Season Greetings?

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the town

Shoppers were scurrying all around.

Lost and confused I must say

Before they knew it they lost another day

Heading south on Route 1 to Scarborough Maine, there is a large sign on the sign that says “Merry Christmas”. Of course, to some this is an offensive sign and to others it is just a sign of the holiday season.

However, a big question comes to mind when seeing this sign: who paid for it and why is it there anyway?

I can’t answer either of these questions, but it does remind me of problems that come up this time of year.

The problem is that not everybody celebrates Christmas or any other holiday this time of year. So realistically, this sign can be very offensive to those who don’t believe in Christmas or anything it represents.

Turning the clock back 25 years, when I worked at the late Woolworth chain, Christmas was everywhere. Santa Claus, Merry Christmas, elves and everything else was all over the store. No other holiday was ever mentioned within the boundaries of the store whatsoever.

There was no mention of Jewish holidays, African holidays, Buddhist holidays or any other holidays during the period. It was like these others didn’t exist. And to Woolworth they didn’t. They never ever existed during the entire existence of the company.

After all, Woolworth was note noted as “America’s Christmas Store”. With a line like that, it was obvious nothing else existed.

It was also expected that employees keep the spirit alive by saying “Merry Christmas” to everyone they waited on and everybody they saw.

Being the Grinch type I was, I always gave my standard ‘thank you” and nothing more. I was one of those who never embraced the holiday of Christmas for many years and to this day still don’t.

Forward the clock to my years at Staples and things were different, much different.

Don’t even think of even mumbling the words “Merry Christmas” to a customer ever or else you would face being reprimanded by the management.

Why?

Not because they were Scrooges, but because like other anal policies, they decided not to do Christmas as a greeting. They preferred instead the more generic “Happy Holidays” if anything.

The important part is the “if anything” as they would prefer no greeting at all to one of any type of celebration at all. Personally, I don’t believe that Staples ever had or ever will have any holiday spirit whatsoever.

However, it seems that now, we are overwhelmed by Christmas/holiday tunes/TV movies/specials/merchandise and everything else earlier and earlier every year.

One local radio station started playing holiday songs at the first of November 24/7.

Target started selling Christmas decorations even before Halloween was over.

Yes, Virginia there is a “War on Christmas” as reported by some news outlets. We start the holiday season earlier and earlier despite that this year is the shortest period between Thanksgiving and Christmas so it is no wonder everybody is starting to hate on the holidays especially Christmas and Santa Claus.

Unfortunately, there is nothing that will change in these modern times. We are too individualized and polarized to be united anymore to celebrate holidays as we did years ago. The ways of Woolworth certainly would not be deemed acceptable today under any circumstances.

Is there are a solution to all this mess? Sadly not a solution is to be found that I can tell.

All we have is the memories of a bygone era.

So now I close the book on another year

Many of you may shed a tear

He is gone you may say

But don’t worry fellow readers I will be back another day

Please note:

This is the last posting for this year. I will return the first week of January with a brand new posting (if all goes well). For you date counters out there, that means approximately 3 weeks from now I will return

Until then, remember have a safe and happy holiday season or if you don’t celebrate the holidays, make one up.

Email Receipts

Have you ever made a small purchase in a store and wound up with a receipt that was several feet long?

Well that exact thing has happened to me recently at a local retailer. It is rather embarrassing to be handed such a long receipt when somebody only buys a couple of items.

So what do you get in all that footage of paper?

· Name of store

· Address of store

· Phone number of store

· Name of manager of store

· Company or store’s email address

· Transaction information (date, time, transaction #, register #, cashier employee # or name, etc.)

· A listing of products that you purchased including any discounts

· Type of payment including any authorization number if it was any form other than cash

· The company’s return policy

· A customer satisfaction survey request including information needed to access either a website or a phone number plus any codes needed to complete the survey

· A friendly closing like “Have a nice day”

Certainly some receipts may even have other things than this including rebate information or coupons for future purchases or other items.

With all this information and the spacing between items, it is easy to get a receipt that could easily be measured in feet not inches.

Now companies like Macy’s has decided to adopt another way to save paper: the email receipt.

While this sounds great on the surface, in reality it is full of red flags and gotchas that they don’t tell you about.

First the good news or not so good news, if you opt for an email receipt only you walk out of the store with no receipt. This works great if you just so happened to walk into another store and the security alarm goes off and you have no receipt. Expect to spend some time with store or mall security without that receipt.

So you save paper then what?

If you are like me, then any number of scenarios could happen.

