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Comment by sema4hacker | Hacker News Reader

I'll always remember how my German brother-in-law found that when he arrived in America, retail store clerks were always eager to offer help, but actually didn't know anything about the products being sold and were untrained and basically useless.

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Might also be related to how the public treats retail workers (ie not well). So there's a lot of turnover, which means the remaining employees have less experience and the parent company isn't going to want to invest a lot in training.

The turnover is yet another "feature." Lots of new people on staff makes it more difficult for them to learn the ways they're getting screwed by management and corporate, and to subsequently organize for better conditions.

I worked in a unionized retail store and it definitely did _not_ incentivize better work.

I didn't say it did. The implication was that fear of unionization caused companies to take actions which degrades their workforce's capabilities as a side effect.

That said, other countries with unionized retail seem to be able to provide excellent customer service. So, maybe the problem isn't unions, but Americans (or Americans in unions)(or Americans in unions in a country where unionization has historically been waning). Or maybe your experience mischaracterizes the actual circumstances.

I'll +1 to this. Coming from Australia to the US I've found that (generally, especially in big corp entities/govt.) American customer service is always extremely courteous and eager but ultimately unhelpful or severely limited in what they can do. As soon as you are off script, good luck.

on the counter I think Australian retail is some of the best. fun, low pressure, engaging and helpful.

I would agree. My standard engagement with CS in Australia was a lot more personable and once it was recognized that a situation was off script they were far more willing to go into problem solving mode.

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