supermarket staff

I find that some people are just not suited to this sort of situation. The problems start when people take things personally and then start flouncing off saying "I'm not paid to put up with this" Actually that is exactly what you are paid for and you have to learn to rise above it and keep a smile on your face. It's just that sometimes you'd like a bit of support from management (some companies are much better than others, I've mentioned my feelings about Sainsbury's before) If you are being pressured from above to meet unattainable targets it makes it more difficult to cope with everything else.

merlotgran I'm very grateful when they lead the way to what I'm looking for, even though it's not always strictly necessary. I expect, provided people are suitably polite and appreciative, they enjoy it too. It's nice to receive a smile and a thank you and to feel that you've helped someone.

I don't think rudeness is exclusive to either customers or sales staff - some people are thoughtful and good-mannered and some people are not - though I expect we all have our moments!

I just think there is no excuse for rudeness whoever does it, I would never be rude to supermarket staff as they do a good job and I for one appreciate them. I was answering Deedaas comment that a staff member may be rude to me cos someone had been rude to them ten minutes earlier and I do not think that is a good enough reason to be rude to me. My DD works for the head office of one of the top supermarkets and has worked on the shop floor so I do have some knowledge of what they go through. If you are not happy with the way a staff member has treated you report them. I think ramming a cage with a trolley was rather silly personally, but that's just my view.

Deedaa It's a sad sign of the times that some folk will stoop so low for a freebie.

I was once out in the kitchen in the cafe in Sainsbury's sorting out the lunch menu with one of the girls. A customer started yelling at us because she'd decided we were out there talking about her. When I went out to speak to her and tried to explain that we hadn't even known she was there she became so abusive that I really thought she was going to come round and attack me. Enter the store manager who gave me a lecture on customer service and said that he'd given the woman £50 worth of vouchers because she started crying. Well of course she cried - she knew it would work! I found out afterwards that she was well known in all the other departments because she was always doing it.

I have seen some customers behave disgracefully towards staff, is there any need for behaviour like that..... we wouldnt let our children behave like that it.

I love the image of women having a doughnut fight in the car park at dawn . That'd release a few trolley tensions.

Donuts at dawn, out in the car park. Thrash it out woman to woman.

Yes, but surely it goes both ways. Ramming a trolley into a cage left, perhaps for good reason, an emergency, I don't know - is rude (I know YOU didn't do it). Some people treat supermarket staff with rudeness and contempt, and that is wrong. Of course, as always, 2 wrong not a right makes.

I am sorry but I do not think that is a good enough reason to be rude. Just because someone may have been rude to you ten minutes ago is not my fault and so why does that give you the right to be rude to me. It is the same in any job, if a patient is rude to a nurse, she/he cannot then be rude to the next patient that comes along because of that, what would we all say? So it is the same for the supermarket staff.

The problem with working in a supermarket is that there are never enough staff (grammar?) to begin with and as none of the companies ever seem to have any sort of cover for holidays or sickness, so you're usually doing two peoples' jobs and if anything goes wrong both employer and customer think it's your fault. If someone in a supermarket is rude to you it's probably because they are still seething from the disgustingly rude customer they had to deal with 10 minutes ago. Until you work in a shop you have no idea how thoroughly unpleasant and gobsmackingly rude the wonderful British public can be.

I don't see why working in a supermarket should be considered a 'rotten job', nanban. It's a job, after all, and retail staff should be trained in customer care - there's no excuse for rudeness or discourtesy unless under extreme provocation, which doesn't seem to be the case in the OP.

I hate shopping for food and send Himself - actually I hate shopping for food with Himself from the car park onwards. I can imagine that having to work in a supermarket is a rotten job and some of the customers even more rotten, and the nicest of people would turn into the nastiest - it would probably take me two seconds!

I always feel guilty asking a staff member who is on their knees, filling a shelf, where I might find something. They are duty bound to get up and take me to the item even though I'm quite capable of understanding simple instructions like, 'Halfway down fourth aisle on the left'. They must have invisible little thought bubbles above their heads.....'Open your eyes you silly old bat!'

I love our supermarkets, the staff have never been anything but polite and helpful to me. Not so long ago we stood behind an elderly lady who clearly needed a lot of help and the assistant could not have been kinder to her. Also no one in the queue seemed to mind having to wait while she was helped either.

I got a black look from a member of staff in a supermarket when I refused to use the self service style checkouts. There were no others open so I asked this member of staff what I should do - I think she was itching to tell me , but instead humphed, threw me a filthy look and pointed to the newsagent counter and said I could go there which I did and was greeted quite genially.

jerryatric - you'll find that very very few people speak the Queen's English nowadays, and that most of the natives are not so good at speaking with plums in their mouth either

My Problem with my 3 local Tescos is being served by staff who have a very poor command of Queens English .and the customere services is even worse.

merlotgran

granjura, you're just too nice!

Merlotgran I did work in a supermarket when I was a student, so I feel just the same Ninathenana - I know it wasn't you. So if she wasn't there, someone could have put their trolley on the side, and pushed the cage gently to the side, surely. Not that difficult is it?

Hmm not sure what to make of that Merlotgran ha ha?

granjura It wasn't me who tried to push it out of the way. Nobody could ask her to move it as initially she wasn't there.

Working in a supermarket is my idea of hell. I wouldn't be able to cope with stroppy, impatient customers and would find it hard to resist the temptation to cover them with squirty cream, drop a frozen turkey on their toes or run around shouting, 'Have you read WARBURTONS backwards?'

Well, have you?