Retailers' Biggest Pet Peeves

We tend to focus a lot on the complaints that consumers have with various companies and industries, but it’s the people working at those businesses probably have complaints about you, too.

Over the weekend, dozens of users on Reddit, a popular social news site, opened up about their experiences working in retail, in response to a simple prompt on a discussion board, “Retail workers, what are your pet peeves?”

We pulled the best responses from the discussion board and used them to compile the Five Golden Rules of Shopping. If you’re guilty of breaking any of these rules, think twice before showing your face in the store again because you’ve probably made a secret enemy out of someone working there.

1. Get Off Your Cell Phone When Checking Out

In case you aren’t familiar with cell phone etiquette in general, let me fill you in quickly. You’re not supposed to use your cell phones in movie theaters, restaurants or on first dates and family dinners. Similarly, the retail workers of America would like to announce once and for all that you should stop using them in the check out line.

“When you buy something, you will be forced to interact with another human being via aural communication. So as you approach the checkout, please, hang up your phone,” writes one Reddit user who goes by the handle, M_Me_Meteo. “You try to ask them questions but they ignore you. And then afterward they want to fuss at you for something that you actually tried to ask them earlier. Or hold up the line to finish their call before they pay.”

If you do have to take a call while in line, at the very least acknowledge the retail employee in front of you.

“People on cell phones don't really bother me, if they make an effort,” writes Mulletman13. “Most of them do, and they'll mouth 'thank you', or 'sorry', or nod or anything like that, but the 5% that [sic] don't do a damn thing really piss me off.”