A listener has detailed some terrible treatment her elderly mother-in-law received from a retail worker at a large grocery chain.

Leanne told Jo McManus, in for Steve Mills on Millsy at Midday, that her 80-year-old mother-in-law entered the store last Saturday afternoon and asked a staff member for help after being unable to locate the item.

“The lady didn’t stop what she was doing, didn’t make eye contact, used her hand and dismissively said ‘it’s down there, if we’ve got it’s down there, otherwise we don’t have it’,” Leanne said on Thursday.

The staff member turned out to be the supermarket manager, and later defended her actions to Leanne when she visited the store.

Leanne told Jo that the incident had a profound impact on her mother-in-law, who was left devastated from the encounter.

“She got so upset [in the days ensuing]… she said to my husband ‘I’m useless, I’m hopeless, why am I even here, I should just go’,” she told McManus.

Tap PLAY to hear more from Leanne and other listeners detailing poor customer service in Perth