They’ve Taken The Joy From Shopping
As you can see by the photos below, I recently decided it was time to make a change from the Covid beard I had grown this past year. I’ve had a beard mainly since I left Disney in about 1984 but hadn’t been clean shaven in about a decade. Because of that, the sudden shaving was really irritating my skin and I was getting a lot of razor burn.
So I decided I would try an electric razor and see if that helped. I did my research and deciding which one I wanted, started to go to stores to buy one. Holy smokers was it a frustrating experience. As retail experts, we love to comment on all the positives we see within the industry. Unfortunately, not every experience can be that. Shopping can be a fun, joyful experience and this was anything but. This isn’t about shaming any specific retailers as these experiences were pretty consistent across all of the big box retailers I visited in my quest.
Yes, I could’ve gotten what I was looking for online, but there are times when I want the immediate gratification of the purchase, plus I was still doing some comparison between different models and I wanted to do that in-store. I generally love actually shopping, being in the stores, wandering around, seeing what else I may want to buy. As I’ve written here, stores didn’t run into trouble because of online shopping alone; online shopping was able to grow because in many cases the store experience just wasn't that good any more.
Some observations:
Ordering-in-store. If I’m in your store, I’m not looking to buy it online. I could do that without coming into your store! I get that you could order it for me and, if I was asking for something unique, that might be really appreciated. But if I’m looking for standard stuff, that you have on display, I’m in your store to actually make a purchase right there.
I get that theft has become an issue, especially in certain categories, like the shaving area. I can appreciate your needs to limit theft, I really do. BUT, if you are going to lock things up and make me press a button to get help, then you need to have enough staff on hand to do that. Making customers wait 10 minutes to be able to start their purchase decision is 10 minutes too long. Most consumers don’t have the time or patience for that. And they certainly don’t want to feel like they’re inconveniencing your staff by asking for help to make a purchase. BTW, we have a solution to this issue, email Jim Ackerman to schedule a visit to learn more.
It is inconceivable to me that in 2021, when retailers are so focused on consumer convenience, that equally as many stores still don’t have a proper indication of what a product actually costs! Holy smokers folks, that’s a key piece of information to the purchase decision, why are you hiding it? Also as important is to make sure the inventory is in the right place if you DO put prices. Customers can feel a lack of transparency when they take something on the shelf with a price associated with it only to get to the register and find out it’s different.
I get it, hiring is hard these days. I mean, it’s shocking that people have finally decided that they don’t want to work for billionaire multinational corporations in low-paying jobs with no benefits! I mean, who’d of thunk, right? If you’re a small, independent business, I will cut you some slack. But if you’ve been making record profits, my sympathy is gone. If I’m in your store, I at least expect that any associate there can tell me at least what department something is in. Far too many people I encountered could not answer very basic information about the store let alone the products. This is about customer retention and engagement! Each customer an associate “cannot” help, is a customer that leaves with a more negative image of the brand than they walked in with.
As retailers discuss redesigning the front ends of their stores to maximize efficiency, I have a few thoughts from my experience today. I do self-checkout only when forced to do it. Unless I really only have a handful of items, it’s not usually my first choice. But watching people struggle with a shopping cart full of items, especially if they have children with them, is just painful. And, as smart as I think I am, I still have to look for the barcode every time. And we know that you didn't do this to make it a better experience for us, the consumer. No, you basically moved your labor costs from you to us. As different concepts emerge for newly designed front-ends, it’ll be interesting to see how retailers balance convenience for themselves vs the consumer. We’ll probably write about this one more in-depth, so keep your eyes peeled!
Many articles have been written about the death of the store but really the issue isn't that stores are closing, it's that bad stores are closing. My experiences yesterday really showed the challenges the physical stores are having. It takes so little for an experience to be either really good or really bad and almost all of my experiences yesterday sadly fell into the latter.
Yes, I did get what I wanted, but boy was it a painful process. I wanted to actually give a retailer my money and all I got was barriers to doing that. Shopping should be fun and for me it is. I'm spending money to get something I want or need, at the end of the experience, I should feel happy. I can tell you last night happy was the last emotion I was feeling and I actually got what I wanted.
In the end, I got the Phillips Norelco Shaver 7500 and based on my experience shaving this morning, it worked pretty well! I got a smooth shave and my face wasn't irritated at all! Even my wife commented how smooth my face was!