Here are just some of them:

The cashier types your email address wrong so you never receive the receipt. One wrong character could send your email to the wrong recipient. This could lead to the potential of identity theft especially since the recipient of the email could acquire credit card information from the receipt. Are you listening Google?

The email is sent but ends up in your spam inbox and not your regular inbox. With some email systems, chances are that the email may get deleted before you ever get it. In other words, the email system blocks the email from entering your system because it was predetermined by the email system to be spam.

Your email address is sold to third parties without your consent. By accepting an email receipt, you are probably subjecting yourself to a privacy policy that allows the store to do whatever they want with your email address. Just try asking the cashier what their privacy policy is and expect to get blank stare.

Of course, the worst of all is that you could delete the email by mistake and find out later that you really need that receipt. Good luck if you paid cash.

Overall, I would never give my email address to receive an email receipt. If I don’t have physical receipt in my hand at time of purchase, I would never be happy.

I don’t know of how many stores have started this procedure, but I feel it is dangerous one at best. So far I have seen this at Macy’s only and even lately they have been bypassing this prompt at the register to “paper receipt only”. Maybe they have already had complaints like the ones listed above.

As far as I know to date, Staples has not started any sort of email receipt program or testing any sort of program. Given their past with how they handled my email address with rewards cards, I hope they never even think of this procedure. EVER!

Consider yourself warned…

Black Friday Aftermath

So here we are 5 days after the Black Friday event.

Reports say that spending was down over 13% from last year, but was up about 2% when Thanksgiving Day sales are figured in. This of course, assumes that the stores were open on the holiday. Here in Maine along with Massachusetts and Rhode Island, most stores were closed until at least 12:01am Friday morning.

While I did not join the midnight crowd, I did go out around 11am that day. Here are just a few of my observations:

· It was easy to find a parking space everywhere. Apparently, many have already left most places and called it a day. While I had to sometimes park out a little further than usual, the parking was still plentiful.

· The ads were not great. Nobody had any really great doorbusters and many had just average discounts on many items. Even companies like Staples, which in past years, have had multipage ads; this year was limited to a 4 page ad. In fact, many of the items on sale at Staples were rebate items and not upfront sale prices. Also, on the back page, Staples offered a “buy 1 get 1 50% off on all ink cartridges”. However, in common Staples fashion, the blurb had a footnote attached to it which referred to the nasty small print at the bottom of middle pages. However, Staples definition of “all” as previously noted in a past post doesn’t mean all at all. Both HP & Epson cartridges were excluded from the sale. Nice job, Staples, by once again creating a false advertisement. When will they ever learn?

· Incompetent help was everywhere. Sadly, many of the seasonal associates were not properly trained and lines backed up because of this.

· One Walmart store I visited only had 4 registers open (yes you read that right) out of a possibly 25. This was around the 4pm hour when many people were shopping and the lines were around 20 people deep. To make matters worse, the cashier of the line I was in constantly forgot to give the correct change. She had her purse at the register looking for money to give the customer along with searching her pockets for change as well. Eventually a manager did come and open her drawer after wasting time doing her own personal search for money. In most other stores, this cashier would have been fired for this type of activity, however given that this was Walmart and they were so shorthanded they probably overlooked this problem.

· Poor placement of sales items in stores was another major problem for most of the stores I visited. Items of like types should be together, toys with toys, DVDs with DVDs etc. However, this was not the case as items were spread out all over the stores creating mass chaos as searching for some items was impossible and sometimes not worth the time. I probably would have spent more than I did if I could find what I was looking for. Don’t bother looking for help especially at Walmart and Best Buy as these stores lacked any salespeople on the floor.

Overall, I would say that this year I was underwhelmed by the whole Back Friday event. For a holiday period nearly a week shorter than normal, the stores seemed completely unprepared both staff wise and product wise. I believe that some retailers may have seen their last holiday season this year and that will be the discussion of a post in the very near future.

Torn Between 2 Systems

Last week Sony released the latest version of its PlayStation gaming system. This week Microsoft is releasing their latest Xbox unit. At $399 and $499 respectively, these systems are nowhere near cheap. Add the cost of at least 1 game to each and you are at a $1,000 if you invest in both systems.

Yes, that is a 1 with 3 zeroes attached. Too much for many people to afford especially given that many people can’t even afford to put food on the table. Even the cost of 1 system could send anybody well over $750 if they buy even one of the systems. Even that is too much for many.

This is why I have never been swayed into buying a gaming system. Never. Ever.

