As I was checking this month’s issue of SLR before we went to press, something struck me hard. I had just finished checking the article on the Above & Beyond Awards, the awards we set up to recognise those shopfloor superstars who do unbelievably heroic things for their colleagues, customers and communities. Things like literally saving lives and collecting Christmas presents for children who otherwise wouldn’t get any. And I had the warm and fuzzy feeling I always get around the Above & Beyond Awards. Aren’t retailers just damned amazing, I always find myself asking?
So, having done that article, the next one I checked was this month’s fascinating but chilling cover story on how some of Scotland’s best community retailers are approaching dealing with abuse and violence in-store. Practical advice on defusing situations and talking abusive nutcases down.
Reading those two articles back-to-back really had me shaking my head wondering how the hell you reconcile those two extremes. Stores that go way above and beyond the call of duty to care for their customers – and customers that then go in and abuse or assault those same retailers, invariably for absolutely no good reason.
And it was brought into sharp focus this month when Partick retailer Nathalie Fullerton and I exchanged messages after she was threatened with a knife after chasing a customer in Halloween fancy dress who stole a bottle of Buckfast. I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing the fact that the incident made her “want to sell up” – and who can blame her?
Yes, it’s largely down to bad apples. Most customers are perfectly lovely but it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the number of bad apples in the barrel is rising exponentially. Literally not a day goes by without some sort of horrific incident somewhere in Scotland. And yes, it’s great to see the various police crackdowns of late but those are, frankly, drops in an ocean of violence and abuse.
Have customers somehow just lost their way after Covid? When did it become normal and OK to shout at or physically threaten someone working in a shop when your card is declined or you are asked for ID?
The journey towards de-normalising that sort of attitude and behaviour will be a long and painful one and will require more than just more police. It will require talking directly to consumers and urging them to remember how to behave and to realise that everyone behind the till has a family, friends, worries, hopes and ambitions just like the rest of us. The last thing they need is to leave work shaking because some irate halfwit felt it was okay to threaten violence when his iffy £50 note was refused.
Recruitment is hard enough in this sector. It’s going to get an awful lot harder in future unless staff can have a reasonable expectation of being safe when they come to their work.
Antony Begley, Publishing Director, SLR
What’s wrong with people these days?
As I was checking this month’s issue of SLR before we went to press, something struck me hard. I had just finished checking the article on the Above & Beyond Awards, the awards we set up to recognise those shopfloor superstars who do unbelievably heroic things for their colleagues, customers and communities. Things like literally saving lives and collecting Christmas presents for children who otherwise wouldn’t get any. And I had the warm and fuzzy feeling I always get around the Above & Beyond Awards. Aren’t retailers just damned amazing, I always find myself asking?
So, having done that article, the next one I checked was this month’s fascinating but chilling cover story on how some of Scotland’s best community retailers are approaching dealing with abuse and violence in-store. Practical advice on defusing situations and talking abusive nutcases down.
Reading those two articles back-to-back really had me shaking my head wondering how the hell you reconcile those two extremes. Stores that go way above and beyond the call of duty to care for their customers – and customers that then go in and abuse or assault those same retailers, invariably for absolutely no good reason.
And it was brought into sharp focus this month when Partick retailer Nathalie Fullerton and I exchanged messages after she was threatened with a knife after chasing a customer in Halloween fancy dress who stole a bottle of Buckfast. I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing the fact that the incident made her “want to sell up” – and who can blame her?
Yes, it’s largely down to bad apples. Most customers are perfectly lovely but it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the number of bad apples in the barrel is rising exponentially. Literally not a day goes by without some sort of horrific incident somewhere in Scotland. And yes, it’s great to see the various police crackdowns of late but those are, frankly, drops in an ocean of violence and abuse.
Have customers somehow just lost their way after Covid? When did it become normal and OK to shout at or physically threaten someone working in a shop when your card is declined or you are asked for ID?
The journey towards de-normalising that sort of attitude and behaviour will be a long and painful one and will require more than just more police. It will require talking directly to consumers and urging them to remember how to behave and to realise that everyone behind the till has a family, friends, worries, hopes and ambitions just like the rest of us. The last thing they need is to leave work shaking because some irate halfwit felt it was okay to threaten violence when his iffy £50 note was refused.
Recruitment is hard enough in this sector. It’s going to get an awful lot harder in future unless staff can have a reasonable expectation of being safe when they come to their work.
Antony Begley, Publishing Director, SLR
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