The Student Room Group

Rude, unenthusiastic shop assistants

Quite frankly I am sick to death of shop assistants who do little more than grunt at their customers at the till. They usually come in all ages, however in my experience they are predominantly young workers. Instead of greeting their customers with a warm smile they shove the relevant change back into their hand and yell for the next customer. Very often they find it more appealing to stand around discussing absolute nonsense with other shop assistants than be pleasant towards those they are supposed to serve.

Why are these people so unable to take pride in their jobs? They are extremely fortunate that I am yet to report them.

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Reply 1
Come on, it's April 1st ffs. Surely you can come up with some better trolling than usual on a special day like this?
I always feel in Britain like store workers hate having customers in their store, like making a sale really puts them out. :laugh:

If you travel you'll probably notice this phenomenon is mostly a British one.
Reply 3
Original post by Iron Lady
Quite frankly I am sick to death of shop assistants who do little more than grunt at their customers at the till. They usually come in all ages, however in my experience they are predominantly young workers. Instead of greeting their customers with a warm smile they shove the relevant change back into their hand and yell for the next customer. Very often they find it more appealing to stand around discussing absolute nonsense with other shop assistants than be pleasant towards those they are supposed to serve.

Why are these people so unable to take pride in their jobs? They are extremely fortunate that I am yet to report them.


You should hear what backroom and office staff say about you :colone:
Tbf I don't think I'd be happy and enthusiastic about working for minimum wage in a shop either.
Reply 5
Its not just in shops but everywhere, especially at airports.
Sometimes I do wonder why they put so much emphasis on you appearing happy and cheery in an interview, most people will invariably revert back to their normal state once they are put on a 5 hours shift at the tils.
Reply 7
Lol. You get what you pay for. When I was working in a shop I got £5.00 an hour. That's 8 pence per minute of my time, and you will get 8 pence value of customer service for the minute you are talking to me as I ring up.
Agreed, they're so annoying. I understand that they might not like their job, I'm not surprised tbh, but they should at least pretend that they're enjoying serving me.
Reply 9
Original post by Iron Lady
Quite frankly I am sick to death of shop assistants who do little more than grunt at their customers at the till. They usually come in all ages, however in my experience they are predominantly young workers. Instead of greeting their customers with a warm smile they shove the relevant change back into their hand and yell for the next customer. Very often they find it more appealing to stand around discussing absolute nonsense with other shop assistants than be pleasant towards those they are supposed to serve.

Why are these people so unable to take pride in their jobs? They are extremely fortunate that I am yet to report them.


It's difficult to take pride in a boring job.
Reply 10
Why the **** do you care? Do you smile and greet them? If not then you do not deserve one back/
Well I have the opposite problem, all/most of the ones I have encountered are so sickly sweet it comes across as insincere, oh and they follow you around the store no matter how many times you've politely declined their offer of help.
i agree,but then having worked as a shop assistant, i can say that some customers are rather rude as well(some are lovely :smile: ). it seems having a stick up your arse, and lack of communicative skills is an all round british trait.
Personally I don't care whether they smile or not. I'm there to purchase a product and leave, not stand around talking about the weather.

Being a shop assistant isn't the most thrilling job in the world, much of the work is monotonous and repetitive. So I'm sure I can find it in me to forgive the workers if they don't seem very enthusiastic or cheerful after standing behind a counter for 8 hours.
(edited 11 years ago)
God yes! Everyone who works at H&M is dead behind the eyes.
Reply 15
Original post by Iron Lady
They are extremely fortunate that I am yet to report them.


I don't think they'd be able to live with themselves after the warning points they receive.
Reply 16
Have you ever worked in a shop, OP?

It's tiring, can be very boring and monotonous, you have to deal with some downright sods of customers, have to work every weekend and bank holiday, and get paid a pittance. It's very easy to be nice to people who are nice to you, but much more difficult to be friendly and chirpy when someone is just plain rude. Are you always friendly to the shop workers? It cuts both ways, you know.
I have a colleague who has a Masters. He spent time, effort and money investing into his education, without realising that a Mickey Mouse degree from a low university will not land him a good job. The best he can get is 6 days per week minimum wage at McDonalds.

And you expect him to be cheerful about it?

It's nice when you find someone who is cheerful (thanks, singing hospital cleaner man), but you need to be understanding enough to not expect wonderfully happy workers.
I'm only rude to RUDE or UPTIGHT customers. If customers seem warm or cheerful, most cashiers will reciprocate it.
I've dealt with so many monotonous sales and rude customers that make me wish torture was legal XD

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