The New Zealand retail experience, as summed up by a frustrated Katherine Hawkesby as of yesterday.

She visited half a dozen shops - one was decent and the rest were useless.

They were useless for a variety of reasons, but the common theme was service, or lack of it.

How is it continually possible that we have a sector crying out for support and yet so unable to offer something worth spending money on, and a country with a lot of people allegedly happy to go find a job and yet the people with the jobs are so fantastically incompetent?

We all know the story. It's not unique to Katie yesterday, on the early burst of Christmas shopping. Retail, tragically, is filled with hopelessness, lack of stock, lack of desire and a lack of professionalism.

Which is why the good ones are so welcome and why I have been able to tell you many times in the past few months, and can name you a decent number of operators in a variety of fields, that have weathered these past few years with no real issues at all.

They are good at what they do. They want to do well. Word of mouth and reputation travels far and fast and they are fine, thank you very much.

Yesterday's highlight was at a liquor shop. It's a large one and is part of a chain.

The woman behind the counter, slovenly, full of tattoos and on the phone with no interest in service or acknowledging a customer.

When asked, because she didn’t offer any help, she didn’t know what Prosecco was.

How can you work in a shop that sells nothing but wine and spirits and not know what Prosecco is, or where in the shop you find it?

Who employed her, and why? And why was there no training? This is a big brand and a brand, I would have thought, that would be interested in reputation and a decent customer experience.

How does a person with clearly no knowledge or interest in the thing they are selling actually get work?

Are you telling me the people who can't get work are even worse than her?

The resentment, Katie fumed, is based on the idea that we all work hard for the dollars.

Handing them over would be easier, nicer and more fulfilling if you thought the recipient, just for a moment, was even slightly grateful.

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Mike's Minute: The NZ retail experience, a first hand view

The Mike Hosking Breakfast