Date published: 01.09.08 - not release date

Christmas shoppers: ‘Tis the season to get angry

~ fish4jobs survey reveals it’s the staff, not the crowds that make present buying a chore ~

For some, it is the season to eat, drink and be merry, but for UK shoppers this Christmas is set to be a time when tempers are frayed, seasonal cheer goes out the window and stress levels rise. Over two-thirds (61%) of shoppers admit they no longer get a festive thrill out of hitting the high streets for presents.

This is according to research from the UK’s leading recruitment website fish4jobs which has surveyed 1,200 shoppers currently preparing for the festive push. The report has revealed that it’s the treatment they get in shops, rather than the crowds that is turning them off with the majority (85%) blaming bad customer service for ruining their festive shopping trips.

The research reveals that it’s poorly-trained, impolite and bored staff that risk turning the season of goodwill into a living nightmare for present buyers and even led one in ten people (13%) to claim that they’d like to pay someone to do their shopping so they don’t have to.

The study also gives an insight into some of the biggest bugbears identified by shoppers as big festive turn-offs. These include two-thirds (57%) revealing they are often untrained staff, or staff that can’t answer simple questions about the products on sale (54%). The majority of Christmas shoppers (86%) admit they’ve left a shop without buying the present they were after because of the queues.

With this week seeing the traditional kick off of the Christmas shopping season, with Regent Street switching on its Christmas lights, Joe Slavin, fish4jobs chief executive, said retail could be missing a trick when it comes to the Christmas season, “It’s almost become a cliché to say that the high-street is an unpleasant place to go during the festive season. Some stores are, however starting to get things right – you can spot them because they seem like an oasis of calm amongst the Christmas chaos.

“The town centre doesn’t have to be a ‘no go’ area over Christmas, a little bit of planning and clever deployment of staff can help bring a little bit of Christmas magic back to out towns and cities. It might be too late to avoid meltdown for 2007, but clever businesses are already planning for Christmas 2008 and beyond”.

For media enquiries about fish4jobs, contact the fish4 team at Cow PR on 0207 684 6969 or fish4@cowpr.com. Alternatively, contact on 0208 600 6998 or katie.siegel@fish4.co.uk

Further information about fish4, as well as all recent press releases, can be found at the fish4 media centre: http://media.fish4.co.uk/.

About fish4jobs

fish4jobs is the UK’s most popular recruitment website with over 2.7 million unique visitors per month. The site features over 80,000 new jobs every month across a wide range of sectors from retail to banking.

With a user base spread evenly across the UK, fish4jobs’ blue-chip client base includes the biggest high-street recruitment consultants: Adecco, Hays and Kelly, and direct recruiters including: RBS, Threshers, T-Mobile and Powergen.

For more info visit: www.fish4jobs.co.uk

•The National Online Recruitment Audience Survey 2007