Oh yes I used to sell video game systems back in the days of Woolworth. Back then, it was Nintendo versus Sega. Both were around the same price, but each had their strengths and weaknesses. I always preferred the Sega Genesis system because the games looked better and seemed less glitchy. However, the biggest difference was that the Sega display was the game “Sonic the Hedgehog”, whereas the Nintendo display was a laserdisc playing a loop of various titles with the ability for the users to press buttons to watch various categories of titles.

At one point, I asked the reps of both companies if they had any sales brochures on how to sell the units. Both companies response was that they didn’t and felt that the systems could stand on their own merit. In other words, no salesperson was necessary to sell the units and the employee like me was left being unable to answer customer questions unless I did my own research mostly from reading magazines in the bookstore across the way on my lunch break. It was my own opinion that usually swayed the customer. I was probably the most researched employee who was the most knowledgeable on these products even more so than the department head. In fact, the department head preferred the Nintendo system because it was a better seller. Not a great selling philosophy to me.

Fast forward to today and we still have some companies running playable game displays whereas others are still using loop DVDs to show off their systems. Unfortunately now, employees are still left stumped about the merits of the systems they sell.

This of course will lead to much customer buyer remorse this holiday season. It is expected that retailers will see many returns with the customers saying that they should have bought the “other system” or “none at all”. Back in the Woolworth days, this was very common right after Christmas and there was nothing that could be done about it. It came with the territory.

When Woolworth was selling out of video game systems, the Nintendo and Sega systems were marked down dramatically, to the point where $200 systems were selling for as low as $50. As much as I wanted to buy, I still resisted. Today, I regret that a bit, but given that obsolescence is guaranteed when new systems are released and old games don’t work on new systems, I thought better of it.

So, my advice to those million people who bought the new Sony or the million who will probably buy the new Xbox, stop and think of the following:

Do I really not need this?

Will the price come down right after Christmas?

Did I buy the WRONG system?

Will my money be better spent elsewhere?

After answering any of these questions with a yes, then walk away like I did. As I have done through every evolution of the video game industry.

Have a happy Black Friday!

Please note: There will be no posting next week in celebration of thanksgiving. I will be back in 2 weeks with a new posting at that time.

Shaw’s’s Hidden Policy

Just when you thought that Staples was the only bad company (actually I have discussed others here), I now introduce Shaw’s to the bad company crowd.

For those of you who don’t know what Shaw’s is, it is a grocery store chain located in the New England/New York area. Up to a few months ago, the chain was owned by the Supervalu chain of stores, but now is independent. Apparently independence has not done the chain well as I describe here.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the local Shaw’s store where I was purchasing 8 dental products, which each of them had a 55 cent off coupon on the package. After I scanned all the items at the self-serve register, I started scanning my coupons from the packages. Everything was fine for the first 4 items so I continued scanning the remaining coupons.

After I finished scanning all 8 coupons, it required management approval for some reason. So when the woman supervisor scanned her employee card, I noticed that the register only doubled the value of the first 4 coupons and not the last 4.

The woman supervisor told me that it was policy that there was a limit of 4 coupons to be doubled. When I asked where it was stated, she either did not hear me or ignored my question. As she started taking the items off the receipt to void the transaction, the other coupons started doubling themselves over the limit of the 4.

Being irritated over the whole thing, the woman supervisor told me to go to a “regular checkout with my items” and she threw my coupons back at me as if I was to be blamed for the system not to work the way it should.

So off I went to the regular checkout grudgingly. I decided to checkout as 2 transactions my 8 products to eliminate any possible problem. The first transaction went fine, however the second one stopped me in my tracks as my credit card was not accepted because the same amount was in 2 consecutive transactions. I have used my card many times at other places with same amount consecutive transactions with absolutely no problem whatsoever. This is apparently a Shaw’s’s problem and not a credit card issue. After a couple of minutes, the transaction did go through but this embarrassment could have been avoided if the registers were programmed correctly. To insult to injury to all this was that the cashier was sort of rude to me while doing my transaction. This is true of many of the cashiers who work at Shaw’s being rude. This is why I use self-serve registers and recommend anybody with any intelligence to use self-serve when available.

Overall, I was very dissatisfied with my experience this particular day. I filled out a survey on their website expressing my displeasure with how things went. Thankfully, unlike Best Buy, I never received an email asking me to respond to them with either a phone call or an email. Apparently Shaw’s does respect the privacy of their customers unlike companies like Best Buy and Staples.

What is the takeaway from all of this?

First, the woman supervisor was extremely rude to me unjustifiably. She tried to create policy where no existed. Nowhere is there a coupon limit posted in store or located (easily) on their website. Therefore, the policy really does not exist.

