I did just that when I bought her one of these for Christmas a few years ago. But I stop complaining when she makes cookies.
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Yes their other store, K Mart, did the same. Remember K Mart’s pledge “If more than three in line, we will open another register”
?
I was in line at a K Mart, about six of us in line. K Mart had a sign with that pledge plus an 800 number to call. The lady behind me called the number, she was told “we don’t do anything about it, just take a report”.
More than once I left my items on the floor of the checkout lane.
Though many people prefer cashiers, I really like self checkout. On occasions I have used curbside pickup, prefer to do my own meat and produce shopping. Did do a curbside at Lowe’s, but they required me to go into the store to tell them I arrive, other stores I have use have numbered slots and a phone number to call. A restaurant I frequent is so efficient they are bringing out my order befor I finish dialing! They saw me drive up😀
I have very strong feelings, as a consumer, about businesses taking my money in a timely manner. Whether stores that sell products or restaurants/services… It should be management’s highest priority to take my money from me when I am ready to hand it over. Call me entitled or self-righteous or whatever…but my patience for waiting to pay seems to be getting shorter the older I get.
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Unfortunately, it seemed that they also lacked people capable of managing their brick & mortar stores. On more than one occasion, I went to one of their stores, looking for a sale item that had been advertised. When I couldn’t find it on the shelves, I asked for assistance, and in every case–after I waited for 15-20 minutes–I was told that they had these items in the basement, and that they would bring them up if I waited.
The wait was usually another 20 minutes or so. Bad store management!
More evidence of bad management, although this came from the top, and was not the fault of a local manager:
Quite a few years before Sears sold their auto centers to another company, they changed their old policy of free battery load tests. I found this out when I went there and was told that they now charged (I think) $12.95 for a load test. I drove away and went to the nearest Auto Zone–where it was (and still is… ) free.
That policy change at Sears undoubtedly reduced the sale of batteries, so it almost seems like they wanted to shoot themselves in the foot.
Wasn’t the Sears pension plan a factor also?
If you like the Diehard battery brand they are now sold at Advance Auto/Car-Quest parts stores. I needed an AGM battery for my Chevy Volt. They had a Diehard that was identical to the original AC Delco OEM battery. I’m sure a little cheaper than a Chevy dealer.
One of the shuttered Sears stores in my general vicinity actually had a “grand REopening” several months ago
We visited it and were quite depressed as their product selection and staffing were awful, so not a darn thing had changed
In the past, i used to get all my appliances there, but i stopped that once they started circling the drain
Most of the mechanics of my generation bought their first tools there. When they started earning more, they started buying Snap-on or Mac and the Craftsman tools and box went into the garage at home
The current Sears predicament was entirely preventable, imo
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We use to have a Shaws Grocery store near us. Last time I went there (about a month before they closed), I was in the ONE line that was open with 5 people ahead of me. There were a MINIMUM of 5 Shaw front-line workers standing around talking. Someone in line complained and their response was that manager has to open the line and there wasn’t available. Last time I ever shopped there. I started driving a little farther to Market Basket - huge difference. They don’t have self checkouts. There is rarely more then 3 people in a line with some stores having up to 25 checkouts. Great store.
Sears biggest mistake, IMHO, is that they valued advice by what they paid for it instead of what it was worth. This plagues a lot of companies today, the bigger the company, the more they make this mistake.
In the late 80’s when Sears decided to get out of the catalog business, business consultants were selling “drop the departments with the lowest ROI (return on investment)” ROI was king. So Sears looked at the ROI of their major departments, catalog, stores and credit (finance). Catalog had the lowest ROI.
What they didn’t understand was that the catalog was like the foundation, stores were the walls and finance was the roof. So they pulled the foundation out from under the business, not understanding that the credit department (Sears Card) made a lot of its money by financing sales from the catalog. The rest came from store sales.
They dropped the catalog department and changed the Sears Card to Discover. It all went down hill from there.