As you can see by the photos below, I recently decided it was time to make a change from the Covid beard I had grown this past year. I’ve had a beard mainly since I left Disney in about 1984 but hadn’t been clean shaven in about a decade. Because of that, the sudden shaving was really irritating my skin and I was getting a lot of razor burn.
So I decided I would try an electric razor and see if that helped. I did my research and deciding which one I wanted, started to go to stores to buy one. Holy smokers was it a frustrating experience. As retail experts, we love to comment on all the positives we see within the industry. Unfortunately, not every experience can be that. Shopping can be a fun, joyful experience and this was anything but. This isn’t about shaming any specific retailers as these experiences were pretty consistent across all of the big box retailers I visited in my quest.
Yes, I could’ve gotten what I was looking for online, but there are times when I want the immediate gratification of the purchase, plus I was still doing some comparison between different models and I wanted to do that in-store. I generally love actually shopping, being in the stores, wandering around, seeing what else I may want to buy. As I’ve written here, stores didn’t run into trouble because of online shopping alone; online shopping was able to grow because in many cases the store experience just wasn't that good any more.
Some observations:
Ordering-in-store. If I’m in your store, I’m not looking to buy it online. I could do that without coming into your store! I get that you could order it for me and, if I was asking for something unique, that might be really appreciated. But if I’m looking for standard stuff, that you have on display, I’m in your store to actually make a purchase right there.
I get that theft has become an issue, especially in certain categories, like the shaving area. I can appreciate your needs to limit theft, I really do. BUT, if you are going to lock things up and make me press a button to get help, then you need to have enough staff on hand to do that. Making customers wait 10 minutes to be able to start their purchase decision is 10 minutes too long. Most consumers don’t have the time or patience for that. And they certainly don’t want to feel like they’re inconveniencing your staff by asking for help to make a purchase. BTW, we have a solution to this issue, email Jim Ackerman to schedule a visit to learn more.
It is inconceivable to me that in 2021, when retailers are so focused on consumer convenience, that equally as many stores still don’t have a proper indication of what a product actually costs! Holy smokers folks, that’s a key piece of information to the purchase decision, why are you hiding it? Also as important is to make sure the inventory is in the right place if you DO put prices. Customers can feel a lack of transparency when they take something on the shelf with a price associated with it only to get to the register and find out it’s different.
I get it, hiring is hard these days. I mean, it’s shocking that people have finally decided that they don’t want to work for billionaire multinational corporations in low-paying jobs with no benefits! I mean, who’d of thunk, right? If you’re a small, independent business, I will cut you some slack. But if you’ve been making record profits, my sympathy is gone. If I’m in your store, I at least expect that any associate there can tell me at least what department something is in. Far too many people I encountered could not answer very basic information about the store let alone the products. This is about customer retention and engagement! Each customer an associate “cannot” help, is a customer that leaves with a more negative image of the brand than they walked in with.
As retailers discuss redesigning the front ends of their stores to maximize efficiency, I have a few thoughts from my experience today. I do self-checkout only when forced to do it. Unless I really only have a handful of items, it’s not usually my first choice. But watching people struggle with a shopping cart full of items, especially if they have children with them, is just painful. And, as smart as I think I am, I still have to look for the barcode every time. And we know that you didn't do this to make it a better experience for us, the consumer. No, you basically moved your labor costs from you to us. As different concepts emerge for newly designed front-ends, it’ll be interesting to see how retailers balance convenience for themselves vs the consumer. We’ll probably write about this one more in-depth, so keep your eyes peeled!
Many articles have been written about the death of the store but really the issue isn't that stores are closing, it's that bad stores are closing. My experiences yesterday really showed the challenges the physical stores are having. It takes so little for an experience to be either really good or really bad and almost all of my experiences yesterday sadly fell into the latter.
Yes, I did get what I wanted, but boy was it a painful process. I wanted to actually give a retailer my money and all I got was barriers to doing that. Shopping should be fun and for me it is. I'm spending money to get something I want or need, at the end of the experience, I should feel happy. I can tell you last night happy was the last emotion I was feeling and I actually got what I wanted.
In the end, I got the Phillips Norelco Shaver 7500 and based on my experience shaving this morning, it worked pretty well! I got a smooth shave and my face wasn't irritated at all! Even my wife commented how smooth my face was!
Before
After