Kildare manager touched as customer returns to apologise year after horrible incident

This week is Kindness Week 2026 which aims to highlights both the positivity shown by most customers and the ongoing challenge of abusive behaviour in Irish retail.

22-year-old retail manager Lisa McCluskey of Circle K, Kill North, Co. Kildare, has described one abusive incident that occurred in her store last year to shine a light on the type of behaviour retail staff deal with on a regular basis.

"My own personal experience was a time when a customer in the queue and he was looking for a particular brand of product which we didn't stock so he verbally abused myself and my team members in front of a whole queue of customers.

"It's not really nice when that happens you know.... it creates the wrong atmosphere in store for the team but also for our customers in the queue as well."

Lisa said that the customer returned to the store recently, a year on from that incident, to apologise to Lisa and her staff for verbally abusing them.

"So for us that's a really big deal, you know, even though it's a year ago like every retail worker out there would really appreciate an apology, and it takes a lot for someone to apologise a year later.

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"I didn't even remember what had happened but it's nice for someone to come in and apologise....we do appreciate that."

Lisa said that Kindness Week is "all about raising awareness of unwanted behaviour but also to give thanks to the customers that are kind and respectful to retail workers. 

The Circle K at Kill North on the Naas Road serves up to 3,000 customers every day and this week the store is giving out free sweets to customers to show thanks to them for their kindness and respect to their retail staff.

"You're only coming in to either pay for fuel or get goods, so just no matter what's going on, just be mindful that the people behind the till or the people behind the deli have families to go home to.

"They're here to do a job to the best of their ability so they don't want to be taking that home with them to their families. It has a big effect on people, especially if you're not used to it like a new staff member on their first week. If a customer comes in and they are having a bad day and take that out on the new staff member, that's not a nice experience for someone.

"It's not a nice experience for them to go home feeling like they haven't done a good job or that this customer has verbally abused them because they weren't quick enough or didn't know a PLU code.

"So it's just to be more mindful of the people behind the till, be kind and respectful, and if there's an issue, they can always ask for a manager, someone more experienced to have that conversation with instead of verbally abusing a team member."

While over eight in ten retail workers (83%) say the vast majority of customers treat them with kindness and respect, new research shows that abuse from a small minority remains a regular reality across Ireland’s retail sector, with seven in ten workers (70%) reporting they have personally experienced abusive language or behaviour from customers.

The research shows that one in three retail workers who have experienced abusive behaviour from customers say it occurs at least once a week.

Foul language and verbal abuse remain the most common forms of abuse experienced by retail workers, reported by 69% and 67% of those affected respectively. More serious behaviour is also a concern, with more than a quarter (28%) of those who have experienced abuse saying it involved violent, aggressive or threatening behaviour, although this represents a notable decrease from 35% last year.