Retail

Is the Economy Rebounding ...

Nice article. I agree with you. No one knows what's going on. We might as well take our 401K to the casino, at least we'll have some fun!!

It's funny when banks are reporting record profits and then their stocks fall. Or when they beat analysts expectations, for instance only losing 13 billion dollars instead of the analysts expected 14 dollars, that's great news and sends the stock price up 4%.

Also thanks for making me laugh with your comment, "And all you have to do is take a read of any paper (well ok, read of any website (we all keep reading online about the demise of daily newspapers))".

Well said ...

I too have experienced the same with too many people helping. Seems it's feast or famine. To your point Pam, management does need to revamp and there are simple fixes for this issue -- many national retailers set up a zone system in their stores so employees only work a certain area which avoid this issue of too many employees helping the same person. Seems that practice may have been lost.

A need for a happy medium ...

I was in a national women's apparel store in NYC last week. Within 5 minutes I was approached by 6 sales associates to see if I needed help with the ONE pair of pants I was holding. I was spending more time deflecting this attention. When the 7th person approached I was annoyed but I finally said yes. She was helpful. I understand your shopping frustrations. Our experiences reflect the opposite, yet common threads found in the Industry. Management needs to revamp!

Did you find everything you were looking for?

let's get real folks - it's a fake scripted question.
Sure, if by some unlikely chance,
I, as a customer, was hearing that
phrase for the first time it might
sound sincere, but after the 1000th
time (or the even the third time!)
it sounds fake.
The time to ask customers if they
are finding everything is BEFORE
they are in a checkout line.
Honestly how many people are too
stupid or shy to ask an employee
in the aisles while they are still shopping?

If someone is too shy to ask
an employee on the floor, will they
be any less shy in front of a long line
of customers behind them?

Instead of forcing cashiers to do one
more mechanical thing why not
train floor employees to ask
customers if they are finding
everything? then it's USEFUL.

basically, its a dumb short sighted
corporate policy that is probably
rationalized as a method for increasing sales.

I'd rather frequent a store
(and thus increase their sales)
that didn't put me through
these dumb scripted questions.

Origins store in Denver is an example ...

A bit ago, I wrote about Origins in Denver, which tailored its entire store, from the types of products to the store environment to the local market. While not 100% the same as what you're proposing Eric, I see where you're going and agree that big companies that can get down to the local level with unique concepts are going to appeal to a whole new type of shopper that the future will bring.