Cantankerous customers to retail workers are like fleas to rabid dogs. Staff in stores are already ground down by the cogs of consumerism, underpaid and overworked. And then these pompous and vile creatures add their bile to the already potent misery mix, ruining what promised to be just a regular pity-filled shift of unhappiness.
If you are one of the people who feel the need to go into stores and do things that annoy the staff, it is time for you to take a good hard look at your life and ask yourself some soul-searching questions. And frankly, after exploring these questions, if you can’t be nice, you need to start shopping online.
What Kind of World Do You think You’re Creating With Your Attitude?
When the shoe is on the other foot, and the tables are turned, you, the great and the grumpy, don’t like that. Being patronized to the point of anger means a store assistant is on the verge of going postal; a mild sarcastic remark from the aforementioned staff member or disinterest in a customer’s face and attitude will no doubt result in negative online reviews, or requests to see the manager. Store staff cannot win. You’ve stacked the game too high against them. And now, what they should do is pick up their things and walk out and never return to this retail hell, leaving you to your self-scans and your mystery items in the bagging area.
Is this the world you want? Derelict, post-apocalyptic retail units, watched over by machines that are thankfully unable to cry right through their coffee break as a result of the hate you force-feed them? A few years from now, you’ll be stalking your prey down the freezer aisle. You won’t pass a friendly shelf-stacker who can let you know where the onion rings are. You’ll have scared them all away, only to be replaced by replenishment drones capable of the automatic distribution of ten pallets of stock per hour and completely incapable of processing your verbal tirade.
Don’t Let Your Anger Get Out of Hand
When you’ve crushed all of humanity out of the service sector with your hate and scorn, what’s next? Who will you turn your anger on then? The doctors who cure you when you’re sick? The people who drive you when you’re too drunk to crawl home? Will you collectively convene on an industry and take out its soul like you’re doing to the service industry? They’re already hiring AIs to do medical assessments. Are you going to push medicine off the cliff too?
Eventually, your inability to be nice to other people will cause a fully automated society. You and the rest of society can scowl at each other in leisure then, avoiding all kinds of workplace unhappiness brought about by the need to interact with the public.
So, take heed. Don’t let your anger consume you. Join a tai chi class immediately and check out the prices of holidaying in a Tibetan monastery. You are the keeper of your own destiny, and unless you find the zen that the world needs, you’ll drive us all towards a Terminator-style, us versus the robots scenario very quickly. And let’s be honest, nobody wants to start having regular shootouts with time-traveling robotic bodybuilding mayors.
Try a Little Respect and Understanding
Next time you’re in a store, stop and talk to your sales staff. Ask them about their day, and empathize when they tell you about how the staffing budget has been cut again to protect the margins of the products that you won’t pay more for.
Hear them when they tell you that even though staffing has decreased, they are handling more stock than ever because every week you come in and buy extra stuff you don’t need and then throw it away the next day.
And understand them when they tell you that they are underpaid because their wages don’t move up in line with the ever-increasing volume of junk that you’re buying. You probably think it’s okay because they’re paid with gratitude. But finally, know that the only time these people hear the words “thank you,” it’s coming from their own mouths when they say it to you, right before they tell you to have a great day.
