"Doug Kanter" wrote in
:

"Warren" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter wrote:
In supermarkets, I guess it depends on how you define "customer
service". If the person stocking shelves tells you where to find
something, is that customer service? Or, do you define it as a cut
above: If you go to the cheese department (which may or may not
exist in your store), and tell the person that in your mind, you
have a recipe halfway dreamt up, can they give you some cheese
flavor advice to help you complete the recipe?

I don't go to grocery stores that have high enough prices to pay
someone with that skill set to spend 90% of their day stocking the
cheese department display, and run a slicer while waiting for that
one customer who actually has a real question to come along. Most of
my grocery shopping is done at stores that operate efficiently, and
provide a pleasant environment for me to make my buying decisions in.

If certain trends in my business continue, you will eventually find
that you will have the best of all these features in one store,
including the lowest prices. It's what customers want, and they will
have it, or the stragglers will be spanked. Winn Dixie's being
punished right now for not updating their stores. Here (Rochester NY),
we have a chain called Wegman's, which does a great job of driving its
competitors up the wall. Roughly every 6 weeks, the local newspaper
does a sample shopping trip at all available stores (Wegman's, Tops,
Aldi, Wal Mart, K-Mart and one or two others). Wegman's always turns
out to be the cheapest. Meanwhile, they have the best selection, best
specialty departments, cleanest stores with excellent traffic flow,
best produce, best seafood, best service. How they do it is beyond the
scope of this discussion, but it's enough to say that if you mention
them to anyone in the grocery industry, anywhere in the country, the
reaction is usually "Yeah....I wish we could do that".


There just happens to be a couple of horticultural degree holders
biding their time at the local Home Depot. They'll be out of there
for a non-retail job just as soon as they can be. Ask them a question
about plants, and you're likely to get a better answer than you will
from the gardening hobbyists or grunt labor running around the local
nursery.
*snip about the lady being all over the teen, employees*

When she was done, I told her what a pleasant surprise it was to find
someone in a store like that who actually knew her stuff. She said
that the year before, she was shopping for plants there, and noticed
that the "help" consisted of drooling teenagers. She was looking for a
job, so she walked up to the manager and TOLD him that he needed her
to work there. He hired her. She seems like the kind of lady you'd be
afraid (and stupid) to fire, even if some of the teenagers need
psychological counseling after working with her.

Wonder if we could get her in my home depot. My department head was a
former computer room (book keeper) person who decided to move out of
there......