Controversy aside every time I go there the staff is borderline hostile as if I interrupted the local chatting up the one of 2 clerks in the gun room for 30 minutes
I always wonder about comments like this. And not just to pick on you or anything, I wonder about it in general.
Like I said, I was at epp's just yesterday. I was in a real good mood when I went in, as i'd had some good things happen that morning and also i'd just hit webbers.
So I was in a good mood, I was happy. So I would have been smiling and nice when I asked the clerk for what I was looking for, and, honestly, he was happy and nice right back. He dropped what he was doing and came right out from behind the counter to help me find it. When they didn't have it, he was genuinely apologetic. It was just a real friendly exchange. Then I was walking out the door, still in an obvious good mood, and as I was leaving empty handed the cute girl at the register called out to me to thank me for coming and have a nice day.
Bottom line, I got real friendly treatment. How much of that was because I started out being friendly to them?
I've been in lots of retail stores where customers come in and, they're not rude, but they sure ain't friendly. They just get right down to business in a gruff, direct manner. I see this especially at traditional "man stores" like hardware stores or gun shops - guys come in and just get right to the point in a gruff manner, and maybe those guys just think they're being direct - maybe they're thinking something like "I went in there to buy what I need, not make friends!" - but all the same, I hear guys like that and I think if I were working retail I wouldn't be too friendly back to them either!
All that to say, when some people say "I was treated rudely" I often wonder if the treatment they received can't be explained by the treatment they first gave.
If a customer comes in nice and friendly, it's a pretty cold-hearted retail worker who isn't friendly back.
