To find it hilarious that shop assistants in these stores look down their noses.

[bleakmidwintering]

I’m wandering about shopping in London. I’ve been into a couple of stores where the shop assistants have been off hand; one in Chanel, one in Occitaine. I certainly don’t look like I’ve got bags of money in my rain mac and trainers but I probably earn 4 times their salary. Are they trained to be off hand or is it purely their attitude? AIBU?

I think your attitude may be the problem ...

You can’t tell how wealthy someone is by what they wear but neither can you by what job they do. I know women with v wealthy husbands doing 2 days a week in posh shops to keep them busy . They look the part as they also live the life. See also younger women students with wealthy dads. My dd worked in Joe and the Juice whilst a student and one of her fellow coffee makers dad was a billionaire with a massive flat in Covent Garden where she lived

They are probably sick and tired of people who earn 4 times their salary looking down their noses at them for being lowly shop assistants 🤣

Yeah, I'm fed up of wrapping yet another fucking present but it pays my bills so I'm going to do every one to the best of my ability.

I've always assumed it's recruitment policy. That the assistants are employed for attributes other than their customer service skills.

My dentists was taken over last year and suddenly the whole ethos changed. All the dental nurses and the hygienist and some of the reception staff were replaced by young, slim, women, most with notably artificial lips. The fact they are young and all of a certain "type" isn't the problem. But the fact that they not only have no custoner service skills they have absolutely no manners is very much a problem. So the conclusion is they have been employed primarily for their looks. It's so obvious that the practice's previous clientele of mainly older, ordinary people are not the clientele the practice now wants to attract.
I've voted with my feet and found a new practice because going to the dentist is bad enough without being treated like a total nonentity.

How staff treat customers is generally down to the ethos of the management imo.

It's maddening the amount of judgement just from clothing choices.

I once took my mum in H Samuel, she wanted to buy a 21st gift. The shop assistant said oh they're too expensive for you and took us to the cheaper section. We left went down to Goldsmiths who were lovely and pointed to what she asked for. No judgement just good customer service.

A lot of the women I used to work with did have very high earning husbands, they often met them through working in the shop

I don't know many men, high earning or not, that hang around in Chanel shops - were they in there shopping for their (soon to be ex) wives when a pretty young shop assistant caught their eye?

I’d assumed it was to make you feel self conscious enough to spend on visibly branded designer gear to appease them

Dearie me🙄

Hahahahaha, absolutely not.

Signed, ex ‘luxury’ shop assistant.

It’s the classic Chanel handbag. It was £1,200 back then, I think it’s nearly £9,000 now (which I would never spend on a handbag)!

They’re probably seasonal staff who think they are a cut above because of the shop they work in and possibly know sweet jack shit about the products sold there.

You were working as a server in an up-market store,

When I met you.

No matter how fancy the products are they are paid shop wages - be nice to them... it might rub off! If not remember... they work in a shop and have to deal with people looking down on them for that... but also they probably get a great staff discount.

Your experience in L’occtaine was probably a once off, because it’s certainly not a high end brand and the sales assistants in their stores usually latch on to everyone who comes through the, they’re happy to make a sale, whether it’s a small tube of hand cream or soap and then once you reach the counter, they helpfully suggest you might like some special offer.

With Chanel and such stores, I actually smile to myself when assistants bypass me and latch on to another customer who they believe they will make a sale with. I much prefer to be left alone and ignored in these stores (or any store really) anyway and if I want help with something, I’ll ask for it,

If I've gone into a shop to buy something, it's because I like/want/need the product. I'm not going to miss out on it or give myself the additional hassle of going to a different branch for it, just because someone earning peanuts in an often thankless, entry level job - someone I'll have forgotten about minutes after leaving the store - was a bit rude to me one afternoon.

I used to dress more smartly if I was going to John Lewis in Edinburgh - I definitely got more attention from assistants - in the days when assistants were a-plenty and offered you help

But shoplifting being so high has probably skewed the behaviour of assistants

OP is saying the opposite of this isn't she? She's saying they're treating her poorly because she doesn't look well off.

I had a nice experience about 10 years ago.

I was being a bridesmaid and the bride had just had a trial with the make up artist she was planning on us using and there had been “creative differences” (the bride had wanted to look like a 30 something professional on a really good day, the make up artist had made her look like a stripper - don’t get me wrong - she looked amazing but it wasn’t quite her! 😂) so we had agreed we would do our own make up. Just one teeny tiny snag - I never wore make up.

So I went into the scary posh department store, went over to the make up person and basically told her that and said “help!”

She spent ages making up my face, talking me through it all, explaining everything and even found me a load of written instructions. It was wonderful.

At the end of it all whilst I was still admiring the face that looked like mine but 1000 times better she said “so is there any of these products you think you would like to buy” and I looked at her weirdly and said “well - all of it of course - I need all of it!”

I hope she got decent commission out of it - she deserved it!

So if you earned less than them their behaviour would be fully justified?

People can look down upon people for their appearance, same as you look down on people you think have a lower income than you.

I'm a benefits claimants who wears Shein trackies and no shop assistant has ever been mean to me. I treat them with kindness and respect as equals.

Yeah but she probably makes four times their salary and everyone knows that's the important thing

Crikey. Why do they bother????

Experienced this in Cheshire Oaks designer outlet stores earlier this year (particularly the 'Coach' bag shop), to the extent it was almost comical! We wondered whether they treat everyone with the same disdain, or if they're judging customers in terms of perceived wealth and/or likelihood of attempting shoplifting.

In my group's case they appeared to judge us as needing to be followed around and not trusted for a moment, which could not have been further from the truth in our case.

Yep! See some of the handbag threads on here. People want the full experience. The really good places will give every perspective customer that experience whether they buy or not or whatever they’re wearing.