scopedin

Not at all, there's a difference between acknowledging the customer and being a bother. When I'm a customer, the worst that can happen is needing help and having to wander the store to find someone who will actually talk to you (which happened to me at a different location of the company i work for)

As someone who also works retail, I try to be especially sensitive to whether a customer even looks like they want to be bothered. Some people just want to get in, check out, and be done, but others really would like someone to come up and help them. Every customer has a look, it just takes a large volume of customers to be able to differentiate.

What I find to be a problem is that, after doing research, I'll go in to the local chain to ask questions and actually get an opinion, but no one quite knows any answers, or they'll give the worse response in my opinion 'well you already seem to know what you want.' The reason I go in is because I'm trying to figure that out. There are some good workers I've come across, but oddly enough, it has nothing to do with age or experience, but just passion for their job and hockey. If someone is just working the shop because they play hockey and it gets them a discount, they're going to be a poor worker. Someone who works because they enjoy helping someone take part in the game is going to put forth the effort to know what they're talking about. Sadly, most kids these days just want a paycheck.