> we've already decided to purchase the product. Taking our money shouldn't be the hardest part.
Oof.
I recall one occasion in a small retail store years ago where I got so frustrated at being ignored by the employees, despite already knowing what I wanted and I just needed someone to fetch it from the back. Eventually I held my wallet aloft and asked why nobody here would take my money.
Shut up and take my money, indeed.
There's also the uncomfortable situation where the management model at a company assumes that every sale is the result of customer service, and any time you sell yourself they have to wrangle the system while you stand there watching. I suspect that more companies do this than I think, and some salespeople are doing the wrangling without alerting me to their activity. They are just much better at passing for normal than some other places.
One thing retail consultants do is to watch people checking out and note the obstacles. A classic problem is checkout clutter - impulse buy items at the checkout getting in the way of putting merchandise on the counter. In stores without carts, checkout clutter reduces sale amount, because customers subconsciously don't want to reach the counter and have no place to put the stuff. The Gap, which got this, always had big, clear counters. Bed, Bath and Beyond doesn't get this.
Eventually I held my wallet aloft and asked why nobody here would take my money.
I had an experience like that decades ago, in a large J.C. Penny in New Jersey. I'd just moved to the area and was buying a whole set of linens, pillows, and towels in the middle of the day. So I had an armload of merchandise stacked above my head. I reached a counter in the multi-floor department store but there were no staff around. No one on the whole floor.
I saw a phone behind the counter, so I dialed 0 and got someone. I told them I was at the checkout in Linens and there was no one on the sales floor.
Several minutes later, about six people showed up. Not clerks. The store manager, some junior people, and a grey-haired executive in an expensive suit who was deferred to by the others. By now, there were two other customers lined up behind me. The manager sent off some of the junior people to search for the missing clerk, and they came back empty. The store manager looked scared. The grey-haired executive didn't say a word to his people. He just unlocked the cash register and handled the transaction himself. He did two transactions before someone was found to take over.
I suspected I had just seen the end of some careers.
This could only have happened decades ago - for the past 10 years department stores have felt borderline unattended, at least below the lower upscale threshold of e.g. Nordstrom.
Grand huge stores in prime real estate in world cities, basically empty. Elegiac energy.
This is a problem in a bunch of larger retail stores here in Australia.
JB Hifi, Harvey Norman, Myer, David Jones, Bing Lee, Anaconda and more - I've walked in knowing what I want, finding a sales person to let me buy it is near impossible. When you do find someone who works there "Oh, sorry, I don't work in that department" is the response half the time, and "Sorry, I'm with another customer at the moment, I'll be with you shortly" is most of the remaining times.
Purchasing online for 'click and collect' isn't necessarily any better - I've stood waiting at the collection desk for the better part of an hour while someone goes to find thing that I've already paid for and been told is ready for pickup just an hour prior.
Retailers have gone to try and compete with online by trying to match prices rather than just better service.
If I'm walking into a store it's because I either want it now, damn the premium, or need to see/feel it to know if it's right.
At robo target yesterday. No lanes open, no employees around except a 15 year old kid who told me they don't have the keys to "unlock" the 14.99 headphones off the wall. They called it in. I waited 10 mins. Walked back to the headphones and just YOINKED the box and the stupid plastic bit securely holding it got left behind. Then I had to stand in robo line to checkout like a good citizen - I could have walked out!
> got so frustrated at being ignored by the employees, despite already knowing what I wanted and I just needed someone to fetch it from the back
This has happened to me repeatedly at Apple stores in NYC, any time I've tried to purchase a phone or laptop. It's an extremely frustrating experience, especially for a relatively large purchase. I'd happily wait in a line, just give me some form of ordered queue please. Deli counters can handle this, so why can't a $2 trillion company?
Yeah, it's a bit like trying to buy a watch that get advertised in magazines and billboards but impossible to buy at the jewellery store. Thanks Rolex.
Oof.
I recall one occasion in a small retail store years ago where I got so frustrated at being ignored by the employees, despite already knowing what I wanted and I just needed someone to fetch it from the back. Eventually I held my wallet aloft and asked why nobody here would take my money.
Shut up and take my money, indeed.
There's also the uncomfortable situation where the management model at a company assumes that every sale is the result of customer service, and any time you sell yourself they have to wrangle the system while you stand there watching. I suspect that more companies do this than I think, and some salespeople are doing the wrangling without alerting me to their activity. They are just much better at passing for normal than some other places.