Shoppers are the lifeblood of any convenience store but, as any retailer will tell you, they’re not without their faults.
A new study from shop insurance specialist SME Insurance Services has uncovered the top five bad behaviours of customers.
At the front of the queue, and a favourite with staff at our Woodlands Local store, is putting things back in the wrong place. A whopping 40% of the 2,000 UK consumers questioned had either seen someone – or had been guilty of – ruining a perfectly-executed planogram by discarding an unwanted item wherever they felt like it. Not a massive deal, you might think, until you find a frozen ready meal thawing out among the Mars bars.
Nipping back for other items when already at the till took second place with a score of 32%. We’ve all done it.
Third place was hotly contested, with only a percentage point separating talking on a mobile at the till (25%), skipping the queue (24%) and improper parking in a disabled space (23%).
Women are most likely to be guilty of popping back for something (34%), while more men held their hands up to parking in a disabled space when they shouldn’t (29%).
Given that SGF’s recent Retail Crime Report revealed 99% of retailers experienced violence and physical abuse in 2017, it is surprising – or perhaps not – that no one admitted to what is surely the worst behaviour of all, threatening a member of staff.
