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February 12, 2008
Spuermarket staff training
The problem for staff in supermarkets is that they are not trained to deal with customers like me. They are no doubt given some instruction on how to deal with angry or possibly violent customers, thieves or just plain nice people but I'm sure they haven't received any training on dealing with the sulky customer. The problem they face is that I do not enter a supermarket in a neutral mood. By that I mean that I'm not waiting to respond to anyone I come into contact with in a similar way to that in which I'm approached. If I was I would respond positively to the till staff when they ask me if I'm having a good day, what I'm doing after the shop and would I like help with the packing. I would probably respond by linking how I was feeling with the current weather (i.e. happy sunny or sad rainy)and thank them for the offer of help to pack my bottle of milk but politely decline.
The problem for them is that I'm not in a neutral mood. I enter a supermarket feeling guilty, annoyed and suspicious. Guilty because I shouldn't be here but in the local grocer's shop or farmer's markets where they sell local. in season foods which haven't exploited a farmer or travelled twice around the world. I'm annoyed because I had to go shopping in the first place and suspicious because I'm being manipulated. There are no strong fishy smells because the fish counter is at the back and the extractor fans take the strong smell away, but for some reason the bakery smells seem to spread around the store. The meat looks nothing like the animal it came from but is nicely cut up, not covered in blood but covered in plastic instead. And is the nice Spanish music trying to get me in the mood for an expensive bottle of Spanish wine which in now displayed at eye level when I'm sure last week it was stuffed down near my feet?
So when the till staff start reading from their happy script they tend to get a rather curt reply with no follow up comments, I take my earphones out but do not get involved in any discussions and provided they quickly realise I'm a lost cause and just shut up no one gets seriously hurt.
So how could they be trained to deal with me? The answer is simple, be themselves, throw away the script and remind me to shop else where.
Posted by Andy Mason at February 12, 2008 08:51 AM
Comments
whats so wrong with not being a sucker to the capitalist dream?
long live Russia.
communism rules ok.
Posted by: alia at March 8, 2008 08:39 PM