Customers are always right, so goes a saying. But for the staff in several supermarkets in Jeddah, it doesn’t seem so.

Consumers visiting supermarkets have been increasingly complaining of indiscipline among the staff. “They don’t attend to the consumers and don’t even reply to their queries in the course of their purchases” is the general refrain heard from supermarket shoppers.

“Not answering our queries is one thing but what is more annoying is the kind of treatment meted out to us,” says a Jeddah housewife who now wonders whether she should switch to corner shops for her requirements instead of being subjected to insults in supermarkets.

Junaid Mohammed, speaking to Arab News about his recent experience at a local supermarket in Jeddah, said: “There was a long queue at the fruit and vegetable section. The employee in his hurry to put price tags on the fruit and vegetable bags was throwing them on the table toward us as he was labeling them. His job is to pack and tag them properly, but he was tossing it at us in a disrespectful way.”

He said that everyone expects to receive good customer service and the supermarkets have to look into this issue.

Another local resident, Danish Mirza, said: “It is important to set etiquette guidelines or rules for the staff as I believe it could be a good way to get the attention of supermarkets and ultimately their employers. These days the crowds in supermarkets have increased and the workload of employees has doubled, so it is important to train them on being good listeners and communicators, and most importantly to show patience.”

Many shoppers complain that since most of the supermarkets have employed youngsters, the environment has become different; it looks vitiated in terms of manners and behavior. The staff appears to be rude and sluggish.

“Training sessions should be organized for the young workers by the companies running supermarkets to make them competent and responsible. Giving employment opportunities to young individuals is not enough. They should be given instructions in basic behavior toward the customers,” said housewife Amina Sheikh.

Habib Rehman, a corporate etiquette consultant, says: “Training can be given to such employees by teaching them how to attend to the customers and respond promptly to their questions.” He felt that several shoppers might have seen that these rules are often forgotten or ignored by the supermarket employees.

Commenting on this, the HR manager of a supermarket in Jeddah, said: “We started receiving a few complaints on this issue recently and we are looking into this matter. A few of them have been fired too because of such complaints. We definitely consider that serving the customers is our responsibility and any inconvenience caused to them can cause a big blow to our business. We are training our young staff to maintain good relationship with the customers.”