‘Everytime!’: 28yo blasts Coles, Woolies, Aldi supermarket trend

A young Australian woman is going viral for pointing out the new grim supermarket trend that proves a “mean” reality.

Courtney Oliver is going viral for revealing she’s fed-up with seeing customers be rude to staff “every time” she goes to the supermarket.

Ms Oliver, based in Perth, amassed more than 200,000 views on TikTok when she revealed she couldn’t even pop into the supermarket, such as Woolworths, Coles or Aldi, to get a snack without hearing people complain.

“Every time I go, someone — I don’t want to say someone older, because sometimes they are younger — but always someone is going, ‘I don’t want to use self-serve, why is there no cash check-outs available?’ Blah blah blah,” she said.

She said customers’ attitudes frustrated her because workers weren’t responsible for making big decisions about how supermarkets ran.

“Do you think it is their fault?” she asked.

The 28-year-old says people should ‘stay home’ if they can't be kind. Picture: Instagram/ccourtneyoliver

She’s explained what keeps happening at the supermarket. Picture: Instagram/ccourtneyoliver

She said while she was lining up to use a checkout that was accepting cash recently, a woman behind her complained there weren’t enough available.

The woman even pointed at a supermarket employee and said, “They’re trying to take our cash”, she said.

Ms Oliver said supermarket staff members didn’t get “paid enough” to deal with being harassed by customers.

“If you truly believe the person serving you controls the self-serve check-outs. If you believe it is them, that they have personally made a decision that inconveniences you, you’ve got rocks in your head,” she declared.

She said customers could be “so mean” to supermarket workers who were just trying to do their jobs and suggested if people couldn’t be nice, they should “stay home”.

The 28-year-old told news.com.au she first noticed people becoming meaner to supermarket workers during the pandemic.

“Around Covid lockdowns, I would say it got worse, and recently, with the cost-of-living crisis, it has gotten worse,” she said.

She noticed people started complaining about everything from long queues to people whinging about minimal check-outs being available.

“The example in the video was a lady having a go at a young girl because there was only one self-serve checkout that took cash, as if that young girl was solely responsible for that. What the f**k,” she said.

The 28-year-old doesn't understand why people can be so mean to staff. Picture: Instagram/ccourtneyoliver

The clip amassed over 200,000 views. Picture: Instagram/ccourtneyoliver

The Perth local said she understood people were frustrated because “times are tough” but that didn’t give them an excuse to take it out on supermarket workers.

“The cost of living is insane, and the older generation struggles with today’s technological advances, such as self-service; however, it is not an excuse to verbally abuse staff members who are just doing their jobs,” she said.

“In my experience, that gets you nowhere. If you have an issue, you should go directly to the feedback or complaints line and put it in writing.”

Ms Oliver said customers needed to remember that people working in supermarkets were just doing their jobs.

“These people working in supermarkets are humans too, and often, young people who have absolutely no say in how the company is run, and seeing them be spoken to in such a horrible way just upsets me,” she said.

The response from TikTok had been enough to confirm to Ms Oliver she wasn’t the only one who has noticed the grim supermarket trend.

“I have had so many comments and DMs from people telling me stories of them being treated so badly by customers that they have been reduced to tears, had to leave work, or even quit because they simply cannot handle it anymore,” she said.

“I have also had parents tell me their high school children have come home crying or have been too anxious to go to work because of how the public treat them.”

Originally published as ‘Everytime!’: 28yo blasts Coles, Woolies, Aldi supermarket trend