Keep Cool at Christmas

Spent an interesting couple of hours yesterday with Isobal MacInnes, the Usdaw rep at the Coop in Inverness, helping to leaflet shoppers about Usdaw’s “Keep your cool at Christmas “ campaign. The event was organised as part of Usdaw’s Freedom from Fear Week.

Usdaw’s most recent survey shows that two thirds of shop staff have been abused in the last year and nearly 10% have suffered physical assault. A major cause is angry customers and reports of ‘trolley rage’ incidents are on the increase. The shop staff that I met told me that Christmas is the time when they suffer most anger and abuse. Retail shop workers are in the front line of dealing with issues such as under-age drinking and the resulting verbal abuse can leave staff upset and depressed.

Shopworkers need much more support from their management as well as better understanding of these issues from the wider public.