American Shoppers Are A Nightmare Summary

Respect in Service: Addressing Consumer Entitlement and The Need For Change.

Imagine working in a world where the simple act of being treated with basic respect is rare. This is the life of most American service workers. Consumers have the expectation for service workers to treat them like royalty; however, when these expectations are not met, consumers exploit their limited power to abuse the saying that “the customer is always right.” Amanda Mull’s article “American Shoppers Are A Nightmare” explores why consumers think this way, how these expectations and behaviors hurt employees, and how we need our society to shift towards more respectful and equitable treatment towards service workers.

First, Amanda Mull explains how middle class consumers make themselves feel like they are
This is described as the “psychological trap of middle-classness” (Mull 9). Because the upper class can buy their way through life, the middle-class sees this as a way to replicate the same power towards anyone they see as below them, even though they and the service workers they are treating that way are not that different from each other. While service workers may be working for the consumer at the time, the consumer most likely works for someone else, too. Almost everyone that has a job has to provide services for someone or something. Given this, it is bizarre that consumers treat service workers this way when they are in the same situation. Next, Amanda Mull explains how service works are basically set up by the businesses they work for. Amanda states that, “Modern businesses have invented novel ways to exacerbate conflicts between their customers and their workers” (Mull 10). This basically means that nowadays, businesses create extra problems for the service workers by making up rules to cater to the consumer, which ultimately works against the workers. Service workers face challenges not only because of the rules set by