Easier to Find Waldo Than a Store Employee!

Previously, I had discussed the issue of finding an employee on the sales floor at Best Buy.  Sadly, they are not alone in the lack of customer service department.  The former Circuit City was notorious for its lack of help both on the floor and at the register.  The big joke with them was that they NEVER had an open register despite having 4 of them just feet away from the customer service desk where everything in the store was basically done.  This created lines when they were busy, but usually they had no customers around because nobody ever got helped anyway!

Last year, I visited a Kohl’s Department Store and noticed that there was at least 30(!) people in line waiting for various things at the customer service desk.  No longer were there any cash registers at the front of the store like there was—everybody was in one long line.  Whether it was for making a purchase, doing a return, or wanting to use one of the many registry services they offered, one line was for everybody and nobody looked happy at all!

Now even stores like Walmart don’t have door greeters anymore at certain hours of the day and when they do have them, they don’t greet people anyway—they just stand around looking dumb.

So what has happened to the elusive help?  I like to call it corporate greed!  Surprised – maybe not!  This is the trend nowadays and it is not a good trend.  Employees are being cut and customer service is affected to the point that customers just stop shopping altogether at some stores.  

I remember back in the 1970’s going to some stores and employees were waiting at the door for their customers to enter.  The employee would then offer their concierge service until the customer left the store.  Certainly these stores were high-priced stores and were not the type of stores that I ever visited.  However, their existence is nearly extinct and for good reason.

On the other end of the employee extreme end, I present the following example of excess.  I remember shopping at Target one night after work just before closing and walking down one of the aisles of the store.  The aisle had about 6 employees straightening the shelves, but not a single one of them would come over and ask if I needed help.  They were all too busy on their own conversation to even bother with me.  Naturally, I didn’t find what I was looking for and wasn’t going to bother the employees because they seemed disinterested.  I ended up leaving empty-handed.

Ironically, I have noticed that Staples stores are a feast or famine with their customer approach.  The store that I worked for was aggressive at helping the customer whenever possible, sometimes even going to the point of being unreasonable.  The unreasonable part for me was the expectation of greeting incoming customers while not facing the door and helping other customers.  The last time I check I didn’t have a rubber neck nor was I secretly Plastic Man.  Unfortunately for me, Staples and the dimwit manager Shawn Nichols thought otherwise.  This was yet another lousy excuse used to fire me for those of you keeping count.

Over the last few years, I have visited other Staples locations where nobody greets you at the door and nobody is around to help out on the sales floor either.  Maybe these stores have ripped the pages out of how Circuit City and Best Buy did/do business.  We can only hope that Staples winds up the same way that Circuit City did and the way Best Buy is going. Maybe that’s why Staples employees dress in the same colors as Waldo does from the “Where’s Waldo?” series.

Up Next:  Let’s Start Cashiering!