Garrett Ford

Eng-2010

There Is No Good Reason

“I went out of my way to help in the electrical department, a department I am not familiar

with, and was subsequently yelled at by a customer, who had a question I didn’t have an answer

for, who said, “If you can't answer the F***ing question quickly, then you need to f****ing get

out of the f***ing department!!” With another string of profanities as a walked away to find

someone who knew the product better than me.”

Everyone has bad days. That is a fact. Is having a difficult day a good reason to belittle

and verbally abuse retail workers? It can be extremely frustrating to go into a store and not find

something that you need, that you know is sold there. Is not finding the correct product a good

reason to blame employees of the store for the stock shortage and call them names? The answer

to both questions is “NO.” Why then, do so many retail workers put up with such abuse on a

daily basis?

A study from the University of British Columbia found that, “people treat retail workers

worse when they're looking for bargains than if they were less price conscious” (Mitchell, 2017)

This article was written in 2017, years before the Covid-19 pandemic. This concept of the “rude

bargain shopper” could help explain the supposed rise in frequency of the mistreatment of retail

staff. There were definitely many shoppers that were looking for bargains before the Covid-19

pandemic and mistreatment of retail employees has absolutely been a problem for a long time.

But the pandemic has put more strain on the market. There are numerous product shortages.
Even now, over two years after the initial onset of the pandemic, companies are still struggling to

meet the volume demands of customers.

This shortage of supply with the seemingly rising demand for so many products has

driven prices up for just about everything. This means more and more people are “pinching

pennies”. The increased socioeconomic strain caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, when analyzed

through the lens of the findings of this study, that “When shoppers focus only on paying the

lowest price, they become less attuned to understanding the human needs of others, or even

recognizing them,"(Mitchell, 2017). So many people that never would have identified

themselves as bargain shoppers before the pandemic are now having to go to extreme measures

to get the lowest prices on products, just so they can continue to make ends meet.

The increased instance of customers that are only concerned with finding the best price

also increases the instances of shoppers that only view retail workers as a means to an end. This

dehumanization makes it much easier for shoppers to mistreat retail workers.

Another possible explanation for why it seems so easy for customers to mistreat retail

staff is just that so many customers view retail workers as a means to an end. They are viewed as

“the help.” Customers go into a store looking for something specific. Most customers want to go

in, find the product, and leave without any sort of assistance. So, if a customer cannot find what

they need, things already are not going the way they had planned, and they might be upset. Then

they have a problem and store associates are usually the only way to solve that problem. So, in

the mind of the customer, the store associates turn into nothing more than a solution to their

problem. This is all fine and dandy most of the time, but sometimes even those that work at the

store are not able to fix whatever the problem is.

 When viewed only as a means to solve a problem and the associate cannot solve that

problem they are viewed as useless. And in our society, many times something that has no use

also has no worth and why would it matter if you are nice and pleasant to someone with no

worth? When customers assign worth to a person based on whether or not they can solve a

problem, it is amazingly easy for them to see another person as being worthless. This opens up

the gates for all sorts of mistreatment. That person, in the eyes of the disappointed customer, is

no longer a person. They are nothing more than a worthless entity that was unable to solve their

problem.

Despite whatever reasoning given as to why customers mistreat retail workers, it is

wrong. They are not just “the help” and they are not only there to be pelted by problems and

abused when they do not have all the right answers. They are humans that deserve respect and

compassion just as much as everyone else. There is no reason why their occupation should open

them up to the level of disrespect and malicious behavior that they have been, especially over the

last couple of years. Whatever justification might be given by a customer that is either

physically, emotionally, or verbally abusive to a retail worker, there is no good reason for that

type of behavior. It cannot be tolerated anymore. Retail workers are not accepting that type of

abuse anymore; between 2018 and 2020 the number of retail salespersons dropped by over

771,000 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). This statistic may be a direct result of the increase in

rude customers and is proof that it is hard enough on retail workers that many of them cannot

endure that type of work environment anymore and they are leaving.

That being said, there are customers that feel they are justified in their treatment of retail

workers. They feel that they are not mistreating them or necessarily being rude. They are just

doing what they have to do to have their issue resolved. “Many.... giant companies aren’t
investing in customer service. They know that no matter how mad you get, you’re still going to

pay them. This is because they have enough market power to get away with it.”(Lang, 2013).

This leaves customers viewing retail associates as nothing more than an extension of a company

that does not care about their experience. This leads them to feel like they have to “get nasty” in

order to really have their problem resolved.

How do we stop the mistreatment of retail workers? First there needs to be more store

management that is willing to stick up for their employees. Customers have been conditioned to

expect to get what they want if they start making a big enough fuss. If management is willing to

step in and not allow that to happen anymore, eventually it will stop. Next, there needs to be

more awareness about the effect of rude customers on the physical and emotional well-being of

retail workers. If more people understood the toll they were taking on retail employees, the

number of rude customers would go down. If we as a society can work on these two steps going

forward, the quality of the work environment of retail workers would increase significantly, and

they would be able to be happier. Third and finally, if we can find a way for more people to view

retail workers as indivduals and not as “faceless workers”(Stolpe, 2022) representing giant

corporations, they might be more inclined to be more kind to them. It could be helpful for them

to know that, “one in every ten Americans works in the retail industry. Even if you personally do

not work in retail or manage employees that do, you know someone in your life who does.” If

everyone was aware of the people, that they likely know, that work in retail, they would be more

willing to remember them and be nicer when they are tempted to be rude to retail workers.
 Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Total Employment of The Retail Industry in The United

States in 2020, by Job Type." Statista, Statista Inc., 20 Mar 2021, https://www-statista-

com.libprox1.slcc.edu/statistics/727407/total-employment-of-the-us-retail-industry-by-

occupation/

Mitchell, K., 2017. You’re More Likely To Be Nasty To Retail Workers If You’re Looking

For This Thing While Shopping. [online] Bustle. Available at: <https://www.bustle.com/p/why-

do-people-treat-retail-workers-horribly-it-has-to-do-with-what-shoppers-are-looking-for-

7662189> [Accessed 2 August 2022].

Stolpe, M., 2022. Why We Need Retail Employee Engagement More Than Ever | Bonfyre.

[online] Bonfyre. Available at: <https://bonfyreapp.com/blog/retail-employee-engagement>

[Accessed 7 August 2022].

Watchdog, W., Career, M. and Becker, S., 2022. Why Customer Service Sucks These

Days - Wall St. Watchdog. [online] Wall St. Watchdog. Available at:

<https://www.wallstwatchdog.com/money-career/customer-service-sucks-days/> [Accessed 7

August 2022].
 Letter of Goals and choices

Based on feedback I received about my first draft the main thing I worked on was having

a more defined solution. I realized that throughout my writing I alluded to viable solutions, but I

never came back to really address them and show how to implement them at all. This led me to

adding two more paragraphs, both questioning what can be done and providing a couple options

for practical solutions.

I was also challenged to find the debate in my issue. That was really tough. I spent a lot

of time trying to find anyone that was actively saying that people should be mean to customer

service employees. That does not exist. But if no one thinks we should be mean to retail workers,

then why are so many people so rude to them? This disconnect between what everyone seems to

be saying and what is actually happening in stores is what I have been trying to find. I am not

entirely sure what the disconnect is, other than the fact that people are prone to getting caught up

in the heat of the moment. They just want their trip to the store to go smoothly, and when it does

not it can be easy to get frustrated.

My main goals for my revisions were to add some additional length to my paper and to provide

more clear-cut solutions to my problem. I was able to do both of those things.