Give the check out assistant a medal and a promotion

I'm all for a National 'Leave your Mobile Phone at Home' Day.
Come to think I often leave mine behind, ditto my purse, my door key, my brain.

We all agree that it's rude to talk on a mobile when being served by someone - the Post Office can make their own rules as they don't have competition so that's not a comparison. As I said, I volunteer in my local hospital coffee shop and people ordering stuff, glued to a mobile, happens. No big deal as they are contributing to the profits of the enterprise. I wouldn't dream of telling a customer to put down their phone, I'd serve them and take their money, no problem.

If I owned Sainsburys, my instructions to my staff would be to serve people - if customers were abusive, policies should be in place to deal with that, a transgression of manners is a different matter and up to each individual company.

Not sure I'd re-visit a shop where the proprietor was talking on his phone - that does take the biscuit

than it takes ...

I took a work call once whilst at the check out - mouthing my apologies to the cashier. In my pathetic attempts at multi-tasking, I left some of my purchases on the counter, dropped my change everywhere, held up the queue, got glared at by half a dozen people - and I've never done that again. "Can I call you back?" can be said in less time that it takes to exhale a breath.

Sorry jo8 but i have had the misfortune to work for Sainsbury's and they are horrible to work for and have no interest at all in the welfare of their employees.
I have every sympathy with the checkout girl. I have spent too much time being pointed at and having money thrown at me while the customer carries on a long telephone conversation.
A friend of mine was on a flight to Australia and heard another passenger being absolutely vile to one of the stewardesses. The passenger's wife tried to stop him and he said "It's alright, she comes with the ticket" This seems to be becoming the general attitude to workers in service industries.

Oops! I recommended twice.

The need did seem great.

Can I recommend these for your keyboard maggie.

Can I recommend these for your keyboard Maggie.

I would hope it was a vital phone call. Perhaps to do with her work. People lead different lives these days than they did when we were young. Work intrudes.

Maggiemaybe I would hope Sainsbury's working conditions and wages are a lot better than that given to a Victorian scivvy. She needs to do the job she is paid to do. She can't set the rules for Sainsburys. Only management can do that.

Well this story has gone viral - now on Breakfast

Whilst undoubtedly mobile phones have great advantages, I know I wouldn't be without one, I think it would be safe to say that pretty much everyone who subscribes to GN will be of an age (I think, unless we have some very young grandmothers) who would remember a life without them. The situation described in Sainsbury is one of the obvious downsides, of which there are a few. People walking along texting without looking up and getting stroppy if you don't get out of their way is one of my bete noires, I guess we all have them and for this particular cashier not being acknowledged was one of hers. I agree with a previous poster who said not exchanging a hello at least, relegates them to an inanimate object, so why not use the automated machine. It really comes down to common courtesy and I think unfortunately we are on a downward spiral as far as that is concerned. I don't think it occurs to a younger demographic that they are being ill mannered. I'm always amazed at people who have very public and quite loud mobile phone conversations on a crowded train, sometimes of a personal nature. My son's girlfriend will think nothing of being in the middle of a conversation with us and taking a call without saying, excuse me one moment. I personally find it quite rude but I wouldn't point that out to her because it would probably come across as nit picking. She is like a lot of her generation and this is how they behave with their peers. Our children were not allowed to have their phones at the dinner table when we were having a meal, but my son's girlfriend thinks this is a definite step too far! Sadly with the march of progress, basic things like focusing on the people you are actually with, can get lost along the way.

I think the checkout person objected, quite rightly in my opinion, to being treated like a Victorian skivvy, expected to serve her betters and keep her eyes downcast to her task while being totally ignored.

Online shopping, that's the answer - you can text, watch Corrie, pick your nose, scratch your backside and offend nobody.

If I am offered change by somebody who is not making eye contact, I just don't take it until they actually look at me. I give respect to everyone with whom I deal, and I expect to get the same back.
I used to go to work on the bus, and one day a woman who was sitting by the window just stood up and looked at me. I looked the other way. Eventually, she got the message and said 'Excuse me' in a very belligerent voice.
Another thing in I have done in my battle against rudeness is to go after somebody who has not thanked me for holding a door open. I say to them 'I'm sorry, I didn't catch what you said'. Of course, they reply that they had not said anything, leaving me to say 'Oh, I thought you might have said 'Thank you'.
Small things, but they give me great satisfaction.

Check out assistants are only human and they must get fed up of rude customers. So, yes, perhaps the check out assistant should have bitten her tongue but I don't blame her for speaking out.

And I still think the customer is a silly cow (a) for being on her phone at the check out, and (b) for making it into a big issue by getting her "I can do what the hell I like with my own phone regardless of other people" attitude into the papers.

The fact remains that check out assistants are not machines and should not be treated as such. It's rude to behave as if their job so removes them from humanity that a bit of politeness during a bloody boring job is too muchfor customers to cope with.

That saying about the customer always being right is only about getting sales. It cares nothing for people.

I am sure the checkout person had reached the end of her tether and perhaps that customer was the last straw - and how's that for mixed metaphors! I thing each owed the other an apology.

Absolutely! I would never do it either, but I'm not entirely sure what the assistant's problem was. Surely she doesn't expect to have a chat with each customer about the contents of their trolley?

The customer would have paid when the last item had been checked and the total came up - probably while still on her phone but at least she wasn't holding the queue up!

I would n' t do it myself. But think checkout assistant was wrong to put her own tender feelings before doing the work she is paid to do.

Might have been better to get onto management and request a polite notice asking customers to try to avoid.

I think they were both in the wrong! Obviously it is rude to be on your phone at the check out but then surely all people in service industries have to deal with rude people? I can understand how the assistant would be feeling on a bad day but it is her job to deal with people like this.

My big irritation when shopping at places where there is one queue and several tills is the person who gets to the front of the queue and falls asleep. I feel so sorry for the assistants who have to keep shouting 'next please'. Then of course they have to find their wallet/purse!....................

Well I won't be shopping at Sainsburys either - what a weaselly way to handle a complaint.
What they should have done would have been to say to the customer. 'We are sorry your feelings have been hurt, but our company policy is to expect our employees to be treated with the same respect that they extend to customers, so we politely suggest you take your custom elsewhere.'
That would have been a victory for both the workers and common courtesy

That should of course read.
I think it might come as a revelation to some younger people that if you do not answer your mobile the minute it rings, you or the mobile will not explode.

I think it might come as a revelation to some younger people that if you do not answer your mobile the minute it rings, you or the mobile will explode.

grumppa,

Of course it's completely unreasonable to expect people to turn off their mobiles phones while at a check out, or simply to reject a call that comes while they are there and deal with it later ,

Not.

Apparently the offending shopper has said she will go to Waitrose in future. As a Waitrose shopper I do not welcome this development; I thought the purpose of Sainsbury's, Tesco et al. was to keep the hoi polloi out of my preferred supermarket.