Am I Invisible?

This week a customer satisfaction survey was released naming the 10 worst retailers to shop at.

Amongst those that made the list were all 3 of the top drugstore chains. Not surprisingly that all 3 made the list simply because they are amongst the highest priced places to shop at and among the hardest places to find employees.

Also on the list is Macy’s. I am not surprised about this one as I have found most of their employees ignorant or just plain rude. Why are none of their employees ever look happy? Maybe they just hate their job because they are so overpriced.

Topping the list is the biggest retailer that everyone loves to hate and that is Walmart. Ever ask for help there? Good luck on finding anyone who is actually willing to help. I have found that if I don’t see it, they probably don’t have it. To make matters worse, a few weeks ago I was looking for new shoes in the store and it took me about a 1 ½ hours to find my desired size. The shoe department was a nightmare and last week I revisited the department to find a second pair and the area looked just as I had left it weeks before. It didn’t even looked like it was even touched for the last month. I have visited other Walmart stores and have had much better results. I blame the management for how disorganized and messy this store is. There is absolutely NO reason that a store cannot be kept up better than that.

One store not on the list but should have been is Books-A-Million. Try and get help at this store and you would be wasting your time. Sadly this store is no better than the Borders store it replaced. In fact, in the last couple of weeks, I have had complaints about the store and I filled out one of their online surveys to have management contact me regarding my issues with them. Unfortunately, it has been over a week since I took the survey and issued my complaint and still have not heard from any member of their management staff. I don’t expect to ever hear from them because they just don’t care and I am not the least bit surprised.

Finally, one store on that list is #7 and it is the dreaded Best Buy. Walk around the DVD/CD department and you will never find an employee. Same is true in the video game department as well. You may find an employee in the video department if you are lucky, but that is if you are lucky. However, go over to the computer department and there are employees all over the place.

That was until I had arrived looking for a new printer.

Usually I am bothered by at least one employee when I am in the store checking my email or checking on Facebook, but on this particular day while I was looking for a new printer nobody bothered me.

Why was I being ignored on this particular day? Do the employees not care about the printers unlike the computers? Or is it that they think that the printers are there to sell themselves?

Ironically, the one printer that I was looking at was missing the power cable so I had to disconnect the cable from the printer next to it and plug it into the printer that I wanted to try out. Still with everything I was doing, I was still ignored. After bouncing back and forth between a nearby computer to check reviews and trying out printers, I finally decided on one without any employee help and nearly 2 hours later. This is certainly an uncalled for approach to making a sale. It was a treat; however, to find out that by purchasing a printer and cartridges at the same time, there was a discount on the ink as well. In the end I felt somewhat satisfied despite my do it yourself sales approach.

The next day I checked the Target Cartwheel website to see what they had for weekly offers and surprisingly I found a better printer I was considering with a 25% discount making it cheaper than what Best Buy was selling it for.

Yesterday, I proceeded to Target and purchase that printer with no employee interaction in less than 15 minutes. I felt very satisfied compared to how I was treated at Best Buy. The printer from Best Buy will be returned back to them along with the cartridges unopened in the very near future.

One thing I did find interesting about the list of bad retailers was that Staples was not on the list. Could it be that they just don’t have enough customers to make the list in the first place? Certainly Staples as I have mentioned in previous posts do not have great customer service and seems to be dropping considerably in the last few years.

But then again, I am the invisible customer no matter where I go.

CVS, RadioShack, and G.M. Pollack -- All Losers

Way back in the 1990’s, there were 2 stores at the Maine Mall that carried cigarettes. They were CVS and Woolworth. At the time that I worked for Woolworth, there was a high amount of price competition between the companies.

When one would raise prices, the other would follow. If the price happened to go down, then same thing happened in reverse.

The reason was simple: it was a high profit product.

Despite prices at the time being less than $2 per pack, it was obvious that the market share was quickly dropping over time. It was no longer cool to smoke anywhere anymore. In fact, the only place in the mall where people could smoke was in our attached restaurant. So it was convenient for people to buy their smokes at our store rather than walking down to the other end of the mall.

It was always extremely important that the cigarette inventory was always kept up and that products were ordered when low. If nothing else in the store had strong inventories, this was the most important item we carried.

By far we sold much more than CVS ever sold mainly because of our location.

By the mid 1990’s, Woolworth had headed out of business so CVS became the only place to buy cigarettes. However, by the end of the decade CVS had left the mall leaving no store in the mall to purchase cigarettes.

What a shame that all these smokers of the mall had to leave the mall to get their tobacco fix!!

It was apparent that CVS has left many mall locations over the last decade or so, moving into self-standing stores or stores in strip malls. What is bad about that is that many more of them are getting robbed because they easier to get in and out of.

Is everyone at CVS that stupid to realize that robberies would be lower at mall stores than remote stores? Apparently not. I don’t ever remember any robberies at the Maine Mall store during its existence there.

Of course, back in the 1990’s and earlier, drugstores were robbed for money and cigarettes, not the drugs. Apparently the value of cigarettes means nothing to people anymore.

So the idea of CVS not carrying cigarettes anymore is a wonderful concept, at least initially. But why wait until October 1 to stop selling them? Are they unsure of where there future earnings will come from?

Going deep down into this idea, what about them carrying alcoholic beverages? Are they not unhealthy as well? Certainly they don’t want to lose all their profit channels so letting go of the cigarettes is still half-hearted at best.

Will other big retailers follow? I highly doubt they want to take the loss.

Speaking of loss, RadioShack has announced that it is closing 500 stores in the coming months. No word has been given as to which locations of its roughly 4500 locations will be the victims, but I would not be surprised if the Maine Mall store isn’t one of them. This one hardly has any customers anymore and is just simply dead.

But then again this company died several years ago anyway, just nobody ever told them.

And finally, a long existing store in the Maine Mall, G.M. Pollack Jewelry store has decided to close its prime retail space in the mall center court and move across the street to the Mall Plaza. Ironically, they moved into the same location that previously reviewed Newbury Comics had been located.

Do they really think they will see an increase of business by moving out of the mall traffic area? I think they will find that they did a huge mistake, but then again jewelry stores have been slipping in recent years so maybe they moved out of the mall to die once and for all.

Overall, we have 3 companies eliminating 3 different things. While I agree with 2 of the 3 eliminations, it is still up in the air as to whether they are all bonehead moves or the best idea ever.

25 Years Ago

Every relationship usually has a beginning, middle and an end.

The beginning started about a week after I started my employment at Woolworth.

The ending happened 25 years ago this week.

The date was February 2, 1989. It was a Thursday night when the personnel manager Dan was staying in the store that night to be with the cleaning crew that was coming in and waxing the floor of the store.

A girl employee Jodi decided to stay with him. I asked if I could stay with them as well.

Now here is where the problems arose to its peak.

For the last few months, I had been having a crush on Jodi. She was a couple years younger than me and found her a socially desirable person to be with.

This girl was not one of those drop dead gorgeous girls, but was still not an ugly girl either. Her nasally voice which sounded like the combination of a Brooklyn accent and a Maine accent made her that much more interesting.

However, she had some major issues. The big one was that she was emotionally shy and just the slightest thing sometimes would send her for a loop and upset her. The problem was that she never spoke up if something bothered her.

During the early months of my employment at Woolworth, I spent many nights with Jodi at the back register while she worked behind the counter at the customer service desk. So we spent that time doing a lot of talking and fooling around because the night manager hardly ever came around to see what we were doing.

I never asked Jodi out on a date during the time she worked at Woolworth despite my strong feelings for her. I felt that it would be wrong if something happened that shouldn’t have. So I had to use restraint for how I felt. However she certainly knew I really liked her a lot.

She never felt that she was ever harassed so I thought we got along real well with each other.

Then came that dreaded night. The 3 of us: Jodi, Dan, and me together in the store’s restaurant sitting in a booth together for most of the night.

