A guide to good manners at the retail counter this holiday season

By TRACEE M. HERBAUGH

As shoppers flood stores across the country during the year’s biggest shopping season , retail workers are bracing for what many describe as the most demanding — and often demoralizing — stretch of the job.

“It magnifies everything,” said Nick Leighton, host of the podcast “Were You Raised by Wolves?,” which he co-hosts with comedian Leah Bonnema. Together, they dissect etiquette and the subtleties of social behavior.

“People are stressed, they’re busy, they’re frazzled,” he said. “When that happens, we tend to forget other people exist.”

Whether it’s gridlocked parking lots or shelves picked clean, the holiday retail environment can become a pressure cooker where manners evaporate quickly.

November and December have long driven retail sales, prompting compan