WTF

SO,

today in the local paper is a story written to Action Line (one of those consumer I-have-a-problem-can-you-help-me-fix-it things) about this poor woman who took her twins to the grocery store (same chain as mine, different location) with her and there weren't any buggies to accommodate her children. The store used to have two such buggies but now has one (being used at the time) as the other was stolen. (That is a whole other problem that our stores have.) When you consider the percentage of people that have twins compared to single births, then this store was probably in that range with the one buggy compared tothe total number of carts.

O MY GOD!!!


How did she get them from the car to the store? Did she really expect to show up and just find a twin buggy sitting there waiting to be used by her?

Now my store has a few sets of parents with twins and guess what?? We don't have a single buggy for twins. These people bring their own strollers because they think ahead. They also want their kids to be comfortable and safe. I don't think I would want to be trusting my kids in a store buggy. I would find it hard enough keeping an eye on one, let alone two.


Anyway, this falls under the crabby lady and her chair rule. We have this lady that comes in and goes through the store loading up her buggy without help, but gets to the cash and wants a carry out. Now she never asks for the carry out until the end of the order. If the cashier doesn't recognize her then this woman is left standing at the end of the register, waiting until a carry out can be summoned and available. She doesn't move away from the register either. Just stays there blocking the way. I have never figured out how she gets all that stuff in the buggy but can't get it out to put in the car. And before you tell me that the bagged items weigh more, she often buys a case or two of pop and she gets that in the buggy.

So, last time she came through me I recognized her and called for a carry out. Timing was pretty close to perfect but she asked me where the chair was that we used to have at the front. I told her we don't keep it out there as it is in the way and kids climb on it, etc. I did however tell her about the blind girl that calls up ahead of time and lets us know she is coming so that she can get as assistant to help her shop. I suggested that this lady call about the chair and we could have it here for her. Didn't she come in not two days later and had obviously called because the chair was at the front; coincidentally, right by my register. She sat in it while I rang her groceries and never said anything about thanks for the suggestion, but what the hell.

The other lady is this one that reminds me a little bit of Marty Feldman when he played Igor in Young Frankenstein. She is sort of bent over and looks out of one eye at you and has a lispy need-to-spit kind of voice. She buys a few lottery tickets and likes to sit at the front of the store scratching them and drinking her tea. She was another one that used to get all crabby about the chair not being there, etc. I explained to her, too, about the kids that climb on it and that she just has to call first. The next time she came in and complained I asked if she had called and she said no. So, in as kind a kidding way as possible I told her that I had had to put the chair away because no one had booked it and I can't have just anyone using it. She took the hint because the NEXT time she came in, there was the chair ready and waiting.


Anyway, the lady with the twins. In the story she had mentioned that she talked to the store manager about the twin buggy issue and he told her the situatuion. So I am just wondering why, if he told her he'd try to get more buggies in, she felt she still had to complain to someone else about it.

It has been my experience from the few times I have told my own customers to talk to the manager or the head office that those issues have been solved in a very timely manner. In fact I tell people if they have any issues then they should feel free to call because my company DOES LISTEN to their customers and they act on it.

Way to go for my store!!

But the vests and shirts are still butt ugly.