Cincigal Grocery Store Clerk - IT'S JUST A JOB

The title of this post, I do believe, is becoming a reality.   Not only at our store but, almost every store I go in.

My cousin and I hit the road Wednesday and decided to do some shopping.  We traveled to one of the shopping malls, on the north side of town, and found the place to be rather empty.  Had no trouble finding a good parking spot and, there was absolutely no rush of shoppers to contend with.  Kind of reminded me of where I work.

In total, we visited four stores during our shopping spree.

Out of the four stores, there was only one that had great service.  This store is a very popular, national company, if not international, and the service and personality of the employees was top notch.  I found out that these employees are trained and they genuinely like their job.

This reminded me of how we use to be.

Now on to the other three stores.

At one of these stores I made a purchase and as I was being checked out, I got a little behind the scenes dialog.  The clerk that was checking out my order, had the cell phone in her left hand, used the cash register with her right hand and when a co-worker came by she was able to start a conversation with her; multi-tasking.

Now granted the actions of the clerk was not, what would be considered, good customer service - but hey, I kind of envied the clerk's ability to do all three things at one time.  But, what more caught my attention was the conversation that ensued;

Clerk #2 - "Hey, have ya seen the schedule?"
Clerk #1 - "No." (as she removes the cell phone from her ear)
Clerk #1 - "I had 32 hours last week and 28 hours this week." ( as she turns to Clerk #2 while     bagging my purchase.)
Clerk #2 - "Well, you got 0 hours next week."

For a second, or two, Clerk #1 just stood there staring at Clerk #2 while holding my bag.  Finally, Clerk #1 took my money and handed over my purchase.

So, as a customer, would I go back?  Yes I would - I like the fashions at this store.

Would I send an email to the corporate headquarters about the type of customer service I witnessed?  Not at all.

I look at it this way, the company  is to blame for the type of service the employees display.  These clerks had probably not been trained, except for the business end, and the actions they displayed will probably be how they act at future jobs which, sooner or later, could cause a problem for them.

And, just guessing, I would say that they have nothing to look forward to with this job except a minimum wage paycheck.

As a consumer, I feel the companies are at the root of customer service.  How employees act all depends on how they are treated by the employers.

I'm glad that I was able to work during a different time.  A time when employers provided their employees with incentive and good working conditions.  When the pay you received enabled you to dream and provided a stable life.  It was when employees were valued for their strong support.

Coming back to work, I see so much of what I have witnessed at other stores.  But, that is to be expected when there are employees who are just passing through and making low pay.

Like one employee told me, "Hey, it's just a job."

Talk at ya later!

 

Cincigal Grocery Store Clerk - THIS IS FOR SUSAN

As many times as we have had to say 'Goodbye', these last few years, you would think that it would get easier as time goes on.  But, it doesn't.

With most employees, that have departed, they took something with them when they left and in the process they created an empty space.

It is the team work, dependability, knowledge, responsibility and work ethic that, when gone, leaves a void in the work place   Along with the laughs and the friendships that make working more enjoyable.

 The structure of a staff is kind of like a set of building blocks.  You stack them up, one by one, until you get the perfect structure you are wanting to create.  But then when you start to remove the blocks, one by one, you begin to accumulate empty spaces until all that is left of the structure - comes tumbling down

With Susan leaving, another empty space has been created.  And one, like so many others, that can't be filled.

She takes with her the work ethic that is so much needed, the knowledge that got the job done and the teamwork that we all counted on. 

However, there is just one more thing that she will be taking with her ........ our friendship.

Talk at ya later!

Cincigal Grocery Store Clerk - MISSING STEPH

Now that we have said 'Goodbye', to another manager, I thought it only appropriate to do a post commemorating her stay at our store.

So, since this manager is now out of the building, I decided to ask the employees what they liked about her.  Not as easy a task as I had thought it would be.

With each employee that I asked, I was given all sorts of info.

"So what did you like about Steph?"  I would ask.  With each person asked, they would go on and on and on. 

Well, considering my memory can't remember all of it, I should have taken notes, I decided to just collect everyone's comments and break them down into one statement.

So, here it goes;

                                                             STEPH

                                              YOU WILL BE SO MISSED!

I don't think I can say it any better then that.

Talk at ya later!

Cincigal Grocery Store Clerk - 'SEEIN IS BELIEVIN'

The title above is a line that was given to me by my first department manager.  Of course, I have no idea how to give an exact spelling for 'seein' and 'believin' but this is all that I could come up with.

Throughout my time in this line of work I have found, that this particular phrase is the truest statement ever made when it comes to retail.  It has come in handy on many occasions.

Take for instance, a display or the way to operate a certain procedure for a department; you may know what you are talking about but let's say that the opposition has other ideas.  At first you may get frustrated because you know that your way is tried and true, but the opposition wins out in the long run.  Usually it is because the opposition is management.

But hold on, not all is usually lost.  Because, you see, it is the end result that matters.  And more often then not, it is the tried and true method that will win out, you just have to step back and allow the opposition to see for themselves. 

Of course this is how you learn another lesson; they don't always know what they are talking about.

This little, three worded phrase kind of hit home this week when we, the employees, witnessed the grief that a fellow employee was being put through.

Some called it 'harassment', others called it 'not fair'.  And in all reality they were all right, because the way the situation was handled was not that of company policy. 

As employees, we have taken note of the changes and learned to adjust.  After all, what choices does one have - you might say, 'they got you over a barrel'.  We come from a different time and a different place; a company that took care of it's employees and in return the employees provided the company with the best support. 

But now that those days are gone, we have become realistic and realize that we are vulnerable and have to be prepared.  Now having witnessed what one employee has gone through, we know that it can happen to any one of us.  Which leads me back to this little, three worded phrase.

Although we may have had an idea of what we were up against, we have now seen the reality and yes, we believe.

Talk at ya later!