I've had two really exceptional experiences shopping this week. The first was at a local department store called "Boscov's," which is in the town square here. It was straight out of the mid-century: courteous service, 5 levels--"Miracle on 34th Street" in feel to it. The employees were helpful, in fact almost eager to help. I didn't even have to lug multiple bags to my car: they sent everything down to a pickup area, and when I pulled up, my items were waiting for me and my receipt. The other was Phil at Bullgoose; who made recommendations on sating my SSAD while stearing me away from products he didn't think I'd like, and taking care of my order quickly yesterday so that I have things to look forward to either tomorrow or Friday. Contrast these with what I dealt with last night at Wally World: no one on the floor, and two (2) registers open outside of express lanes: a store with that sort of volume! Left a full cart by the registers yet again and went to Target: while their employees are indifferent, at least they aren't aggressively incompetent. (Not that I particularly blame Walmart employees considering some of that company's practices.) Still, just by the amount of cashiers they scheduled, even their management doesn't show a reasonable amount of regard towards their customers. So what happened? I'm not expecting the gold standard all the time, but I don't see why I can't expect silver or bronze.
I know here in Edmonton, Canada, when the oil industry started to take off, everyone everywhere wanted to make the big money working way out of town in the patch. This forced local stores to hire anyone that walked thru the door. Most often who they hired didn't care about there job due to the fact that if things went south they would walk next door to get a job for more money etc. This completly destroyed customer service out here. The worst part was local pubs and restaurants started to take advantage of all this oil money moving thru wallets that they started imposing mandatory %10 tips, with a suggested extra %5 minimum. Customer service is appauling but you end up paying a gratuity because you have to. It's infuriating but that's what happens when things hit an economic boom I guess.
in Russian figure skating, they expect the platinum standard! all kidding aside, customer service nowadays seems to be a joke, taking a hit mainly from kids growing up with out a sense of personal pride, dignity, or responsibility or accountability. They go through public school, in a system designed to prevent them from failing, instead of preparing them to pass, and then they hit the workforce, doing whatever is minimum to get a paycheck. Yes, the problem is much larger than that, but when dealing with places like Wal-Mart and McDonalds and such, that's what we end up with, because we put up with it
Completely agree. It's hard to focus on any one customer when you're that big. (That's what she said) I've received the best service and given my loyalty to smaller more specialized stores like my local pharmacy, grocery co-op, etc. It may cost a little bit more, but the service, support and expertise make up for it.
I agree with you on Walmart--I usually avoid the place like it had the pox. More often than not, I wind up doing what I did last night, so there's no point to going there. But there just seems to be a lack of civility even in smaller companies/stores. sparcotsi--I usually tip around 20%, but if a place requires a gratuity, they won't see a dime beyond the charge.
"They" don't see any of the gratuity. The server does. And the server doesn't set, nor have any say over, such a policy.
Actually the house takes a percentage of gratuity on payout at most places here, they found that servers weren't tipping the house enough and thus imposed a set %. The problem is that the service is generally terrible. I'm sick of tipping as it is anyway, places in Europe or Auz and NZ generally have higher pay for the position and thus tipping is not common place. This allows a higher standard to be set to "trim" those who don't meet it. Giving the restaurant a better name due to better service. When you pay a server $10 an hour they aren't inspired to due a great job and that in itself is the problem. For low pay people don't feel like taking any pride in what they do.
The server has the option of working there or not; just as I have the option of patronizing the establishment a second time. I exercise the option of not returning. Consistently. If I know in advance about such a policy, there isn't a first time. But that's another can of worms: there's a whole lot of obnoxiousness in a restaurant basically admitting that they underpay their staff and require the customer to cover the difference. A tip should be in addition to a living wage, not a way to get to it.
Hmmm...they don't do that in the US. And $10 an hour??? I wish! $2.14 (or abouts) an hour last time I waited tables I didn't own. I always take pride in my work. Regardless of pay. But I know what you mean.
That is exactly the problem, Joanna. A tip shouldn't be going towards getting the wait staff to minimum wage--it should reflect on how well an individual server performs the job that they are already competent enough to receive a livable wage to do. Or at least a team of busboy, server, bartender, cook. I'm not all that keen on "pooling" tips beyond that. As things stand, where you have to make $4/hour in tips after pooling everything just to get to a wage you could have gotten at McDonalds, where is your incentive? (Obviously, you hope that the restaurant makes it up in volume, but volume doesn't lend itself to individual service, does it? So once again the customer gets to pay for less, and the tip percentage goes towards the minimum. Only the restaurant owner has the win/win.) On that note: the slow death of commissions is probably killing service in retail.
That's just what I was about to type for myself. If you (as the customer in general) demand the lowest possible prices you'll just have to live with subpar service and longer waiting times. Personally I wouldn't abandon my shopping cart just because there are only two registers open - someone has to take back all the stuff and I wouldn't want to put any more stress on the overworked and underpaid employees of these supermarket-chains. If you want more and better service you have to spend a bit more of these greenbacks. I wouldn't say that. At least here in Austria and in Germany it is common practise to tip - if the service you got in the restaurant was (at least / more than) satisfactory. It's not mandatory and no waiter will get mad at you because you didn't tip but it is a sign of respect and thanks.
I never had a problem living off what I earned waiting tables. The system certainly isn't perfect, and I sure don't even know why it is set-up the way it is, but it is. For anyone who doesn't know, in the US, the government taxes 10% of a servers sales. That's the reason many restaurants tag on a gratuity for large parties. It protects the servers. A restaurant that tags on a gratuity cause I sat down by myself, ain't getting my business. Pooling tips is total BS.
Great wording! I love it. Describes everything from fast food to walmart to even sit down restaurants. It's not that their not trying or don't care, buy they are going out of their way to do so.
Walmart's prices around here, at least, aren't that much cheaper (and considering the quality of their products, you could argue they are more expensive) than local grocery/department stores, so I use the grocery/department stores, rarely stepping foot in Walmart. Somehow, when lines get out of hand in those other stores, additional registers are opened. If you would wait in a line for half an hour so that a huge corporation can save money by not paying for additional part-timers (they stick with part-time help so they don't have to provide benefits) to properly staff their store, that's your choice. But in my opinion, if more of their customers left their carts rather than wait, maybe the store managers would notice and perhaps hire an adequate amount of staff (maybe even *shudder* full-time help) and improve the lot of both employees and customers.
That's fine if you live in a densely populated area. The better grocery store is 20 miles from me. The Wal-Mart is less than 5 minutes. *sigh* I wish it were the other way around. Except, insulin. Wal-Mart has the cheapest available insulin. I pay out of pocket, so........<shrug>
I'm aware of all the good valid critiques of Walmart but I am there every other day shopping and for many working class Americans its Walmart's affordable prices on all household needs or nothing. 1. the best time to go to Walmart is early morning , no shoppers, no lines and the store is yours. The clearance items are unmolested. " I'm at work", Yes you are , thats why you need to sneak out on " company business" park the car between trucks in the Walmart parking lot and go shopping. 2. the more you visit the same Walmart the more you know the store and where everything is , you won't need assistance. 3. Visit your favorite Walmart enough and you get to know the cashiers, who is good and nice and who isn't. Also the door people know me by sight and simply let me pass without checking my receipts or cart.
Im sorry but that whole checking the receipts at walmart/sams/costco is a joke. Half the time they never really look at anything and just put their stripe across the receipt. I wonder who made up that koosh job.
