Originally Posted by Machka

And yet, when I recently worked in the retail industry (in a ladies clothing store), I was expected always to be kind, courteous, and polite to the customers .... even when the customers were annoying, critical, conniving, and generally nasty, and even when it was very busy.

I do not care how busy someone in the retail industry is, I absolutely do not accept that employees "can reasonably be expected to give short answers to customer questions". That sort of thing is completely and utterly unacceptable.

Originally Posted by LWaB

I hope you enjoy waiting in line while the staff spend half an hour answering two-bit questions from the person in front of you.