You've never worked in retail have you? I'd say half the customers I deal with can't help themselves, and don't know what they're asking for. The other half treat store employees like work mules. I think there's a thread in general discussion about retail horror stories.

 

Er, no. They're obliged to do what their employer tells them to do. If their employer says that stocking the shelves, sweeping the floor, etc is more important than looking for Human Alliance Sideswipe in the stockroom... I think you can see how that works.

As a further example, I've worked as a customer service phone monkey in call centres. You'd think that what we were obliged to do was help each caller with their query. What we were actually supposed to do was get each caller off the line in two minutes or less.