Oh No. Another Retail Blog

I really don't like shopping and am the typical guy shopper - I walk out with exactly what I went in to buy, nothing more. Point of purchase generally doesn't work on me. Buying presents for birthdays and Christmas generally sends me into a panic. I wander aimlessly through the store trying to figure out what my wife would like for her birthday. I have no ability whatsoever to imagine what a dress or a sweater might look like on her. I can't tell the difference between haute couture and J.C. Penney.

Sometimes I feel like a secret shopper, sent in to a store by management or a competitor to check out the service. When I'm in the stores shopping, the chamber guy in me can't help judging the customer service I receive.

For instance, I happened to be in a very nice store a few minutes before 5:00. I was purchasing an item when I heard the bell ring on the store's door. "I'm sorry," the owner said to the woman trying to enter the store, "we're closed". "But I just want to buy a gift certificate", said the one-minute too late shopper. Once again, "I'm sorry we're closed; you'll have to come back tomorrow." I wonder if that happened.

Then this week, I needed a special shaving mirror and couldn't find one in Rockland or Camden. I happened to be at a conference in Augusta so stopped off at a specialty bed and bath shop. You can figure out which one that was. I found just what I was looking for and walked up to the counter to check out. I was the only shopper in the front of the store. The young clerk looked at me with a blank stare then turned around and argued with another clerk about her not getting her 15-minute break. This while I waited impatiently to pay and go. It was probably only a thirty second delay but quite a turnoff for this reluctant shopper.

Finally, Donna knew I was going to Augusta and asked me stop at THE CLUB and load up on tissue, paper towels, bar soap - all the commodity goods that THE CLUB is known to sell in huge quantities at supposedly great prices. She gave me her THE CLUB card so I could buy merchandise at this apparently very exclusive facility. I roamed around the store for 45 minutes grumbling under my breath at the indignity of it all - me in my suit and goofy bow tie pushing around a huge cart of stuff. I finally found the elusive box of Bounce and headed for the checkout. I handed the clerk my THE CLUB card, (or actually Donna's THE CLUB card), and was told that while they were sorry, I could not buy the goods I selected because my picture was not on THE CLUB card. I explained that Donna is my wife, they could check the address to verify that and the fact that we have the same last name is not just a coincidence. Didn't matter. I left a gigantic pile of merchandise on the counter and exited the store. (I didn't wait to see if they wanted me to put it all back). I was hot. When I got home we cut up THE CLUB card. How goofy can that be to deny a sale to a customer at the checkout? A small retailer would have figured how to make the sale.

So with the big box argument in full swing here in Maine, the secret shopper in me has come to some conclusions. National retailers are here to stay and will be players in the marketplace. They're here because the demographic research tells them that there's a market for what they sell and they represent the changing face of retail.

On the other hand, those that see the national retailers as destroyers of downtown aren't giving the small business people the credit they deserve. Look how downtown Rockland has thrived in recent years and this in the face of new big box competition. The secret to success in retail isn't so secret after all. Give great customer service, provide value and quality of product and the store will do just fine. Great service can come in either a big or a small package and so can bad. -H-