The assistant looked at me with all the eager attention of a toddler being presented with a book on quantum physics, barely pausing from chanking on gum that occasionally poked out between her lips like an extra blueberry-flavoured tongue.

“Sorry there’s no one to help you,” she said as she stared, dead-eyed, at a point 2ft over my left shoulder.

I’d gone into a well-known national pet store to buy flea treatment. It was a little after 6pm and the store advertised itself on its website as being open until 8pm.

I could see the treatment I, or more accurately my cat, needed. All that was required next was someone with a key to take it out of the locked cabinet but, no, the person with the qualifications, ie the key, was not on duty.

It wasn’t the wasted journey that annoyed me. It was the utter lack of sympathy from the shop worker. She’d lost interest in me, my cat and his fleas long before she had even reached the end of her sentence and this is what rang around my brain as I drove home empty-handed: ‘why are we so terrible at customer service in this country?’ Many of us have been to America and practically been swept away by a tidal wave of schmaltz from shop assistants overly concerned about the rest of our day.

We’ve all hankered for a little less attention to our health and well-being when all we want is cup of tea but, surely, that’s better than being treated like an intruder?

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve waited in vain at a till while those behind it finish a conversation about exactly how her who works part-time on a Thursday is no better than she ought to be.

I was once served in a DIY store in Chippenham by someone conducting a mobile phone conversation. When it came to payment she just held open her hand and indicated the total on the till display with a slight wave. I was forced to silently mouth a request for a carrier bag, which was met with a jerk of a thumb towards a pile behind her.

We don’t want to be greeted like long lost and unexpectedly wealthy relatives. We don’t even require a conversation about the weather. But is some eye contact, a smile and an interest in why we are darkening their door too much to ask?

My experience of working in supermarkets, pubs and restaurants has taught me there are several reasons why our customer service is so dismal and I’d say more than 75 per cent is down to employers.

They don’t select staff properly, train them how to behave like a human being or supervise them once they have started.

They almost certainly don’t pay them enough either. Should we really expect a teenager on minimum wage to care whether they have one of those in blue all the way out in the stockroom when it is just as easy to say ‘no’? Why should they care if the customer goes elsewhere? That’s also why it is a waste of time to splutter indignantly ‘I’ll take my custom elsewhere!’ at poor service.

No one should be surprised at the slack-jawed response that indicates the assistant couldn’t care less if you set yourself alight in the changing cubicle.

Tonight Trowbridge holds its service excellence awards. They highlight firms who provide great service and train their staff not to fiddle blankly with their piercings while hapless customers hop about in frustrated and impotent rage at their lack of regard for them.

This is a wonderful initiative and shows real respect for the town’s traders and customers. Towns across the rest of Wiltshire ought to look closely and follow suit. It’s the polite thing to do if they really want to show customers they care.