“How many items you got hun?”
These are the words of Sarah, 26, a retail assistant who is part of a demographic ranked by researchers as ‘the most annoying humans of capitalist society’.
Psychologist, Dr Lawson believes she doesn’t need research to prove that this brand of shop assistants are bundles of irritation.
“Shoppers tend to put up with it for the first couple of ‘huns’,” Dr Lawson said.
“But after five to six lines on the receiving end, it appears condescending and is enough to drive customers to neck themselves.”
Sarah, who works at Dotti, says greeting customers as ‘hun’ is chic and voguish and that people don’t understand postmodern retail culture.
“It’s a unique sort of culture in our stores, different to any other place on planet earth, hun,” Sarah said.
“You rarely hear ‘hun’ unless you shop at stores like ours, Cotton On or perhaps Factorie, hun.”
On page one of Dotti’s employee booklet, handed to workers when they first join the retailer, is a list of 10 recommended phrases relevant to in-store scenarios.
They all end in hun — for example Phrase 2: ‘Omg, that looks absolutely stunning on you, hun!’, and Phrase 7: ‘Are you happy just having a look, hun?’.
Jennifer, 22, a Dotti regular is fucking fed up.
“If we don’t scoff cheese plates in dressing gowns, bitch about boys or watch Sex in the City with a glass of bubbles together, you have no reason to call me ‘hun’,” she said.
THE MANKAD 