I WASN’T always a moaning old git. I remember as a boy going to the local store where you gave a man in a brown coat your “shopping list”, he collected the items and put them in stout paper bags. If you needed it, a boy on a bike transported them to your home gratis: customer service.

Customers today are treated as a resource to be harvested. Having just been herded through a self-checkout after having collected, scanned and packed all my items in a branch of what formerly was a flagship of the retail trade, I feel justified in saying that today’s consumer wouldn’t recognise proper customer service if they came across it in their soup.

Some of us have grumpiness forced upon them. Nurse! Medication! Now!

David J Crawford,

85 Whittingehame Court,

1300 Great Western Road,

Glasgow .