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 ?

To be fair she's probably still cringing about it now.. everyone has a brain fart sometimes 🤣 although to me it's totally obvious what you were meaning lol

Are you autistic by any chance. Because NT people would typically understand the question

Not really.
I worked after school at our local pharmacy behind the till. I didn’t have any training or experience
You do build knowledge over time though

OP, you asked a reasonable question and she should be used to questions like strength, ingredients etc.
If you go there again OP I’d ask to speak to the pharmacist instead

Why would being on minimum wage mean being comedy stupid?

Yes! It is reassuring that every now and again someone puts their head above the fray to try to attempt to answer the question to which the OP originally sought an answer 🙂

Last month in court in London Costa was convicted of corporate manslaughter.

A teenager ordered a milk-free hot choc, drank it, died of allergic shock. Wasn’t soya.

Costa’s defence was the server was a) 17 b) didn’t speak English.

They lost. Judge said it’s up to a business to make sure staff are capable of doing a job, no matter how simple it looks or how basic the communication involved.

The poor, poor mother lost her only child.

That's really sad, but not at all sure why its relevant

ive learned from watching sheldon cooper from the big bang theory

There's a lot more to this story than that. The Costa worker mentioned that it might be made in a jug with dairy in it and the mother said this was fine. When the teenager became ill the mother refused to allow the dentist to give her an epi-pen and insisted on her daughter walking to a pharmacy to get one instead.

It's all very bizarre and tragic.

She could have used common sense!

This.

Who? The OP? Yes she should have.

Absolutely nothing to do with your OP but caffeine dilates blood vessels and this can help headaches. It’s commonly used/recommended for specific headaches like post dural puncture headaches.

The OP asked a sensible question.

The sales assistant said the first thing that came in to her head.

This wasn't helpful to the OP who could have asked again by rewording her original question - "What I meant was..."

Instead, she laughed at the sales assistant - not with her (it wasn't a funny answer) but at her.* *

No excuse.

What’s that got to do with anything.
if you’re that arsed go on some sort of campaign to pay retail workers, particularly those under 21, better, so they have a chance to better themselves. Or maybe make businesses provide ESOL lessons if necessary. Otherwise not sure why you’re bleating on about Costa coffee

Yeah the whole story is very weird and I’ve no idea why you’d even risk a hot chocolate in a shop filled with milk products if it was life or death

You missed out that the OP has edited their original post probably to backpedal to what she originally said! Otherwise spot on!

This, the mother was told about the risk of dairy in the jug, and in the hot chocolate powder. Said it was fine, then refused the dentists assistance and the epi pen.

She did give you a very basic description of what sets the 2 apart. One was max strength and one wasn’t.

I think your question was quite basic as you didn’t ask her for anything specific. If there was particular info you wanted why didn’t you be more specific in your question?

Unfortunately, some people think it's acceptable to treat serving staff badly. A shop assistant, waiting staff, bar staff, whatever.
I think the OP wouldn't have laughed at a dentist or a doctor if she hadn't got a clear answer. . She'd have clarified her answer. Probably politely.

@EmpressOfTheThread oh I seeee. I got paid NMW and worse when I started in publishing - assumption anyone who’s paid badly is an idiot isn’t nice.

I’ve worked a till, now I think about it, when volunteering. Customers were lovely, mostly, but we didn’t have that automatic-boot-face culture you get some places.

This is entirely different.

OTC medication is sold to adults at their digression. The only reason some is behind the counter is to stop people stealing it to get high or resell it if it's high value.

It's not the shop assistants job to police what adults purchase, only the quantity which will likely be prompted on the till if too many packets are scanned in one transaction. It's not her job to ask if the dose will make the purchaser die. Otherwise it would be a controlled substance and have to be dispensed by a qualified pharmacist.

I have not edited my post.... where did you get that from?

Well I'm afraid you think wrongly. If I'd have been in the exact same situation with a dentist or doctor and they'd of given me that as a reasonable answer to what sets apart one from the other, I'd still have laughed. Probably even harder

It says Edited at the bottom! 😂