There's a particular kind of tired that comes from trying to buy milk these days. Not the physical exhaustion that follows me everywhere... rather it's the "why am I being treated like a suspect for wanting a pint of cow juice" kind.
Somewhere in the last few years, the whole culture around customer service has shifted under our feet. The message coming from a lot of big brands right now is horribly clear: we assume you're up to no good until you prove otherwise.
Sainsbury's abuse of innocent shoppers
Let's start with the big one. Sainsbury's has been rolling out AI facial recognition across its stores in the UK... hundreds of them, all in the name of catching shoplifters. That's fine, in theory. Shops have a right to protect their stock and staff.
The problem is it isn't just catching shoplifters. It's already frogmarched at least one innocent shopper out of a South East London store, with no alert on him at all... the whole thing came down to a staff member getting it wrong, not the technology. The pitiful response from Sainsbury's was a statement calling it "human error," followed by a meek, corporate non-apology that reads like it was drafted by three lawyers and a PR intern.
That's the bit that gets me all sweaty and annoyed... mistakes will happen with any system. But when a company's technology (or the people behind it) can humiliate you in public, in front of your neighbours, the price for that humiliation is a sad little statement. How can you possibly accept that you could be treated like a criminal for simply trying to buy some groceries?
And this isn't new bullshit for Sainsbury's. They were eager to bring in airport-style security gates and cages at the self-checkouts, the ones that lock shut until you scan a receipt to prove you paid for what's in your bag. I remember the early, post-pandemic days of those... you'd be stood there, having genuinely paid, negotiating your way out with a little slip of paper like you're trying to talk your way past a club bouncer.
I haven't set foot in a Sainsbury's in over five years now. That's not me boycotting for a hashtag... this is just what happens when a business makes you feel like a suspect often enough. You stop visiting, and you don't ever come back.
The Turkish barber that gave a toss
I have another example, smaller scale, but it's stuck with me. There used to be a Turkish barber I went to. A young lad in his early twenties, always pleasant... he'd greet me like he meant it, tell me he'd sort me out, and then actually do it. He remembered my name (I wish I could recall his), and he knew how I liked mine cut. This made my monthly visits feel like an experience rather than a transaction. I'd happily go out of my way to reach the shop and pay a bit more for it, even when the place was rammed, and I had to wait my turn.
He later moved on to bigger things, as good people tend to. And what was left behind was fine. It was adequate. The bare minimum delivered with the enthusiasm of someone counting down to the end of their shift. A grunt where there used to be a conversation.
Two or three visits later and I was gone. Not because the haircut was terrible... because there was nothing left that made me want to be a customer rather than just another head in a chair.
BA: the cartel that forgot it needs customers
Then there's British Airways, an airline that spent decades trading on the word "prestige", and is only now waking up to what happens when you let the services behind that word go to rot.
Anyone who's flown with them lately knows the score... it's a genuinely worse experience than the budget airlines they used to look down on. The difference is Ryanair and easyJet never pretended otherwise... you know exactly what you're paying for and what you're not getting. BA still charges like it's 1995 and behaves like it doesn't need to bother, because for a long time, it didn't. That's what happens when you coast on reputation for long enough... you start believing the reputation is the product, rather than something you have to keep earning.
McDonald's: a marketing genius missing the sauce
I worked in a Maccas decades ago, so I've seen this one from the inside too. Back then there was a genuine effort to greet people, get orders out quickly, and fix anything that went wrong without a fuss. You always felt like nothing was too much hassle. We used to be taught in school that more people could recognise the golden arches than could recognise religious symbols... that's how good the brand had been at being instantly, universally recognisable.
These days you're less likely to get a bonus nugget in your bag and more likely to find they couldn't be bothered putting the sauce in, again. It's a small thing that tells you everything.
Boo hoo, "nobody" is spending money
Here's the bit that really winds me up. These businesses are out there wringing their hands about people not spending, footfall being down, and belts being tightened. Yeah, money's tighter for a lot of us. But that's not the whole story, and I think they know it.
The places that still make an effort - that treat you like a person rather than a threat or a transaction - are doing fine. It's everyone else who's confused about where their customers went. Even the most basic, least fussy shopper is getting a lot more discerning about where their money goes and, more importantly, who they're willing to hand it to.
Turns out being treated like a criminal, or an afterthought, is a pretty effective way to lose a customer for good. Who knew.