Customer demands to charge her phone at supermarket

[Jdot]

She came into the supermarket wanted to pay for her shopping on Apple Pay but her phone is dead. I saw her talking on the phone in the store.

Supermarkets and other places that people pay for products and services - restaurants, retailers, leisure places etc are NOT responsible for people’s mobile batteries and them not carrying their physical cards on them.

I’m surprised at how many people think the shops should just have agreed to this rudeness.
presuming the shop doesn’t have a public place that has public phone charging points then where is the charger supposed to come from? A member of staff’s (paid minimum wage) own, personal charger??

People are fascinating; and she might have been rude because she’s frightened, stressed or an entitled cow. However, the shop’s main aim is to take her money, so facilitating that seems sensible.
if it’s also a kind/nice thing to do, then that’s lovely. And creates goodwill and possibly repeat custom.
But that’s not why I think a supermarket to help as I think plugging in a phone for 5 mins is tiny in the grand scale of £££££

Aldi staff offered to charge my phone for me when it ran out of juice and I couldn't pay. Well worth it for supermarkets. 15 mins of charge (under 1p), they get a trolley worth of profit and my goodwill.
She didn't have to be a dick though!

What are these 'safety concerns' about a woman on her own without a phone? Millions of women - and men - have and still do survive without carrying a phone around!

I would have thought that it would be quite simple bit of customer service to let her charge her phone for a bit and then pay for her trolley

Southern trains advertise that they have power sockets so you can't get out of your contact less payment - it is in their business interest?

They had all the charging leads when it happened to me. It makes business sense and took up about 1 minute of their staff's time.

My colleagues and I have just been told that while we are expected to identify shoplifters, we are not allowed to confront them anymore. At all. We are a convenience sized shop with no security guard. We can tell them to go away and they’re banned as they come through the door. Sometimes it works at that time. Sometimes it doesn’t and they kick
off. Last week we were cleaned out of cheese, steak and persil, by 3 different thieving cunts people. On the same day. The fuckers don’t even run anymore, they walk out with a bag full of loot.

We are just as frustrated by this as you are as a paying customer, believe me.

Shops usually give paper receipts if you ask. I always ask for paper ones.

What a load of rubbish

The OP mentions restaurants and hospitality too. So, yes my point still stands, safety at the end of an evening is important for women on their own. That doesn't account for rudeness though, that's not on at all.

Who would be holding her hand as she crosses a road, or telling her where the kerb was?!! 🫨
Am assuming she's come by car if a large shop, couldn't she charge it in the car?

Well, you have managed to derail the thread

Maybe women shouldn't go out alone.

The world was different. I don’t even step out with a wallet anymore- no point. My money is all on my phone. If I lost it I’d be in trouble just as I would have been previously if I had lost my wallet so swings and roundabouts.

Surely most people know how charged their phone is and wouldn't rely on it as a payment method if they went out knowing it was low.
Unless the shop has a clear policy regarding use of a shared charger for this reason I would be hesitant to let someone do this. There is the possibility they are chancing it and have a broken phone which they will accuse the shop of breaking claiming the charger is faulty/phone was fine before and also the issue of where do people wait to do this. Are they stood to one side, shopping kept back til they have paid?
It sounds like more hassle for the shop.

Safety implications? WTAF

If a supermarket can charge for a disposable carrier then why not for charging a phone? A £5 fast charge fee should do it.

Maybe they could just add £10 to the bill.
That should be a disincentive to most people - or an incentive to carry their cards as well.

I am surprised most supermarkets don’t do the emergency power banks where you can hire a battery tbh. I have used them in hospitals whilst waiting for hours.

Yes, there aren't charging points in supermarkets as far as I know, they would have to use a charger, maybe someone's personal one. If it was a big problem they would provide public charging points near the checkout.

Yes that sounds like a good idea.

This exact situation happened to me a few weeks ago, phone battery went down really quickly, died just as I was queueing to pay and didn’t have my purse on me

really politely asked the phone shop section if I could plug my phone in for a few minutes so I had enough battery to pay, they couldn’t have been nicer about it and didn’t have a problem

Well the supermarket could revert to cash only then people won’t have this problem, or offer a tiny bit of flexibility that allows someone to pay for their shopping that someone else will otherwise have to spend time putting back. Technology and times have changed.

But, in the days before mobile phones, did you not carry an 'emergency tenner' somewhere that wasn't your wallet? And have you not considered that it's a good idea still to do that, in case you lose your phone? Although £20 is a better sum nowadays given inflation.