Give someone a smile this Black Friday

This Black Friday, the Retail Trust is calling on shoppers to remember their humanity as they battle for bargains, while retail workers dread the day in fear of abuse.

“Black Friday to Christmas is the time of year I honestly dread,” says Melissa, who works at a well-known high street store. “What happened last year still haunts me. A man picked up a reduced item priced wrongly. I explained it must’ve been labelled incorrectly, or even switched by another shopper. I was calm, polite, just doing my job.

“Then, out of nowhere, he completely lost it. Within seconds his voice went from raised to full-blown shouting. He was calling us criminals, demanding my name, filming me on his phone and dialling 999 to ‘report a crime’. I remember thinking: how did it get here so fast?”

This Black Friday, the Retail Trust is calling on shoppers to remember their humanity as they battle for bargains in cash-strapped times. As the rush for Christmas deals begins on Friday, the charity for retail workers is calling on shoppers to remember the season of goodwill, starting with simple gestures of respect like a hello, thank you or a smile.

The charity’s YouGov poll of 2,000 UK adults found nearly a quarter (24%) have forgotten to make eye contact or smile at a shop worker, and 20 per cent have forgotten to say hello or thank you. A further 71 per cent of shoppers admitted to ‘getting annoyed’ with a shop worker, delivery driver or someone working in customer services. Of these, 13 per cent said they raised their voice or lost their temper.

Earlier this month, research from the Trust found that 77 per cent of shop staff have experienced intimidating behaviour in the last year and a quarter (23%) were physically assaulted. Close to half (43%) said they are being abused or attacked every week. Starting this Black Fridaya thousand faces will light up big screens across the UK as part of a positive campaign to confront abuse facing retail workers.

Smiles from shop workers, members of the public and industry leaders will appear across high streets, shopping centres and landmark sites including Piccadilly Lights, Heathrow Airport and Flannels’ flagship Oxford Street store, in a united call to respect retail staff.

Screens will appear at 24 UK shopping centres until Christmasincluding Bluewater, Metrocentre, Westfield London and Westfield Stratford, via the JCDecaux Community Channel. Others supporting the campaign include Holland & Barrett and H&M. Claire Trotter, 30, was so traumatised by working on a makeup counter over the festive season that they left retail to take a up an NHS role in Plymouth.

“A lady came in for her favourite mascara and powder,” they say. “She came up to me whilst I was serving another customer, demanding the items. The mascara was out of stock, so she started yelling, saying awful things to me, throwing things out of the drawers trying to find the items herself, claiming we were lying to her.

“Nobody wanted to work Black Friday, but we all had to. Shoppers were expecting prices to be slashed by 80 per cent on premium brands. When that wasn’t the case. It became ‘our fault’. It would be the same in the run up to Christmas and Boxing Day. As retail workers we were often not treated as humans.”

Sian works as a store manager on London’s busy Oxford Street. “When my friends ask how my day went and I tell them,” she says, “they cannot believe what I go through.” She says one customer had a meltdown over a bra she believed should have been discounted. “She was arguing with a worker and referred to the other member of staff as a ‘fat c-word’. There was no issue apart from she wanted 10 per cent off, she was arguing over £2.50 off a £25 bra. She threatened to leave us a horrendous review and said she would go to the police.’

Store manager Nathan spoke about how anger spreads. “One person loses their temper, and suddenly the whole shop is on edge…It takes just one spark, and we’re left standing in the middle trying to hold it together. “It’s got to the point now where we wear body cameras, not just to stop shoplifting but to record the abuse we get. That’s how normal it’s become. Every year as this season starts, you feel it coming. You know what’s waiting for you, and you just brace yourself for it.”

The shopworkers in our investigation with the Retail Trust described dozens of shocking incidents across our high streets. Lisa, who worked on beauty counters for a high street store, says she’s been called “stupid”, accused of hiding stock to spite customers, and when informing a customer that a mascara had been discontinued, was called a “useless piece of sh*t and a liar”.

Bookseller Stephanie, 42, from Conwy, Wales, says she dreads the approach of Black Friday and Christmas. “One evening in this busy season, after we had closed, I was taking the tills out to the safe, and a woman started banging and screaming on the window because she had been delayed and missed picking up an order she had placed,” she says. We explained that the shop was closed, and we couldn’t let her in – everything had gone offline and the tills had been taken off – but she started shouting swearing and threatening us. We were preparing to leave and were scared for our safety as she was blocking the exit.”

Nicola also walked away from a retail job on Oxford Street. “You wouldn’t believe how many people just can’t put their phone away for a millisecond while they finish their purchase,” she says. “Other times, people would come in first thing in the morning and start shouting at you, and you knew they’d just come in to gripe at someone before they go into work. And things were always worse at Christmas, when stress would bring out the worst in people.”

A final straw for Aisha, who has also left retail, was seeing two shoppers openly arguing over the last Fenty Diamond highlighter. “No politeness, no decency, just anger.”

Chris Brook-Carter, chief executive of the Retail Trust, says “Thoughtless, unkind and aggressive behaviour has become part of the job for too many shop workers. It’s on all of us to help bring humanity back to the high street this Christmas, starting with acts as simple as a thank you, a greeting, and a smile,” he says. “The smiles being shared across the country represent the Retail Trust’s call for dignity and decency. We know that the smallest acts of respect still make a huge difference.”

This Black Friday and beyond you can show your support by uploading your own smile of respect at retailtrust.org.uk/respect and by sharing on social media using #RespectRetail.

Shared smiles will appear on the iconic screen at Piccadilly Circus on Wednesday 17 December.