and politely asked them to please put the bottle away

God only knows what part of 'please can you put the bottle away guys?we can't allow drinking in our store' that set them off

He jumped up,punched me in the face,she was screaming at me and tried to hit me,but missed and they both gathered up their bags and ran outside

They then jumped onto their mobility scooters and drove off,swearing and shouting at me

The police,who where just outside for some reason (and saw everything),didn't even bother to come in,let alone speak to them-they just where not bothered

Annnddd I'm back in again today to do it all again

(I need another job-the useless,jobsworth manager just sat on her precious bloody camera and watched it unfold-the teenagers I work with where too frightened to come out from behind the counter to help)

You get rid of a lot of staff then the standard of customer service is going to reduce. My family work in retail and it has always been a lot of pressure with little resources, but seems much worse now as there are fewer people on the shop floor with more work to do. The wages are crap too. Something has to give.

Management are also crap. Having worked in these places years ago, you tend to get promoted if you are arrogant but lazy, but if you are a grafter they keep you where you are as it makes more financial sense. Not everyone is like that in retail management, but I am also baffled at who got promoted.

I think a lot of people don't want faff in a shop. I'm happy to be told which aisle a product is in, and I don't want someone to take me to a product or ask me everything about my day. I also like browsing without being dived on as soon as I enter the shop. I think that's just a British thing.

@Maverickess , i was shouted at last week by a woman who couldn't use her phone to pay. She had locked herself out her phone and it was my faulty she couldn't remember the passcode. She was actually shouting " how do you expect me to remember that" and slammed the phone on the counter and told me to use it for her. When i said i couldn't there was another rant. People were looking at her and all manager's kept well away. It takes all my effort not to answer her back and tell her to behave.

I don't think it is particularly retail staff, I think people in general are becoming more self centered and don't think of anyone else.

Shit rolls downhill. Bad company management will affect how the minions at the bottom of the pay scale will act when at work. Simple. Also see cost of living crisis, shit wages, shit hours and cunty customers.

Shop staff are treated abominably by their employers. Most of them will be on zero hours contracts and have no say about what hours they will be given or what days. If they make any fuss at all, they are given the absolute worst shifts or none at all. Supervisors and managers do not care about staff morale. Job satisfaction is zero. And yes, I do have a family member who works for a supermarket.

Many customers speak to them like they are the lowest of the low.

It isn't exactly surprising then, that many shop staff don't bend over backwards to smile and be helpful.

Most customers are perfectly fine or actively nice IME.

One perv or loon shouldn’t justify a workforce culture change to sullen/deaf/unhelpful.

I used to work in retail when I was younger and it was great back then. Plenty of staff, people allocated to certain departments, and actual cashiers on checkouts, bad customers were a rarer thing.
I don’t think this new system of very little staff and self-service checkouts works for anyone. People who work in the big shops often seem stressed and over-stretched and customers get very frustrated. It’s great for the people who own the shops , but it’s crap for the workers and shoppers.
I find the friendlier staff are in the shops where there are more staff, and the unhelpful staff are the ones where there are very little staff juggling lots of jobs.

In my local co-op there's nobody on the till half the time because they're either working out the back or having to fill a basket up for an online order and i've never seen more than two staff members in the place. And there's no self-service.

The shop gets absolutely pilfered with shop lifters but god forbid they pay for a security staff. It's not a nice job.

Sadly, it is expected that we do several jobs at once, due to staff cuts so we have to help customers if they ask whilst picking, but it's really agonising and just means you have to continue at an even faster pace to get that pick done.🙁