I saw this type of event happen many times over the years at Staples. However, unlike Shaw’s, the supervisor was NEVER rude to the customer despite sometimes not satisfying the customer. As far as I am concerned, this woman supervisor should be terminated. Shaw’s is no position anymore to lose customers or have people like me making postings like this explaining how bad the customer is treated.

Shaw’s like Staples is desperate to keep customers, but creating hidden policies that don’t exist is no way to retain customers. Hopefully, Shaw’s unlike Staples will correct their problems and unhide their policies and post them where all can see them.

This is a lesson that both companies could learn from.

Maine Politics Winners and Losers (Sorry, Just Losers)

The following special post is being presented in all my blogs this week.

This has been a very interesting week for the political climate here in Maine and mostly not in a good way.

Let’s start with the admission by U.S. House member Michael Michaud coming out to admit he was gay. Michaud was trying to beat the gossipers to the news, which he probably never wanted to release publicly. As someone who wants to become Maine’s next governor, he may have put himself out of the race with this revelation. He claims that he is the ‘same old Mike as yesterday”, but I believe that people won’t adjust to the “New old Mike”. I really have my doubts about his political future.

On the same day, current governor Paul LePage launches his reelection campaign. He claims that he has lowered taxes, paid off our hospitals, and getting rid of welfare fraud.

Is he serious?

He has raised taxes by raising the sales tax to 5.5% and allowing taxing on items not previously taxed. He has cut the homestead exemption therefore raising property taxes on many citizens of the state to new highs. Paying off the hospitals just added to the expenses that Maine taxpayers have had to suffer especially given the non-expansion of the MaineCare system (Medicaid). Finally, welfare fraud came at the expense of not enrolling anybody who shouldn’t be on the rolls, which includes people like me who are uninsured and currently unemployed. Certainly, not a smart move for those whore really need it.

Now onto the Election Day mess.

For those people living in Lewiston, congratulations. You got more time with your loudmouth Robert Macdonald as mayor. This is the guy who wanted to get rid of the Somalia people from the city as they were a drain on the city’s resources. Expect him to compete well against LePage for more offensive comments during the coming year or so.

For people of Portland, congratulations on legalizing marijuana of 2.5 ounces within the city limits. Bad news is that the people can’t get it from the medical dispensaries and there is no regulation of how this will be implemented. However, considering that it’s still illegal at the state and federal level, expect that those who want their pot will get it somehow illegally. Just don’t step over the city line or you will risk being arrested for possession.

For my fellow citizens of South Portland, congratulations are in order double. First, you approved big oil to win in a close vote (under 200 vote difference) to allow tar sands to come into the waterfront region and allow big oil to build nice smokestacks in the city as well. Apparently many of the citizens of SoPo were smoking their weed in Portland to realize the future pollution in South Portland. Secondly, the stupid people of the city voted to build a $14 million public works garage, when something about half that price was once suggested. Add this to the $50+ million approved for the high school a couple of years ago and you will realize that property taxes will go through the roof. Don’t people realize that the city doesn’t have any money trees growing in the city?

And finally, congratulations to all the citizens of Maine for approving 5 bond issues totaling around $150 million. Can we afford all this debt? After all, we are already the worst state in the nation to do business. Did we want to make more debt a priority in raising taxes even more when this is combined with the $450 million hospital bill? Who will pay the $600 million back? Certainly not getting any money from those money trees growing around the state.

Overall, the state is pretty much screwed up and the people are screwed paying for years for things that really are not needed or required. Maybe next year, we can get something right for once and get back from the bottom of the deck of states and stop being the butt of all jokes.

Happy Halloweenie

This week I was going to write about a sad story, but because of the holiday of Halloween, I changed my mind because it would probably be deemed as some sort of trick or treat joke. Instead, this week I decided to wish everyone to have a safe and happy Halloween.

To be relevant to Staples this week, I would like to say that only in 1 year out of the 12 ½ years that I worked for the company was Halloween ever celebrated. This was the only year that the store decided to give out candy. However, and this is a big however, the employees could not dress up in costume under any circumstances. Ironically this was their belief when celebrating any holiday. It’s sad that Staples resents all of the holidays.

This definitely was not the case back in Woolworth when not only was Halloween celebrated but was encouraged for the employees to dress up and not only that but we gave out a significant amount of candy in each of the 9 years I was with them. Maybe it helped that Woolworth was located in the mall and Staples is located in a strip mall.

So Woolworth was a party environment and Staples was a party-pooper environment.

Maybe that is where we get the phrase “Trick or Treat”, just many years too late.

Stay safe and stay away from the monsters at Staples otherwise you will feel tricked everyday.