This is too long for a tweet and too short for a whole article, so instead this is a very short article on one of the most consistently annoying aspects of modern life.
I speak, of course, of the monstrous habit of some of the very worst people in the world, namely those who carry on mobile phone conversations while they are being served and paying at a till. Almost as bad is declining to remove headphones while another human being processes your payment and faciliates the production of an over-priced flat white coffee.
These characters who refuse to get off their phones and other devices should be jailed, banned or politely encouraged to stop with a little sign at the side of tills in supermarkets or sandwich shops. Let’s begin with the British approach, the little sign that can be pointed to approach, and if that does not work then we can escalate swiftly to a full ban and lengthy custodial sentences.
Enough is enough. For a certain kind of rude, selfish, narcissistic muppet it is now standard operating procedure to dishonour those serving them. You see it everywhere, people gabbing away, as though the member of staff in front of them does not exist.
How rude do you have to be to think this is fine? To send the message that they are not there or so unimportant as to be not worth basic courtesy and acknowledgment? Very rude and/or very stupid.
In Pret this morning a nice person from, I think, Spain (no, we are not at war with Spain) was trying to serve the person next to me. The member of staff made polite efforts to be helpful and was met only with sullen ignoral.
Would the customer like a receipt? No reply from the twit with the phone glued to her ear. On and on this customer droned. The sheer inanity was bad enough: “And I’m like, yeah. And she’s like, what? And I’m like, you will action this marketing plan or I’m gonna tell Clive.”
God help Clive, whoever he is. But the episode, now all too commonplace in the digital era, was absolutely shaming to watch. A nice person from Spain, who presumably has a doctorate in nuclear physics, not only has to serve sandwiches on the living wage, she and her colleagues must put up with spoilt kidult Brits who lack even basic manners.
Ignoring this serious problem in our nation’s shops and fastish food establishments, and hoping in vain that manners and etiquette will kick in eventually and deal with it, is not working. We need a sustained national effort on the high street.
Come on Pret, Eat, Patisserie Valerie, Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury, Asda, Boots and all the rest. It is time to stand up for your hardworking staff. Introduce an industry-wide policy that no-one on headphones or on their mobile approaching the till will be served by a human being until they desist and say hello, please and thank you.
Then, take out adverts alerting customers to the change, which will be massively popular with the overwhlming majority of civilised people.
Stores should also consider installing an employee-activated warning system of flashing lights and an alarm, and perhaps an electric shock delivered through the floor, so that the perpetrator can be shamed in front of the rest of us. Then retailers should put all those lobbyists to work, agitiating for a change in the law at Westminster so that speaking on a mobile at a till carries a minimum 20 year sentence for the perpetrator.
You might think I am over-reacting. But I’m not…
