To have laughed out loud at this retail worker

[Shmee1988]

Today I went to a highstreet branch for some painkillers. I asked the lady behind the counter if they had some cocodomol. She said 'yes, we have our normal cocodomol and our max strength'. I asked if I was allowed to come and read the box and she said no (behind the counter so fair enough) I then asked if she could please explain the difference between the 2, I obviously meant the difference in strength in the active ingredient. Her honest to God, genuine response was 'yes of course, this one is our max strength version...... and this one ....is not'😂I was so taken aback by the utter ridiculousness of her explanation that I had no idea to respond, I just laughed. Anyone had anything similar or did I just encounter a particularly unknowlegable retail worker ?

Laughed in here face? Really? Jeez she’s probably on minimum wage, and hardly a trained pharmacist….. give the poor woman a break.

Oh. I don't think it was obvious what you meant. She was probably thinking, 'didn't I just tell her what the difference is?'. She probably thought you hadn't heard her

She was telling the truth.

I think if someone had told me this is the max strength and this is the normal I wouldn't have asked what the difference was between them as she's literally just told you that. I'd have asked what's the difference in strength or whatever it is you actually wanted to know.

It wasn’t a hard question though was it? A little bit of common sense wouldn’t go amiss, no matter what her wages were. The op is trying to buy what are quite dangerous drugs, she should have been able to read the box to her at least.
Op I had to chuckle to myself when ordering a salad once, and the waitress had to offer whether I wanted balsamic vinegar or fajita sauce with it, but was unable to pronounce either. I could have helped her out tbh because I knew what she was trying to say, I feel a bit mean now 😞

Well then she shouldn’t be working in a pharmacy. It was pretty obvious what OP meant.

That did make me chuckle, OP.

Why did you ask for the difference? Isn't it clear: one is max strength and one isn't?

YABU have a biscuit

I wouldn't have asked to go behind the counter, just ask if you can look at both boxes. I've never had a problem with that, they just put both boxes on the counter, you read them and choose which you want to buy then they put the other back. Or ask to see the pharmacist. You do sound quite rude, laughing at her.

Well ask a silly question get a silly answer.
You didn't ask the question properly.
How was she to know exactly what answer you wanted.
Ask properly next time.

What was you expecting her to say?

Yeah I have to be honest I think it was a really odd question to ask to go behind the counter too - why would you not ask to look at the boxes?!

If I had been her, I would have thought you were mental for asking to go behind the counter.

What do you bloody think?

I always find that when people laugh at or about retail, hospitality or any other ‘low paid’ worker it says a lot more about them than it does the person on minimum wage trying to earn a living.

Most of the staff in pharmacies aren't trained pharmacists.
There's usually only one on duty at a time.

Funny this thread appearing when there's another thread on the go where those of us in retail despair of the rudeness and ridiculousness of some customers...

I think some people let power to to their heads in pharmacies 🤦‍♀️ I had a pharmacist refuse to sell me aspirin because I was visibly pregnant, despite me explaining I was meant to be taking it daily for the pregnancy which is extremely common 🤦‍♀️

Totally, it doesn’t warrant being laughed at because she misunderstood your question. You sound rude OP, not a good look!

Nah.. why on earth would you need to go behind the counter, all you needed to do was ask her to show you the boxes on the counter so you could read the ingredients. The simple communication of "can I see the list of ingredients please on the boxes" would have sufficed.

YABU. You were rude.

YANBU she should have known about the dosage.

FYI the highest dose you can buy OTC is 8mg so I don't know where the two strengths come from anyway. You would need a prescription for 15mg.

I think you can't help if something strikes you as particularly ridiculous. You had obviously already established one was max strength and one was not so were clearly asking what made one max strength as opposed the other one. It's her job to know or be able to help you work that out.

You asked to go behind the counter? That's really weird.

She may have misunderstood your question. She may just be used to dealing with general public, whose capacity to ask a stupid question is non-exhaustive.

Retail workers are deluged by customers asking stupid questions, like “can I come behind the counter”, on a daily if not hourly basis.

No they’re not pharmacists but usually are dispensers/advisors not just minimum wage shop girls/boys.