COURTESY IN SHOPS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 14, 16 July 1929, Page 8

COURTESY IN SHOPS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—l have read with interest the letters appearing ia your paper re courted I Ll I I might state that 1 have had ten years1 experience in the retail grocery trade, and have consequently met all sorts and conditions o£ people speaking for my trade, the average assistant is supposed to be nimble and sumivtempered under all conditions, irrespective o£ circumstances, and as the assistant is only human it is at times very hard to maintain a sunny temper, especially with a certain class of customers who consider it their duty to teach the assistant his trade. There is another class of person who, if the shop happens to be out of stock of the particular line wanted, will not be put off with a substitute even though the substitute may be superior in quality and lower iv prk-n. Such persons always consider the assistant is out to ro-> them and sell them rubbish, and they are by no 3iieans backward in insulting the assistant by accusing him of doing so, and yet courtesj is expected to the customer. 1 remember a ease of a small boy deliberately throwing a saucepan into a box of eggs. When the manager suggested that the mother pay for the damage, she bounced out of the shop very indignant, with threats to tell her husband of theway she had been insulted. Yet we were supposed to keep our tempers. I have found it almost impossible to show courtesy to some people after they have almost turned the shop inside out. asking tor goods they never intend to buy. Personally, and 1 am not alone in stating this fact, I would rather serve a dozen men than one woman. A man knows what he wants, or if he doesn't he will take the assistant's word for it; but a woman seldom knows what sho wants, and generally haggles over the price, and to doubt an assistant's honesty is the surest way to make him lose his temper. An assistant is not going to be bullied and worried without end, and not get his own back sometimes, therefore if anyone has cause to complain let him consider the way he treats the assistant On the other hand, I admit there are a few cases where the assistant is absolutely ' cheeky," but he generally has a short reign, and unless he can produce good credentials he cannot get into another shop, so naturally it behoves an assistant to behave himself, and any assistant with any sense at all does. I have met the irresponsible flapper type of assistant in other shops, who almost considers it beneath her dignity to have to serve a cusjtomer; but such are more deserving of pity for having no better sense, and are not worthy of serious consideration.—l am, etc..

ALFRED G. MILES.