"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.

Well, that's no surprise. It's random. I don't expect to run into someone
with a doctorate in botany at a big-box store, or even at most garden
centers. But, it *would* be nice to find someone who loves plants. These
stores could do that, if they wanted to, and it would NOT be so difficult.
They might have to go looking for talent, but they could also be more aware
of when talent is staring them in the face.

Example (but an unusual one): Here, we have a home improvement chain called
Chase Pitkin. I was at one of their stores back in May, looking through
their outdoor plant selection. They keep most of it under a tent. The lady
running the area was all over the teenage help like cats on mice, making
sure they were doing exactly what she wanted done to the plants. "The tag
says "shade" - put it with the OTHER shade plants! In two hours, everything
on that side of the tent's gonna be roasted." With the rest of her brain,
she was dispensing good advice to three customers. Every plant on display
looked as if it had been readied for a photo shoot in a horticultural
magazine, and she was not letting the teen staff relax when it came to
continuing the manicuring, deadheading & watering.

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.

"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......

wayne crimi wrote:
Recently the Wall St Journal ran an article about Home Depot training 7000
of its garden center workers to be "nursery consultants" via an online
course. Does anyone have information on that course, how I can take it
etc.....?


Let's face it: any of us could wind up as a Home Depot "nursery
consultant" after being laid off.

On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 20:54:37 GMT, "Vox Humana"
wrote:


"DigitalVinyl" wrote in message
.. .
"Dennis Edward" wrote:

"Vox Humana" wrote in message
.. .


I went to HD today. Same thing. Nearly everything was wilted BADLY,
or
just plain dead.


I went to HD a few weeks ago, and asked about a problem with my
tomatoes --
numerous holes in the leaves. The salescritter told me in no uncertain
terms
that it was caused by watering in sunny weather -- the drops of water
cause
lensing and burn the leaves. Uh-huh. I did a little research and
discovered
the *real* problem -- flea beetles.

I won't be asking them for advice again....

You expect a lot for a little over minimum wage and low prices, don't
you?

I suppose that sales person is supposed to study every plant they sell
and every bug, disease and bad human practice inflicted on each one so
they are prepared to play plant doctor for the public.

I have received a lot of bad information at HD and Lowe's. It isn't limited
to the garden department. I would rather that someone tell me that they
don't know than to just make something up and/or sell me the wrong product.
I have no idea what they are paid and it makes no difference to me. When
they ask me if they can help and I ask a question, I expect them to give me
an informed answer or to tell me they don't know. I don't think that is
asking too much. You don't have to be highly trained or well paid to say "I
don't know."

Just think about this when you ask a clerk at HD or Lowes about a
power tool, how to install insulation, or information on some other
project. Scary stuff.

These guys aren't hired to be home improvement experts. That's too
bad. I think they should be, but no one wants to train their
employees. They just want them to mind the store.

Swyck