I’m all for hiring young people to look after your shop. They want to work. They need the money. It teaches them responsibility, team work and many other things. But… it’s up to the store owner or manager to teach them customer service. You can’t just teach them about the product and how to take money and leave it at that. Which is a lesson for the people of Fantasy Donuts in the Stockland shopping centre in Nowra.

I went there recently to buy a doughnut. I checked out the range, none of which were priced or labelled. I spotted what looked like a pineapple doughnut.

The young girls behind the counter weren’t paying too much attention to the customers.

When one finally served me, I asked if one of the doughnuts down the end was a pineapple doughnut. She said it was. I said I’ll have one of those please.

The girl got my doughnut, took my money and after I said “thank you”, she replied… wait for it: “Sweet. See ya!”

That might be an acceptable way to say “You’re welcome” to an 18-year-old, but not to a person my age.

I walked off with my doughnut and took it back to my holiday apartment, some kilometres away. I opened the bag, and guess what – I didn’t get a pineapple doughnut. She gave me a caramel doughnut instead.

There are at least three Fantasy Donut outlets on the NSW south coast, which I guess are all owned by the same company.

I threw my non-pineapple doughnut away.

Fantasy Donuts