My recent foray back into retail has revealed all of the good stuff and the bad stuff. First the good stuff: the very act of placing products on the shelves , in the right place with the labels facing forward and neatly placed is satisfying. As a customer I like the idea of going to any store finding the product you want to buy, in the place on the shelf where it is supposed to be and having the correct price on that shelf. Modern stores have the prices (sale and regular) downloaded into the checkout registers so that the bar code can be scanned to expedite your purchase. When the product is not in the correct place, this creates a problem as most consumers look at the shelf price and make a buying decision based on that information. When the product is not in its correct place, the consumer is misinformed and that can cause a problem at the checkout which sometimes involves depart lead or manager. This brings me to the bad part of the experience: that is employees who have little pride in what they do. These miscreants are ones who “hide” when the work load is small and race through the work when it is heavy. These are two of the traits and reasons that cause the products be placed in the wrong place, price labels not being current and customers not being served. These same folks are some of the first to yell when these events causes them to be inconvenienced in the same situation in another store. The stores are not at fault but upper , upper management is. The higher up you go there comes a disconnect that allows these folks to continue on the job with not enough mentoring. The other factors are corporate workers who have never worked in a store so do not understand the workings of retail and make decisions that serve only to make the shopping experience less than pleasurable (customer service). Then ther are the managers above the store managers who again have nor real idea of how retail stores work yet make decisions that impact the bottom line and do not have the nerve and knowledge to dispute decisions made by Corporate when they affect the actual workings of the store. We have a number of CEO’s who are managing retail companies and have no retail experience, this lack of experience has denigrated the operations of the store and consequently the bottom line. This lack of experience has cost jobs. pensions and broken up families but the company board members fail to see the folly of their selection until its is too late! What I know about retail is: Customer service is having the products on the shelf, having enough people in the store to keep the shelves stocked and to service the in store customers. The additional factor is tapping into the long time employees for their experience and abilities as they Have worked in the stores! In the end the mega stores have only one thing over their competition and that is size and separation from their customer base.
Michael1942's Blog 