Community Chat

[deepwaterdotter]

Even the nurseries in my area are having trouble getting hearty plants this year. While waiting in line at the grocery store I was chatting with a lady who works at a local greenhouse. She said that the quality of the flowers available from the growers this year is very poor. I have decided to save my money for next year and just hang my baskets of silk flowers.

[ahoymate]

On 6/1/2014 gazelle77 said:

On 6/1/2014 Skylands said:

Customer service is not great on the phone either. Lowest common denominator are hired. They know practically nothing. Even on line chat is poor. Including QVC.

Tip: Try going to stores in better neighborhoods as in upscale.

That reminds me of the Pretty Woman incident where julia Roberts goes into the fancy clothes store in Beverly Hills and gets the boot! I do not think it should matter where you go. Customer service can be better at a Good Will store than a fancy store. Trust ME!

Perhaps I wasn't entirely clear. I meant better neighborhoods generally have clean, well stocked stores. Customer service is not always good here either. No need to shout at me Grizzle bear!

[ahoymate]

On 6/1/2014 Happy Elizabeth said:

I agree with Gazelle on this one! It's why I shop online so much. I really don't understand how half the B&M places I go to stay in business. The shelves are a mess, yet there are clumps of staff chatting amongst themselves. People just don't care anymore. I feel badly for business owners - it's very difficult to find people who care and have a sense of personal pride and responsibility. I live in one of the most upscale towns in the US, and it doesn't make a difference - just that the bad staff are better dressed and probably college educated.

Save your tears for business owners. Minimum wage and under appreciation by management doesn't create a happy work experience for employees.

Again, good/bad neighborhoods, customer service is not great. I'm implying better neighborhoods usually have stores that clean, better stocked.

[Suhse]

On 6/1/2014 physicsnut said:

Don't know how long you have been retired from your retail job, but the economy the past 6 years has done a lot of damage to the retail world. Hours have been cut to everyone I speak with in that profession. When hours are cut, less people there to keep the store looking pristine. Also, most retail companies only hire part timers now thanks to o care. One person in a dept. now is expected to do the job of 3 people. Not going to happen when you have messy customers. I went into a dressing room at a local store yesterday and on the floor were at least 20 pairs of jeans, shirts, etc. The CUSTOMER left these, not the store employee. The store employee was overwhelmed at the amount of clothes left in the fitting room by disrespectful customers and I agreed with her. Once I was finished trying on clothes, I put them back on the hanger and took them out of the dressing room and put them back where they belong. Not hard to do, but respectful to the store.

O Care has Nothing to do with retail stores hiring postly parttime employees. I worked my way thru College, starting when I was 18, working in a high end retail store. I'm 41 now.

We had a core of full time employees, but, I don't think anyone was ever hired full time and when a FT employee left, the postiion was almost never filled with FT hrs. We had lots of PT staff.

Retail stores have Always heavily used PT employees. They avoid paying benefits, they avoid paying the best salaries, and they have a pool of staff that they can use with flexibility.

What Was different, when I worked retail, better training for all employees and back then, it seemed most stores had employees that were "dedicated" to certain departments or areas, so, even PT employees, who didn't work that many hours, had much better product knowledge.

IMO, the proliferation of central checkout, in so many low to middle range stores, was a major blow to customer service.

[hennypenny]

I go crazy when the salespeople are chewing gum and chatting either on their cell phones or with one another. I will walk out of the store when this happens.

[adelle38]

I think it's just another example of declining social skills.

[ilovedaisies]

I can't remember seeing staff standing around chatting... I hardly ever see staff. If you have a question and you aren't in electronics, good luck finding someone to help you. The big stores are trying to get by with an absolutely bare bones staff.

[Group 5 minus 1]

DH always says that there is no such thing as service. Most workers are part time w/no benefits so who cares? As for the aisles they are always cluttered and in an effort to have more product the aisles are smaller and smaller. Kids are not told to behave. The truth is (I am ashamed to say) if I misbehaved I was slapped right there in the store. And no one knows anything. We were asked if we found what we were looking for and laughed at by the cashier when we told her. There is no such thing as service, only poorly trained, under paid help.

[Blahblahvampemer]

On 6/1/2014 gazelle77 said:

On 6/1/2014 happy housewife said:

I agree with everything the OP said. I was at wally world the other day looking for a lighted makeup mirror. I couldn't find one so I went to the customer service desk to ask if they carry them. Not one of the clerks would look in a computer to see - they just pointed and said they used to be in hair dept by the dryers. They did not even tell me what aisle that would be in. I left and went to Target, where they had tons of them right next to the makeup. What a huge difference between those two stores!!!! Every time i go to Walmart for any reason, I am always sorry i did.

YES! I just do not think the CEOs know what is going on in their stores. I think they need to disguise themselves like on that show on TV and spend a week seeing what REALLY goes on..... They could triple their income if they would open their eyes to how poorly stores are run.

I think customers ought to find out what the CEO is dealing with first. The average person is beyond clueless about what it costs to run even the tiniest of businesses.

[serenity4ever]

I must be the odd one out because my supermarkets around where we live are clean, well stocked and the check out people are really nice and friendly too. I was looking for tomatoes on the vine yesterday and the gentleman working there brought me to them, he didn't just tell me where they were.

The department stores I frequent are staffed by really hard workers who know their merchandise. I have yet to meet anyone who isn't eager to help if I need it.