We began thinking about publishing a post to discuss the fiendishly perverse Duty of Care ( hereinafter abbreviated to DoC ) conundrum after yet another 
incident at out factory outlet some weeks past. To begin with, let's describe the contretemps. A young couple visited our store wanting to buy four of our A2 Natural Ready-Made frames for the prints they had with them. We duly showed them the frames they were looking for, which, by the way, were glazed with clear glass, not plastic. The couple liked the frames, and after they paid for them, told us that they were in a hurry and that they were going to put the prints inside the frames right away, at our store counter. They didn't ask our permission, they just told us that's what they were going to do. The female Customer then started to tear away the plastic wrapping of a frame, opening it up so as to put her print in.
That's when we intervened, asking her to refrain from continuing as, regrettably, our store policy does not permit Customers to do their own fitting up while on our premises. The male Customer immediately and vociferously protested , aggressively and loudly protesting and arguing that challenging our intimation was firstly, discourteous, then hostile and, lastly, illegal.
When we maintained our stance and declined permission for the couple to continue their unauthorised fitting up, they demanded a refund for the frames they had just bought and threatened our business by stating their intention of publishing not one, but several, negative Google business reviews.
Our staff did not react or respond to the obvious provocations. The attending Salesperson called the Duty Manager who simply took back the frames and refunded the Customers regretting that we could not fulfil their shopping requirements. The Manager diplomatically wished them well in their shopping endeavours elsewhere.
At this point, some readers might well ask: "All right, why don't you let Customers put prints into frames at your store?". Well, we would begin by answering that we have already, in the main, addressed this particular question in our past post “Can I put the poster in the frame while I’m here here?”. However, we think that the subject is interesting and topical enough to elaborate further.
But first, let's see if we can condense DoC in a brief, simple sentence. To our mind, DoC is the legal obligation of all persons not to cause or impart harm that could reasonably be foreseen to any one else or to their property. The duty also arises if shopkeepers, retailers, or sellers, in any contribute to the risk that causes the harm experienced by the other person.
In our practical, if untrained, view, DoC is but a Pandora's Box, conceived, procreated, nurtured and maintained by lawyers for their own, proprietary growth and expansion of their professional industry.