I'm terrible at answering the phone so it's not the best example to use for me! I more often than not call people back and if my phone went while I was at the till, I'd wait until I was done to check it - I wouldn't know it was an emergency until I answered it. If I was already on the phone and it was a real emergency, I'd be leaving without buying anything.

And I agree with what people say about the customer being right. Experience from when I worked in Tesco when I was younger showed that the customer, in a number of instances, is rarely right. I had a jar of peanut butter thrown at me because the till was closed, I was verbally abused on numerous occasions because certain items weren't in stock, and more that isn't coming to mind at the moment.

Clearly when a customer is trying to con something out of the company then the "customer is always right" maxim goes out of the window.

But that doesn't extend to cashiers refusing to serve customers for minor breaches of etiquette.

I don't believe for a second that any manager would have permitted her to refuse to serve a customer who was on a mobile.

I think she was blatantly lying when she says it was a store policy.

If I did that I wouldn't be able to see the other person but I see the point of it

The full quote including at the end, as i was taught many moons ago, "except when they are wrong"

I think that's the bit where she falls down. A better response from her would have been along the lines of 'its not store policy but just good manners' or something of that ilk.

Then in the resulting fallout Sainsburys would have had to decide whether its better PR to back their till operators against rude customers or go for the customer is always right line.
Think I know which way they'd have gone though.

You didn't witness the event. No one on this thread witnessed the event. But you're all condemning the woman.

What if this woman only had a 30 minute work break to get the shopping done and received an unexpected call from her husband who's a serving soldier in Afghanistan?

She should hang up on her husband so that she doesn't offend the cashier?

Should she witter on about what she's wearing on Saturday night with her mate?

All of this is ridiculous speculation and completely pointless.

It's pretty much certain that she was talking inane drivel to someone. But that still doesn't give a cashier the right to refuse service.

From Sainsbury's PLC point of view that customer could spend 100 pounds a week on groceries in their store every week. That customer is worth 5,200 pounds a year to Sainsbury's. And that cashier has just sent the customer to a competitor.

I think LGJM has a point. Of course it's incredibly rude to be on a mobile phone whilst being served at a checkout, but if retailers only agreed to serve those members of the public who were polite they'd soon go out of business. Every customer-facing employee has the right to go about their business without being abused or intimidated, but they don't have the right to dictate who they will and won't serve based on the customer's manners (or lack thereof).