IIRC. the concept of Amazon came from a term paper Jeff Besos wrote for a college class, and he did not get a good grade. People didn’t think it could work. Heard the same story about Fred Smith and FedEx.
Yes Mike. That was my point. I’m not the only only one calling it Amazon 1.0. Expand your imagination and time perception.
And yes (to others), there were all of those other somewhat comparable retailers like JCPenney, Macy’s, Wannamaker, Montgomery Ward and etc. But Sears & Roebuck was the top of the heap for mail order.
Amazon started with books. Sears & (eventually) Roebuck started with watches. Then they went on to be “retail-anything” behemoths. My initial point was just that it was WAY more difficult at the turn of the 20th century (Sears) than it was at the turn of the 21st (Amazon).
What point are you trying to make, exactly?
Let’s face it, a book could be written about Sears and how it went from the top retailer to a loser, but there are a couple of things to consider:
Where are all the brick and mortar retailers? Every one of them is shrinking. The paradigm has shifted.
None of the old mail order catalog companies has come even close to Amazon. Amazon caused the paradigm to shift!
And I think there is more to come. As a species, we have adopted the smart phone as a necessary appendage. I wonder where that is going to end up.
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Agree!
Compare the ordering and checkout procedure from Amazon to any other online retailer. 10 years ago it was WORLDS away from everyone else. 3 clicks and done. Now one click and done, if you choose that option.
One click and it lands on your porch next day or 2 days (generally!)
Even newer online competitors couldn’t compete. Several years ago, there was a new online retailer (Jet) that had comparable–or sometimes better–prices than Amazon, and their delivery times were just as good.
After a few years, Jet was bought-out by Walmart.com, and it serves as much of the basis for Walmart.com.
How can you compare the old catalog companies to Amazon? In 1920, the US population was just over 106 million compared to 2020 population of over 331 million. $100 in 1924 is worth $1845 today. Of course Amazon will have more customers and higher dollar sales.
One big difference is that in the 1920’s people used catalogs more out of necessity because we were more rural then and catalogs were the only option for some people to get certain goods. Today, online shopping is more of a convienence.
In the late 1970s one of my college marketing class teachers mentioned how Sears and General Motors dominated their respective industries, and how other companies in their sectors followed their lead. He felt it was unlikely they would be toppled from their perches.
Years later I was working in the department store industry. Our company, now closed, had senior management that was slow to recognize the potential of online sales. They felt our customers preferred in-person shopping to see the merchandise before making a purchase. Which was true. But the a good chunk of the current customers and most of the next generation of shoppers preferred online shopping.
Along the same lines, one of the retail trade magazines did a story on a guy who consulted for small towns, helping them preserve their downtown shopping districts by keeping Walmart out. Online shopping and the mass adoption of the smartphone dried up the consultant’s business. He said everyone carrying a smartphone now had a Walmart and every other large retailer in their hands at all times. Small town store owners told him they often had customers enter their stores, see an item, pull out their phone, start comparison shopping online, and often buy the item for less from an online retailer while still standing in the shop keeper’s store. I guess when the customer is no longer constrained to shopping in their geographical area, price (and the ease of purchasing online in just a few clicks that someone else mentioned earlier in this thread) is going to be the main determinant of who gets the sale.
And I think you’re touching on the live wire that runs through all of American consumer behavior:
Given the choice between a “better” product and something even slightly “easier” or “cheaper”, 9 out of 10 times the consumer will go with whatever is easier or cheaper.
That explains why consumer have largely gotten away from physical CDs in place of electronic music (vinyl is another topic). It also explains why most folks may say they prefer to “buy American”…yet when presented with a an American Made Widget that costs twice any much as the Chinese one…most consumers end up buying the Chinese one.
I think that companies that can tailor their offerings in this way can hit gold. Right wrong or neither, that seems to be the way today.
That’s why Temu and Shein are coming on strong, even against Amazon.
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