I heard you talking about your customers

I heard you.
You didn’t realize it, but I heard you talking about your customers — and what I heard wasn’t good.

I’m the customer who was standing next in the checkout line, or I was the customer standing in the next aisle over while you spoke to your co-worker, or I was walking into the store while you and you co-workers spoke while creating cloud of cigarette smoke at the store entrance during your break.

You weren’t shy about it, so it’s not like anyone had to eavesdrop to hear what you said.
You seemed almost proud of it. At least that’s the way it sounded when you laughed afterward.

I heard you talking about your customers and complaining about them coming into your store.

• I heard you make fun of them for asking a dumb (according to your insider knowledge) question, or not understanding your self-checkout system, or not having a receipt for a return.
• I heard you mock a man with a strong foreign accent.
• I heard you dismiss and elderly couple who needed a little extra help.

I heard you say that your job would be awesome if it weren’t for all the customers.

Well… are you still feeling the same way right about now?
The measures in place to battle the COVID-19 / Coronavirus has shutdown most of the retail stores in many states, and the practice is projected to expand to other cities and states as the virus spreads.

Retailers and customer service people are getting a taste of what their business is like without all those customers they used to complain about, and it’s not a pretty picture.

Many customer service people treat customers as an interruption of their work instead of as the reason they are working.

I know that stores use direct deposit of paychecks for their employees in order to save the time and expense of cutting checks each payday, but I think if the retail workers saw those checks being signed and handed out by the customers (instead of a store manager) they might have a better grasp on where the money in their bank account is actually coming from.

Perhaps a better greeting than “thank you for shopping with us” might be “thank you for paying my rent” or “thank you for my car payment”.

When the stay at home orders are lifted and people are cleared to go back to their old habits of dining out and shopping at stores, will they decide to come back to your store?

I heard you.
And I know I wasn’t the only one — many of the other customers (former customers?) heard you too.