The Problem With Retail

Last week, we bid adieu to yet another mall retailer, Wet Seal. This comes on the heels of  the closure of The Limited, which shut its doors a few weeks ago. Many other larger retailers have recently announced that they would close some of their stores: J.C. Penney, Sears, Macy's, and Kmart. Some blame the demise of the traditional shopping malls for these closures. Others believe that online shopping through sites like Amazon has caused the lack of foot traffic in brick and mortar stores. May I propose another answer?

How about the complete lack of customer service? Long-time readers are probably aware that this is a particular pet peeve of mine, probably due to my time spent working in retail. Back in the day, we had a mantra: 'The customer is always right.' I think most of you would probably agree with me that the customer is never right these days. What caused this turnabout?

For whatever reason, I think retailers began putting less value on their employees, which trickled down to how the employees treat the general public. Salespeople used to be able to make careers out of their positions, but now, we have a lot of transient workers, making minimum wage, who frankly don't care about the products they are selling. Department stores used to educate their sales staff on the products, and this knowledge was then passed on to consumers. Hence, if you went into a department store to buy an item like draperies, the staff knew exactly how to help you with measurements, etc. Likewise, if you were going in to buy luggage or a blazer, you could receive help on determining which quality and price point met your need. Now, I realize not everybody wants or needs this sort of individual attention, but it is a good example of why retailers are going out of business. If you can't get personal attention, why bother driving to a store?

When I enter a department store now, I can't even find a salesperson to ring up my purchase, let alone help me with choosing merchandise. The last time I was at Macy's, I spent more time walking around the store, looking for a cashier, than I did trying on the dress I wanted to purchase. I recently had a similar experience at J.C. Penney. I had a return and had no idea where to go. They have tried to streamline their purchasing points by taking the cash registers out of departments and putting only two or three in the walkways on each floor. Unfortunately, they are either unmanned, or there is a long line at the only one opened for business. I wasted time in line, only to be told I needed to do my return on the second floor. Walked around in a circle upstairs twice until I finally found an employee to help me. When I (politely) told her that I couldn't find anyone at the cash register, she told me that was because she was busy stocking shelves. No apology, because it was my fault that she wasn't at the register?

While shopping over the holidays, I had an odd experience at The Gap. Usually, small stores like this have better customer service, as you are at least greeted when you walk in the door. I was trying to decide on a pair of pants for my son, and there were a lot of choices, if you were to believe the display signs. I couldn't figure out the difference between any of them, so I asked the nearest sales associate. She was nice enough, but she didn't have a clue as to what 'skinny,' 'slim,' or straight' fits meant. She even went over to a manager to ask if she knew the differences between the three. Nope!

To add insult to injury, I also discovered that during the Christmas shopping rush, both Wal-Mart and Target decided that they should only have one cashier in their stores, sending anyone who didn't want to wait in a 30 minute line over to the self-service stations. There, you can wait in line behind other people who take forever finding where to insert their credit cards or remove their change or how to ring up bananas and booze.

I will spare you the details of how many Kohl's stores I visited just to get my new gift watch sized.