You often get a mouthful of abuse about prices – obviously we have no control of that, we’re in the same boat as well. In the past they’d have said: “Oh, can you just check the price of that?” Now they want to fight about how much the cost has gone up. Even the slightest cost query is a drama. People are frustrated in supermarkets because all the prices have risen. I think, now there is the cost-of-living crisis, people are taking their money worries out on us, too. I call home on my break and my husband has this joke where he says: “How many times have you been abused up until now?” Most days I lose count. I’ve seen colleagues having things thrown at them. You’re just trying to help people but they become abusive and threatening over the slightest thing.

If they can’t find the things they want or they’ve had to queue, I get the brunt of it.īut since lockdown, the abuse has massively increased. I’m at the end of the shopping experience so by the time customers get to me, I’m the one they tend to take it out on. I’ve worked in supermarkets as a checkout supervisor for nearly 20 years and there’s always been abuse in stores. If, when I started, you’d told me this is what working in a supermarket would look like in 2023, I wouldn’t have believed you. Shoplifters are shameless and aggressive. We get sworn at and even spat on regularly. It’s hardly a warzone, yet we face daily abuse. This is the reality of working on the tills in a supermarket in North Wales in 2023. And no, I’m not Batman with a utility belt either. It does feel bizarre that I have all this gear on when I go to work I’m not a security guard or army or in the police. Every morning when I put on my uniform, I stop and double-check I have everything needed to keep me safe: I slip on my headset so my colleagues can tell me if they’re having problems, I clip a security radio to my trousers, then I attach my body-cam to my lapel, and finally the radio that calls the local police directly.

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