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 ?

There is a big problem in the UK with people (too many of them even being tertiary educated) lacking comprehension and communication skills.
As for those equating being minimum waged with being a duncebat, or worse, not being expected to have competence...carry on.
Care workers, Teacher Assistants, nursery workers and many others not working in retail are also minimum waged.

Funnily enough, many a Mumsnetter expects the world out of these types and well above their pay grade, too.

Being functionally dunce is not something to be minimised in somebody in a customer facing role. .

Since when did laugh and chuckle not equate to the same thing? I didn't say I laughed in her face, I laughed at her response which was funny. Goodness gracious. People get so easily offended. It's no wonder the world is the way it is.

So not a pharmacy worker? Would you go and ask the optician in Boots to recommend you the best foundation for your dry sensitive skin?.

I think the majority of people commenting on this thread are on a par with the shop assistant... OP didn't ask to go behind the counter, she asked to see the box and her bracketed words meant 'fair enough as they are behind-the-counter drugs', not that she literally expected to go behind the counter.

I'd expect this level of explicitness for primary age children; after that it does become a bit depressing that people's common sense and ability to infer what someone wants is so lacking.

I wouldn't laugh at anyone though, just roll my eyes inwardly.

I can see the funny side OP, reminds me of a time I was out for dinner and asked the waitress what was in the seafood salad.... she said "fish and lettuce" (in a bored, I can't even be arsed to answer tone).

Well it did contain fish (a few different varieties; salmon, prawns, crab claws), and lettuce (romaine) and tomatoes, peppers, cucumber... we still joke about it in our house😆

Then laugh out loud at their answer. Nice.

She was selling the OTC medication. I wasn't expecting her to know it off the top of her head. I expected her to read me the box as I wasn't allowed to read it myself.

You sound rude.

it would have made me laugh too, maybe a better question would have been about the dosage?

They're not available over the counter. The highest that can be sold without prescription, if you and OP are in UK, is 8mg. It makes the whole anecdote very strange.

You do realise that a chuckle is a type of laugh right?

Years ago I asked for a diet coke in a cafe and was asked 'bottle or can?'

I asked 'what's the difference?' and was quite rightly told one comes in a bottle, the other in a can.

I learned to speak more clearly from that encounter - if I want to know the difference in price I should say so!

Yeah this its what i would have said one is max and the other is max strength.
Honestly op you sound a bit silly.

It would have been better to rephrase the question so she understood you wondered about the amount of active ingredient, but sometimes we're startled into honesty. There are different kinds of laughs. I doubt OP was looking down her nose the whole time and laughing loudly and derisively. A mild chuckle isn't so bad, and this person does need to learn what people most likely mean when they ask this kind of question. It's part of her job to answer simple questions when the customer isn't apparently allowed to look at the labels themselves.

I agree with you op, don't know why being on minimum wage has anything to do it. Your question was obvious

Are you saying that someone working in a pharmacy probably can't read?

Well that's not how you spell cocodamol , so you're hardly perfect yourself , I bet you wouldn't want someone to laugh at your spelling.

Rolling my eyes inwardly at myself now, for not reading about the laughing correctly.... ironic.

OP I may well look down with a smile and chuckle and then say 'No sorry, what I meant was...'

She sounds like she shouldn’t be working on a counter selling restricted medicines.

(as an aside, annoyingly, the “max strength” ones often just have caffeine added. which I need to know as I avoid it and I too have asked this question over the counter…and got a sensible answer)

No, OTC solpadiene max is 12.8mg. I know this because I've had them before for toothache when the 8mg weren't touching the pain. Google it, you don't need a prescription for them. I got them in boots.

😂😂😂😂
Sorry OP just having a little chuckle at your misuse of the preposition of, in place of the auxiliary verb have to form the past participle would have. Can't believe you wouldn't understand.....

I did chuckle, I didn't give a derisive laugh and berate her. I laughed, she laughed. It was just such a blunt answer my question that I was a bit stunned and it made me laugh. I never actually got to the bottom of what the difference was and just bought the normal as I was in a hurry.

@Shmee1988 YANBU OP. I've never worked in retail, let alone selling OTC medicines, but if you'd asked me the difference between the two products the first thing I would have looked at on the box is the PL code. If the PL codes were identical I would have told you there was no difference between the two products. If the PL codes were different, I would have looked at the ingredients list to see if I could identify the difference for you. Your question wasn't unreasonable, given that you weren't allowed to look at the boxes for yourself, and all the retail assistant needed to do was use some basic common sense (which, sadly, doesn't seem that common these days). It could have been worse though - I thought you were going to say she'd said 'this box is blue and this box is red'! 😂

@Floatlikeafeather2 don't correct someone when you are wrong .
Solpadiene Max is bought over the counter and is 12.8 mg . I have a box of it in my hand

Yes . But you do realise there’s nuance in language, right?