by Julie A. Wein

Created on: March 09, 2009

Depending on the individual customer, some retail clerks are treated with respect and others are treated like dirt on the bottom of the customer's shoe. It's all in the attitude the customer has towards the retail clerk.

I can tell you first hand that the customers that treat sales clerks with respect seem to be few and far between these days. Many sales clerks have gotten to the point where they are pleasantly surprised when a customer is actually nice to them, because it is such a rare occurrence in today's world. More and more customers are becoming nasty to the very people that are there to help them.

To some extent, the way some customers treat the clerks depends on how upscale the store is. Generally speaking, the cheaper a store is, the worse the customers tend to treat the retail clerks. It's all a matter of perception, and some customers perceive service workers (especially the ones working in low end stores) to be the low man on the totem pole. Whereas when you get into more upscale stores, the customers tend to be a little more polite. Whether this is due to the class of the shoppers, the class of the retail clerks, or both, no one can say. Yet everyday retail clerks are treated with disrespect simply because the customer does not feel the clerk deserves that respect.

On the flip side, there are people in this world who are polite and respectful to retail clerks. Many of these people work in retail themselves and know what it is like to have customers treat them badly. This means that when retail clerks are on the other side of the counter, they tend to be nicer and more understanding because they themselves know what the person behind the register goes through every day.

To be fair, some retail clerks are treated badly by customers because they themselves are not polite and friendly. In a world of give and take, retail clerks should expect to be treated the way they treat the customer. Angry retail clerks produce angry customers, and vice versa. This can be a never-ending cycle if we allow it to be. The only way to avoid this is for customers and retail clerks to be equally respectful towards each other.

However, in today's world it seems we are far away from seeing that happen. Customers get so frustrated when they can't get what they want, when they are told "no" when they want to hear "yes." And many times the retail clerk has to suffer the consequences of the customer being told "no," even though these decisions are not made by the retail clerks in question, but rather by their managers. To treat the retail clerks badly because of things that are out of their hands is quite rude and is one of the main reasons why so many of them dislike their jobs.

Customers wanting to be treated with respect by retail clerks need to simply act respectfully towards the clerks and understand that retail is a thankless job. When, more often than not, customers are rude to the retail clerks, it makes them not want to do their best to ensure the customer has an enjoyable shopping experience. And that isn't fair to anyone.

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