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Employees in retail do not exist to be a personal punching bag. They are not there to take verbal abuse because you are having a bad day. They are there to work, to help, to make a barely livable wage. That way they are not living out on the streets. Yes, everyone has a bad day but they are doing what others won’t do.

Employees in Retail are Human Beings NOT Robots.

Just because someone works in retail does not mean s/he is beneath you. You are not out there shearing sheep, spinning thread and weaving fabric for your clothes. You are walking into an air conditioned building buying premade, prepackaged items that was stocked on the shelf for you. All you do is find the item (a lot of times with help from someone who is pointing the item out that is right in front of your face), take the item and cash out. All in all a simple process. A process where people feel like they have the right to snap, belittle and be just plain rude to someone because they are not getting whatever it is they want.

That person was just torn into may have a bachelors degree, used to own their own business before the economy went down the drain or may be in medical school to be a future doctor, nurse or caregiver. That person has to give up holidays so that others can shop instead of being home with family and friends. That person may have missed another religious service so that other coworkers wouldn’t this time. That person may be working multipe jobs to provide for his/her family. You do not know anything about that person. Employees come from all walks of life and all backgrounds.

There is no valid reason to be rude.

  • “Well, I’m just not getting the service I expect.” – Do you have any idea how difficult it is to give perfect service , a smile and pleasant tone to 50+ people a day for 5-6 days straight. The 50 people is a short shift of 4-5 hours with Maybe a 15 minute break where someone will stop to ask you a question because you can’t wear an out of service sign.
  • “Well. My identity was stolen.” – OK. So was the employees but you don’t see the employee ripping someone a new one because now his/her account is frozen, bills need to be paid and food purchased. That employee does more single purchases a day in that store every day s/he works plus days off for items forgotten. That is how it is at ALL retail stores that employ people.
  • “That person was ignoring me.” – That person was probably on his/her break/lunch and it is technically ILLEGAL to help customers off the clock because that could be considered working. Again. Apologies for not forcing employees to wear Out of Order signs. Apparently having phone in hand, ear buds in the ear with music playing where anyone can hear it was not obvious enough.
  • “They did such & such for me at a different store.” – Get in the car and go back to that store that was comfortable with breaking policy just so they could get you to shut up and leave in a better mood. Couponers. I will get to couponers another time. (That may be a multi-post series)

A lot of times if someone does receive good service they don’t say anything. They rarely tell a manager. They don’t call corporate. They rarely don’t fill out those surveys. Which by the way are always read at least at the store level. The more positive feedback means the better service every time. Those good things will be encouraged. Negative feedback means poor service next time. Why? Now the managers and various supervisors are hounding the grunt employees over every little thing. That is on top of customers’ rude, selfish behavior.

To those that treat retail employees like human beings.

THANK YOU.

You are the ones that make going into work worth it. They are the ones that employees look forward to interacting with. They are the ones that are missed when they go else where to shop. Not because of the money s/he spends but because of the person s/he is. Don’t stop being such a great customer because great attitudes spread like fire and is a joy to contract.

Those that are rude, expect human beings to be like robots, treat employees like their personal serfs they can freely abuse. Please. Oh, please, come do this job for one day and take care of customer after customer that is just as rude for hour after hour all with a smile and a pleasant tone.