That is an excellent question. I don't know, but I suspect it is similar except that Wal-mart has considerably more power to bully the vendor.

 

Chaz

I agree with you on both points. The only thing I'd like to add is that best value is not necessarily cheapest price.

For a while the consumer may get fooled, but on the whole, over time, the marketplace is usually pretty smart.

 

I actually had a good experience at a big book store...Borders. I went there looking to pick up a book called Too Young To Retire (go figure ) and I wasn't sure if it would be in the "business" section or "self-help" or what. So I was wandering aimlessly when this young gal (looked like a teen) asked if she could help me. I told her the name of the book and author. She got on her computer and found it there, turned to the next aisle and found it within 8 seconds. I was out the door in no time. And this was during the Christmas blitz last week.

I really think the internet will change retailing forever. In my previous example about buying high-end audio/video equipment, now I can do all of my research on the web, get all the facts/figures, participate in forums to learn about peoples real world experience with the various products, and then go buy it online using a comparative shopping tool. It's amazing really.

Someone brought up Target vs. Wal-Mart. Target is clearly differentiating themselves and creating their brand image around "upscale discount store". It may sound like an oxymoron, but they are positioning themselves to capture the buyer who thinks Wal-Mart stores are slums.

Rob, I don't think Wal-Mart is going anywhere soon. Many of us live in larger cities and we have different buying habits than middle America where Wal-Marts thrive. In fact, in those small towns they are viewed as the "mom and pop" store.

One thing is clear...value is NOT defined as the lowest price. It's the convergence of price and quality.

 

Retail jobs can be pretty lousy, but I don't know about all that!

I worked retail for about a year in the time between college and law school. It was my only job at the time. Yeah, the pay was crappy and some of the management was insufferable, but it was hardly slave labor. I had health insurance and retirement benefits and was free to go home at the end of the day. Our part-timers were paid the same wages, but I doubt they had benefits---as is common with part-time gigs.

IMHO, it may not be (just) the pay that makes the clerks rude. Dealing with the public is a nightmare. Some people treat retail workers like dirt. Others make and leave a terrible mess. Some won't control their children (I saw a woman let her toddler pee all over the carpet in my department). I won't mention the ones that try to scam and/or steal.

 

Carm,

It does seem like Wal-Mart is well established and invincible, still, the history of retail, especially discount retail, is filled with invincible stores failing. There is a retail life cycle and I believe that Wal-Mart will not be exempt. It too will have its day.

Anyway, to get this thread back to where it started,

I really miss customer service. How about you?

 

Several years ago I went to a chain hardware store to return an item. There is a return desk, and a young man was standing there. As I approached, he turned his back to me and shuffled some papers. As I was about to clear my throat to get his attention, the telephone on the desk between us rang. He turned around and picked up the phone. A lady wanted to inquire about a sale item. After providing an explanation, while I stood waiting, she then must have asked that he hold the item for her. He explained that he could not, as it was a sale item. From the one-sided conversation I could hear, she then questioned him on store policy and argued with him about it. So he explained it again. Then he explained it again. When he started with the fourth explanation, I reached over and pushed my finger down on the button, hanging up the phone. Then I said to the clerk "there, I solved both of our problems". He became very indignant and said you can't do that! I said "I just did, and I want some service". Which I finally received.

One of my pet peeves is when I am standing in line, with money in my hand, and someone calls on the phone, and is given immediate service over me and everyone else present.

 

Good for you. I find myself doing similar things too.

A year or two ago, I went into Wal-Mart to buy my son a Timex watch. An older woman was behind the counter. I asked her to see the watch and she took it out of the sales case. When we asked her what a certain button did she responded that she didn't know. I then asked if perhaps there was someone here who did know. She became indignant, threw the watch down and started to curse. I put my hands up in the "stop" sign position, and told her to hold it while I call for a manager. I said to her that, "I'm sure your manager would be very interested in hearing exactly what you've had to say." She immediately apologized to me, asked me not to call the manager, and changed her tone. At that point I told her that I was no longer interested in the watch, and that I would buy it elsewhere. She apologized to me again, asked me to reconsider my purchase and started to cry. I told that that I wasn't interested and left.

I'm not sure where the fault lies. Perhaps management needs to set a better tone, more likely it was with the salesperson. I suspect that many salespeople have gotten so used to being rude to the customer that they feel empowered to do so. When, on the rare occasion, a customer has the nerve to push back, as Morris and I did, it makes things right temporarily.

My point is that this salesperson, like many, many others, simply forgot who was buying and who was selling. In this case I didn't misplace merchandise, abuse the store, act rude or do anything else that might have been (incorrectly, I feel) suggested to justify her behavior. I cannot think of any possible justification for how she acted. I simply asked for the service that I was entitled to.

 

There are always two sides to every coin. I worked in retail for years in my "past life" and had always felt the same way that you do. I was the one that made the effort to actually go to the store and therefore should be taken care of over an incoming call. Then one day the owner of the business explained his position that has it's validity.

The way he saw it: The person that is standing in front of you can see that you are busy with phones ringing off the hook. The person on the other end of the phone can not see that you are busy. If one does not answer the phone one cannot get the customer into the store. There is of course a fine line with this balancing act. Of course it always excludes personal phone calls. That drives me crazy to this day.

I also learned an interesting business lesson from this employer (who by the way, was a self made millionaire that started his business with $600 in 1961) We were in a negotiation for a piece of business hardware and I was taken back when he said to the sales person. "I don't want to pay too much, but I also don't want to pay too little. I want you to make enough commission on this deal so that if down the road I have a problem that you will feel obligated and willing to help me as a customer that you had "fair dealings" with. If you make too little, you will have no incentive to want to help me resolve the problem." There is an old saying in sales that your happiest customers are NOT the ones that got the lowest price. They are ones that you feel obligated to service because they paid a fair price.

On a slightly different note: I cannot help but wonder how long we can export jobs for the sake of corporate profits and executive compensation before the average worker can no longer afford to buy the products and services that the companies are selling? Take U.S. Air for example. If the buy out to United would have gone through the CEO & CFO (that bought a healthy airline and ran it into the ground would have walked away with a "golden parachute" of $178 million. Now they are asking the employees to work for free this weekend and the latest rounds of pay cuts affects everyone, but (you guessed it) the CEO. What ever happed to the Lee Iacocca model of working for $1 a year until Chrysler turned around? Or the wisdom of Henry Ford, paying his workers what was considered a very high wage for the day, knowing that if he paid them enough they could afford to buy his product, increase the production and in turn lower his unit cost of every vehicle. Remember economics 101? The more one makes of something the less expensive they are to make.

P.S. I ran across this quote while trying to verify the spelling of Lee Iacocca's name. Perhaps the management of US Air should learn from this quote:

I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use. Right up front, tell people what you're trying to accomplish and what you're willing to sacrifice to accomplish it.

HINT, keyword here is: "you're"

 

Wow! Rob,

That is exactlly how I reacted to the NBA player that beat up on a fan. I don't even choose to remember his name, because he is not an idol that I would want my "imaginery kids" to idolize.

 

[QUOTE=matt_inva,Dec 30 2004, 09:03 PM]
The way he saw it: