To be annoyed at rude shoppers at the till

You do not need to visit that shop.

As I volunteer in a charity shop I am not governed by company rules. Of course I have to be pleasant and I’m friendly but I won’t tolerate someone being rude to me. If someone is on the phone I just look away from hand waving and wait. If conversation continues and there is no customer behind then I might say quite loudly “ Shall I wait until you have finished your call ? “. This often works but we cannot allow this horrible habit go unnoticed.
It is very rarely the young who do this , they are generally chatty, polite and appreciative. We have two large universities in our town so many students shopping and they make my heart sing the way they behave generally. It’s the middle aged , mainly women who are the most unpleasant, not generally but too often.

Do you remember everyone clapping for NHS staff during covid, all those people having to go to work, so brave. But nobody gave a fig about shop-workers, going to work, risking their health, their managers expected them to go to work, and they did. I'm not having a dig at NHS staff, just the fact that shop-workers were ignored and they did face the same risks.

The older gent in front of me in Tesco's the other day had a good chat with the lady serving him. When it was my turn she explained that it was possible she was the only person he had spoken to that day so liked to be friendly with her older customers.

I don’t think I’ve ever been close enough to another customer to overhear their phone conversation, what with musak playing, crying babies, beep beep beep from tills and so on.

A member of staff in Boots on my most recent visit was talking into her headphone set whilst serving me, which I was a bit taken aback at. I then realised she’d spotted a shoplifter and was coordinating other staff to intervene. Afterwards, she told me that the reason they don’t stock as much as they could do is because they lose so many goods to theft.

I realised recently that I had stopped making eye contact with shop staff. I wasn't exactly rude - just never actually looked at them. So now I make a conscious effort to do so and smile - at the very minimum when saying hello, thanks amd goodbye

I've noticed some cashiers chatting on their headsets. I was in the local Co-Op earlier, and the lady who served me (looked about late 50s, early 60s) continued her conversation about how she'd shut her caravan down for the winter now, and she didn't say "Please" when she told me the total of my few items of shopping. Rude.

I always say ‘Good morning’ where ever I am and als ‘Thank you’ when I leave. Doesn’t cost anything

I try very hard not to be on my phone as a rule when I'm being served. Occasionally it happens but it is rare. I also try to treat people with respect. If there's a lot of business, or they're short staffed, or they don't have what I originally wanted, that's okay, it's not the fault of the person behind the till. I used to work in fast food and I now work as a nursing instructor. I have been on the receiving end of a fair amount of verbal abuse and it's not pleasant. I try to always show respect to service people.

SueDonim

As someone currently receiving numerous calls from NHS staff, I don’t have a choice of when they call me, whether I am driving, in the toilet or in a supermarket queue. I am not good at multitasking when on the phone and I don’t like it when calls come in randomly, but the choice isn’t mine.

Having said which, I do feel sorry for check out staff, it’s not an easy job, and I do like to exchange a quick word with them, if possible.

Oh believe me the people I hear on the phone whilst being served are not booking an NHS appointment or doing something urgent. It usually sounds to me like an inane chat with someone.

As someone currently receiving numerous calls from NHS staff, I don’t have a choice of when they call me, whether I am driving, in the toilet or in a supermarket queue. I am not good at multitasking when on the phone and I don’t like it when calls come in randomly, but the choice isn’t mine.

Having said which, I do feel sorry for check out staff, it’s not an easy job, and I do like to exchange a quick word with them, if possible.

I always have a little chat at the check out but know when to stop so I don't hold the queue up.
Any one ever stood in a great long queue in a bank/ building society when a person's being served and standing there for ages and ages telling the assistant what seems like their life story.

Correction first line should have read - that did not end well for the customer.

hollysteers

“….waving a hand for me to put the items purchased in a bag”. (Whilst on the phone). 🤬 I’d be waving a hand goodbye faced with that. How rude, my blood pressure would shoot up.

Believe me that did not end well. When it did happen to me I just stood and refused to bag the items, the customer finally interrupted her call to ask if there was a problem and I said ‘not at all am just waiting for you to finish your call so that I can put this sale through.’
Of course I did this with a smile.
She was non plussed which was the cherry on the cake as far as I was concerned.

Makes me wonder what the standard mobile phone etiquette is? Or is it just assumed? Most of my friends are addicted to their phones and get anxious if they leave phone at home. You're having a coffee, pop to the loo and come back to find them scrolling.

There's a particular newsagent nearby where I live and always but always when I call in for a newspaper the member of staff (a certain slob of a guy) is on his mobile and just jabs a grubby hand at me, grabs the money, no eye contact......just yak, yak, yak, yak. Plain bad manners.

He deserves to go out of business and might do very soon - a convenience store chain bought a patch of spare land a few hundred yards along the road and the construction is coming along at an amazing rate of knots.

“….waving a hand for me to put the items purchased in a bag”. (Whilst on the phone). 🤬 I’d be waving a hand goodbye faced with that. How rude, my blood pressure would shoot up.

They are encouraged to chat here, so long as it doesn’t slow things up. They nearly all ask how you’re going and wish you a nice day even in Aldis. I don’t mind, it is quite pleasant.It is very rare you get rude people, probably the enormous peer group pressure we have here, most people want to seem nice.

There is a balance to be struck. If there is no one behind me I take time to chat, but if the queue is long then it's just a quick hello and thank you.
I notice most people say thanks and cheerio as they leave the till, as it should be.

People on their phones? It's just rude isn't it? No excuses.

Some supermarkets reprimand their cashiers for chatting to the customers!

I wouldn't last long on a checkout because I would refuse to serve a customer who was being rude or on their phone. Manners cost nothing. Supermarkets need to accommodate all shoppers. Some prefer a human being on the till and it stands to reason that queue will be slower. For some people having a brief chat with the cashier may be the only face to face interaction they have all day. My youngest son works for a major supermarket and he tells me shoplifting is through the roof since they did away with manned checkouts.

Is a difficult job. Shoppers do not like queues and usually the poor sod on the till has to deal with their angry digs.

In Morrisons today only one cashier at the normal tills a lovely older member of staff . No other tills open . In front of me 3 people and behind 5 . The cashier was doing his best . The self serve tills all in use . I chatted with him as he told me they were managing on skeleton staff just him and one other member watching the floor . He thanked me for chatting and understanding the pressure he was under . As I thanked him I looked back and the queue was even longer at least 12 waiting . Poor man .