“Be kind”: Cashier pleads shoppers not to take inflation frustration out on grocery store staff
Going grocery shopping can be triggering for a lot of people nowadays.
From overpriced poultry to grocery deals that aren’t really deals, Canadians are fed up with food prices amid the cost of living crisis.
And it’s just more salt in the wound when the CEO of a multinational food manufacturing company suggests people eat cereal for dinner to save money.
But all of this is not an excuse to treat grocery store workers badly, says one Canadian cashier who recently had an unfortunate experience with a shopper.
Reddit user Signal_distract shared their story in a post on Tuesday evening.
Please Don’t Take It Out On Us
byu/Signal_distract inloblawsisoutofcontrol
The cashier, who says they work at a grocery store owned by a Loblaws competitor, had an incident with a customer who made them “feel endangered.”
“He verbally took his anger out on me about the price of living,” they wrote.
They prefaced the encounter by explaining that as service workers, they are the faces that represent the store and have to be polite and kind to represent the store’s values.
The cashier stressed that they know that prices are out of control and feel bad having to charge people so much for groceries.
“We understand that it’s getting to the point where working-class people have to start choosing which bills to pay this month, but we didn’t do this,” they wrote.
They’re urging customers to “be kind to people in the service industry.”
“We’re people, going through the same things in the same way as you,” reads the post. “We don’t want to gouge anyone, but we also need to keep food on our tables, so we have to, just please don’t take this out on us.”
The Reddit post was flooded with sympathetic replies and words of encouragement.
“I really hope nobody downvotes or negatively comments on this,” reads one comment. “Frontline (usually) minimum wage workers deserve zero flak for any of the decisions made by the wealthy crook ruling class.”
“Nobody has the right to treat someone else poorly or threaten them simply for doing their job,” added another.
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inloblawsisoutofcontrol
Others who used to work in customer service empathized with the original poster.
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inloblawsisoutofcontrol
And many shoppers are pledging to do better and redirect their frustrations to the root of the problem.
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byu/Signal_distract from discussion
inloblawsisoutofcontrol
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byu/Signal_distract from discussion
inloblawsisoutofcontrol
Instead of taking out your anger on service workers, why not just rant on forums like this one?
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