In the grand scheme of things, the customer may have slightly more pull than the cashier ringing up their order, but it’s the CEO and the board of directors that control the narrative. That’s why we’re getting bigger and less fuel efficient vehicles, bigger and more fattening meal portions in restaurants, and bigger less affordable houses.
Do you mean the shitty customers get shitty treatment? My experience with shopping while in Germany was no different than at home in the US. Except the one store I went to where no one spoke English and I had to ask a random person outside for help. But, I mean… I’m not one of those jackass customers 🤷🏻♂️
No, I mean entering a bakery and being ignored or the staff is annoyed with you before you say a word.
At the bike shop they get annoyed because the breaks of your beater bike are rusty.
At the Deutsche Bahn, they get annoyed with you if their train came late, so you miss your last connection and be stranded, so you ask how to solve this problem.
Of course most interaction are neutral and the bad ones just stick to memory.
I’m happy for you that you were lucky, I traveled a lot in the western world and had nowhere an experience as bad as the general experience here. Maybe in the Netherlands and Belgium.
We are kinda infamous for bad customer service. And there are 100s of experiences you find on Google. Like this:
https://www.iamexpat.de/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/expat-survival-guide-phoning-customer-service-germany .