Retail therapy.

M

Margaret Pilkington

Beacon of light
Overlooker
It looks as though we might be getting to go to the shops sometime soon....for those non essential things.
As long as the virus does not come in for a second bite over the next three weeks.
So I reckon it is best not to get my hopes up just yet.

Going to the shops post virus will not be like anything before the virus.
We will still have to maintain social distancing
(And there I was wanting to hug a traffic warden - but only so that I know how big to dig the hole).
Now I the last time I went out I had to get some anti histamine from Boots in Blackburn.
This is a fair sized shop but they were letting only five people into the store at any one time.
I stood in the queue and watched two people come out of the shop....so I figured that I could safely go in.....oh dear NO. No, no, no....I had to wait to be invited in by a very large lady who might have looked good dressed up in some sort of uniform....rather than a white assistants coat.
I took myself to the pharmacy counter passing an assistant filling shelves, on my way.....there was no one at the counter and the girl filling shelves did not seem in any kind of hurry to serve me.
I went and asked her who was working on the counter....she said she was....so I courteously asked if I could be served.
You will have to stand in that box over there.....for goodness sake why there was no -one apart from me and her in the vicinity......and she was behind a Perspex screen by this time.
I am glad the girl was not on piece work...she was as slow as a gods horse and despite me telling her precisely what I wanted she tried to sell me a branded product that was 30% more expensive.

To say that this shopping experience left me feeling underwhelmed would be an understatement of grand proportions.

And before anyone tells me that they are just doing a job....well, yes they are....but a customer is a customer and a lot of these have changed their affections to online retailers.
With an online retailer you might have to wait for your goodies...or your Hay Fever meds as it was in my case, but you do not have to put up with surly treatment.

So yes....we might get a bit of retail therapy....but my advice would be take a packed lunch and a thermos...you might be waiting a good while before you get to feel the schmutter......and I can guarantee that you will be wanting therapy in a very large glass with lots of ice and not much tonic by the time you get home
 
My first job when I left school many, many, years ago was in retail (it was actually at a Boots the Chemist shop). This was in the days when customers were respected and service was excellent. The Manager used to emphasise that the customer was an important person and that they were always right - even when they were wrong - because the customers were our living, and without them we wouldn't have a job. We needed them to return and bring in future business. He taught us how to be diplomatic in our dealings with people. Unfortunately attitudes seem to have changed, even without the virus interruption. These days good service stands out whereas it really should be the norm.
 
Yes Dorothy...I worked in retail too for a little while.
Ok, my job was not as prestigious as yours....mine was a cooked meat and bacon shop....and boy was my Ma glad of that.
I got so much free stuff to bring home.....sausages, bacon ends, slipper ham.....and bits of corned beef were always favourite for making hash.....and it did not matter that it might have been a bit dried up......our lads would scoff the eyes from a goat.....well as long as they thought it was something else.

The customer was king.
Alas not now. I am not really looking forward to going to the shops and browsing.....I will worry that I am keeping some old lady on her feet when she should be sitting with her feet up.
 
to only allow 5 in a shop that big is ridiculous, you would think boots had a bit of common sense, it seems not. imho.
 
Oh Cashy, you and I have both lived long enough to know that common sense is a rare commodity.
How many times have you told me that you cannot put sense where there is none?

There was a social commentator who said that once the lockdown is lifted we(the public) need to exercise 'common sense'.
I though to my self there are a lot of people out there going to be in a lot of trouble with that one.
 
true but yeh would expect those who run the show to have some sense, also to instruct some of the idiots who work there to help people, not be ignorant, we use that boots many times, but will be giving it a miss in future. thet aint the only place that sells stuff. there is odd stuff i think only boots sell, but will use another store if we need that.
 
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