Last minute grocery shopping, stupid things presents for extra heads at dinner, that depressing feeling of not having stocked up on grandma’s favorite liquor – the Christmas shopping The rush can be one of the most stressful aspects of the holiday season when you’re a shopper. For retail and convenience store workers, on the other hand, it’s ten times more.

Talk to most employees and they will tell you the same thing: what makes the situation hell is the rude customers.

Although your Christmas Eve quest to find potatoes may seem like the most important undertaking in the world, to those on the other side of the till, it is among the most dreaded aspects of Christmas work.

Penny, 29, has worked at Next for two years. Even though the famous Boxing Day sale was a fun family hangout as a child, she reveals she had nightmares about the chaos that often ensues when bargain-hungry shoppers descend on the stores .

“I had a recurring nightmare about the sound of the ticket machine,” she says, sighing.

“This happened after a horrible Boxing Day sale last year, when a customer called me a ‘lazy cow’ because I couldn’t find the skirt she wanted after looking in the store. warehouse. The look in his eyes was chilling. I thought she was going to beat me down. She followed me around the workshop until my manager intervened. For weeks I would have this horrible dream where rude customers would yell at me while a never-ending receipt came out of the register.

Mary, 60, who has worked in the convenience sector for 12 years, knows something about this.

“The classic is when people arrive after closing for the day – even if you have announced Christmas opening hours well in advance. People can be very rude – I have been insulted.

She also lists warehouse frustrations as one of her biggest problems.

“We don’t have a magic warehouse. Honestly, people think that when you say a product is out of stock, you’re lying. Going to the back for something we know is out of stock will only waste their time and ours. It can get frustrating, but more than anything else, it’s the lack of patience – because we’re human too.

Lynn, 22, who works on a luxury perfume stand in a department store while studying, dreads the Christmas period for the same reasons. She says that certain behaviors in particular leave her cold.

“There is an older man who came in last week to buy a gift for his wife. I’m not even convinced he has one. He spent all his time chatting with me, asking me personal questions and trying to get me to wear the perfume so he could “imagine it on her”. It was so weird and scary. And this isn’t the first time men have used the “I’m shopping for my wife or girlfriend” excuse. I don’t know why they think we’re here to do – be pretty? Make them feel good? It’s my job.

However, perhaps the most taxing aspect of working in retail and convenience stores during the Christmas period is the toll it takes on the body and mind. Retail is well known for being a physically and mentally demanding job – but research by the Retail Trust found that in the weeks after Christmas, 51 percent of retail workers are likely to stop.

“Employers need to understand that when we are already working under pressure, we need decent staffing levels, otherwise we risk burning out staff,” says Mary. “It’s one of the most stressful times of the year. It would also be nice to wrap this up a little earlier. I know some retailers close on Boxing Day. Do stores really have to be open on Boxing Day? »

Mary receives extra pay for these busy shifts, but says the grueling nature of working during this time isn’t always worth it.

“If you’ve worked in retail, you close the store on Christmas Eve, go home and you’re completely broken. Christmas day gone in a flash. Everyone had this big head start until Christmas while you were grafting. So that really takes away a lot of the fun. This year I have Boxing Day off, so I can spend two days with my son. I’m 60 years old and I feel it more than ever.

Penny also doesn’t think stores should be open on Boxing Day.

“If you still need to splurge at the end of Christmas, you just want to spend money. I don’t even understand why customers enjoy the post-Christmas sales rush. It’s a nightmare. Did you see the status of a Next store on December 26?

Kieran, 33, will leave retail at the end of the month but has worked Christmas periods at IKEA for the past five years. There is one aspect of work at this time of year that he won’t miss.

“Those are the crises, man. I have been threatened on several occasions, notably when customers did not want to leave at closing time – but also arguments between couples, parents and children. I’ve seen breakups, arguments over cushion designs, etc.

“A few years ago this guy came in and started trying to barter with me, as if the prices were just a suggestion.”

Mary believes the behavior has gotten worse in the age of instant gratification.

“We have this culture where everyone wants everything now, forgetting about the person trying to put the stock on the shelves. I think to a large extent people have become very self-centered.

As Christmas approaches, foot traffic increases, and pre-Christmas planning anxieties increase, it’s clear that far more of us than we’d like to admit are guilty of these attitude problems. If the shoe fits you, perhaps the best celebratory gesture you can offer as a consumer is to rein in your base impulses and treat retail, convenience store, and other service industry workers with the respect you would want if the roles were reversed. Happy shopping.