We spent the night talking, laughing and overall having a good time together. We even had a snack from the restaurant, which I don’t think they ever got reimbursed for. Overall, it was a great night.

Or so I thought.

The cleaning crew got done around 2:30am and I got home around 3:15am on the following Friday morning. This is the latest I ever stayed out on a job even though I really wasn’t getting paid for it. So I was stupid in 2 ways: not getting paid and missing out on my supper when I got home.

Of course, I called several hours earlier to say that I was going to stay with the manager, but I made no mention that my true intention was to say that I was staying to be with my want-to-be girlfriend Jodi.

I thought all was fine as both me and Jodi had off Friday and neither of us would have to be back to work until Saturday.

This is when the problems began.

Jodi called out sick on Saturday. Of course, I thought nothing of it and considered that she was still tired after the late night a couple days ago.

Jodi was off on Sunday, but Monday she once again called out sick again.

Then she called out again on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

However, on Thursday when she called she said she was quitting and would not be back again.

I thought “did I do this?”

Did I drive her away from the job she loved?

Over the last couple of months, Jodi had moved from the service desk in the back of the store to doing the stocking in the candy section in the front of the store.

So this meant that when I was down back, I had to put up with 2 other people at night who shared the service desk on opposing nights. One was Nicole, a young mother in her very early 20’s and Tara, a girl about my age.

These 2 were about as different could ever be. Nicole hated me because she blamed me for Jodi leaving and Tara liked me to the point of actually defending me against Nicole's bad feelings. In fact, I thing Tara was glad that Jodi was gone so that she could move in and start liking me.

However, there were a few things about Tara that bothered me. First, she was the darkest white girl I had ever met. No, it was not tanning she was just naturally dark. Second, she was a smoker and because I am allergic to smoke that bothered me being around her. She did eventually quit the habit.

Finally, she enjoyed sitting in the dark while behind the service counter. Since the counter was built into the wall, it had its own light switch and she enjoyed sitting there in the dark. It was creepy to say the least, but she always had that mother hen approach to me defending me every step of the way.

There were nights when I know that Tara and Nicole worked together at night when I had off and I heard rumors that they used to talk about me and certainly the sparks flew between them.

It was quite apparent that Tara had a crush on me whereas Nicole hated me to no end. Of course, I had to put up with this for about a year before both of them eventually quit the company.

The relationship that I had with Jodi would be my tainting for the rest of the time that I worked at Woolworth as other female employees thought that I was responsible for Jodi's demise with the company.

It should be noted that about 2 weeks after Jodi left the company I was trained for the service desk job as if it were a punishment for my relationship with her. I continued this “punishment” even through my working years at Staples as I held the same position there as well.

And that my friends, is the legend of how I got to the service desk and unfortunately never really left it in either job I was at.

So what did I learn from all of this?

First, relationships can be toxic for good or bad. Certainly, I liked Jodi, but she did not reciprocate. Tara liked me but I foolishly was reluctant to be with her. She did ask me out once and like the fool I was I turned her down. In some ways, I really regret that move as I might be still with her today. Possibly, even in the dark.

Second, who you think are your friends may be your worst enemy. Nicole originally got along with me as long as Jodi was around, but when she left, Nicole became my worst enemy. Nothing would ever change her, not even how bad she treated me in general even when I reported her to the management. She was just a bad person in general.

I never saw Jodi or Nicole ever again after they left the company. Tara went to work at Ames department store after leaving Woolworth. She stayed with them until the company closed down and has not been seen since its closure.

Overall, if I had to do all this over again, I would have done things much different. I still would have stayed with Dan and Jodi, but Tara definitely would have been a different story.

However, unfortunately I can’t turn back the clock 25 years to a better time. What’s worse is that I never learned is work relationships should not happen under any circumstances unless you are willing to accept the consequences.

Little did I know that the relationship train would derail several more times over the next 20 years. Some much worse than others would dominate and impact me even up to today.

Those will be discussed in the future, possibly.