On the service front I think what you’ve witnessed is work culture evolution. If you think about retail and food service, people churn in and out fast. The cult

On the service front I think what you’ve witnessed is work culture evolution. If you think about retail and food service, people churn in and out fast. The culture evolves quicker than you’d normally expect because of the people changing and many adaptations to new management, policies, technologies, etc. It’s become common place for workers to just not be present at all in these settings. Nobody to ask where to find something and certainly nobody trustworthy enough to ask about a products features/ or for a recommendation. The employees on the floor are likely preoccupied by something else like stocking shelves and it’s as if you’re interrupting them to ask as any question. So new employees come on board and they’re never taught how to help customers. Then they get promoted and maybe they know the POS the best but they can’t deal with customers well. They’re responsible for hiring and training new hires. So since they don’t value customer service, they don’t mind when new hire wants to wear AirPods while stocking. Now suddenly everyone is wearing AirPods while working. So you literally are interrupting them as a customer. They have to pause their podcast to have you repeat the question you already asked 3 times while trying to get their attention. It’s likely they don’t know how to help you if you really do need help did solving your problem is not their default, they think shrugging and saying I don’t know is acceptable and you’re on your own. This happens over and over and now a workforce that’s too ambivalent to be productively helpful to customers experiences. Not even proactively in common sense ways. An example I’ve run into a couple time from quick service food joints goes like this. I order a fountain drink with my food. Pay, walk to drink machine that’s out of order. I ask clerk if there’s anything else to drink, they say no. I then ask why they sold me a fountain drink if they know machine is broken? I tell them I want a refund. They say they don’t know how. Takes 15 minutes and a manager to get the refund. As I’m waiting, cashier continues selling fountain drinks to customers in line.