I just saw them run another ad for this, I can’t believe they are still doing this shit!
Basically when you enter an Ace store you will quickly be assaulted by a floor manager with a walkie-talkie who asks you your name and what you’re looking for and then assigns an employee in the proper department to assist you, all over the walkie talkie. Now mind you the floor space is like half that of a typical grocery, these employees are probably within 100ft of each other. Then once you’re done with whatever you were looking for they try to hand you off to another employee.
Does anyone actually like this nonsense? I found it annoying to the extreme, I’ll go to Home Depot where I can shop in peace. If I need help I’ll ask for it.
EDIT: If you’ve never experienced it you’re probably not accurately picturing how much fake smarmy “politeness” and perfunctory social crap is going on, along with serious sounding codes and jargon in the walkies like they are the damn bombsquad or something. The only reason I can think of for this is shoplifting, I wonder if Ace had a horrible problem with it?
That doesn’t happen at our local Ace Hardware. Since the floor persons know many customers by name, it would be pretty stupid. I certainly would not appreciate what you describe.
Huh, I went to Ace last week to buy propane, and I did notice that the girl behind the counter used a radio with an earpiece to inform another employee that there was a customer that needed a propane fill-up. I seem to remember in the past she would have picked up a phone instead. But it didn’t seem phony or annoying at all, she called for assistance, the guy came up and filled up my tank, I was on my way. Several other customers walked in in that time, and I didn’t notice what the OP described.
I’ve never seen the “wingman” at my Ace, but what pisses me off is the way they make the workers stick a bar-code tag on the item I just took off the shelf.
Obviously, it’s supposed to motivate the workers to help me, etc. But it looks to me more like pure intimidation–if they dont meet their quota of stickers, they’re in trouble. And sometimes I don’t need a worker to help me.
Any hardware worth it’s salt has the “Guy”. Usually an older guy, who knows where everything is, and what anything I could possibly bring into the store for replacement is. I always seek out the Guy.
My local Ace does this… I walk in and am immediately asked if I need help. It depends on what I’m there for; if I know exactly what I need, it’s nice to have someone take me right to it rather than wandering the aisles for a minute or so. If I know exactly what I need but I don’t know what it’s called, it’s nice to have someone figure out what I’m talking about and take me right to it. If I’m working on something strange and I’m not sure what I want to do, it can be annoying to have to jettison the wingman, but all it takes is, “I’m not really sure what I’m looking for, I’ll let you know if I need help.”
It’s better than the alternative. I couldn’t find a battery for my cordless impact wrench at Lowes the other day and it took me 15 minutes to find someone who knew where they were. Meanwhile, I had two kids running around trying to destroy the store. Not fun.
My experience with a good local hardware store (whether Ace or True Value) is that I can always find someone who knows exactly how to do what I am trying to do. If I spend a little more (and it is rarely more than a little more) it is well worth it. However, not all of the stores are good. Some are staffed mostly with young men (boys?) who seem to have no experience at all. I would not want to have one of them as my wingman.
I used to call my local ACE wingman Goose. But he died in a tragic toliet lid ejector accident one day.
When I need help I really like it. But when I am browsing or doing some weird McGyver type project (which is usually the case) I wanna be left alone. Fortunately our local store management and/or employees seem to understand no means no when they ask if you need help.
OTOH and somewhat related we have an absolutely wonderful store that carries all kinds of cool “foreign” foods. But the owner is so damn pushy and bothersome I don’t go there unless I absolutely have to. And everyone I know thats gone there thinks the same thing. The guy has probably drove away ten times the business he gets by browbeating you into trying or buying something.
Never seen it. The new employees usually try to help me, the guys who been there for years just nod as I walk in. My biggest problem is the way they keep re-arranging the store without checking with me first. I have to wander through the aisles picking up cool looking things because they’re there until I find what I came in for.
I like a happy medium of employees that are available when I need to ask them for something, but aren’t bugging me when I’m trying to browse and shop on my own. This “wing man” bullshit sounds like it would drive me crazy.
We have a chain of stores in San Diego called ‘Dixieline’ that used to be the only large home improvement retailer in town back in the 80s and through most of the 90s. They operated on the principal of you could walk in and not be bothered, but if you wanted an assistant, you could take a number and when your number was called, the guy would follow you through the store and help you with a project. I really liked that, because if you were just buying light bulbs, you obviously didn’t need a guy, but if you were replacing a toilet or garbage disposal for the first time, you might want someone there to help you so you didn’t forget some key part. Plus, I don’t know about you but I am always weird about opening packages in the store (e.g. does this garbage disposal already have the plug, or do I have to buy that separately and wire it in?) If the guy is with me and knows this stuff, then that’s great, or if he opens the package, then the weirdness is removed.
Of course, Dixieline is also a rip off price wise, which is why they have been going out of business in large numbers once Home Depot and Lowe’s came to town. If you go at a slow time, the guys at Home Depot will sometimes walk around with you too…
It took me shopping in three stores the other day to find The Guy. I guess that technically what I was looking for was hardware, as opposed to software, but it was really an electronic gadget. At Radio Shack the guy said “There is no such thing, and even if there were, we don’t have it.” At Best Buy, they said “It can’t be done, you’re out of luck”, even though it was clear that they had no idea what I was trying to do. At Guitar Center, The Guy said “Follow me. We have several ways of doing that.”
My regular hardware store is the local Ace (Sneade’s). They don’t do the wingman thing, thank goodness, but they are well staffed with knowledgeable people (at some places, you need to find The Guy; Sneade’s has a bunch of them), and I rarely have trouble finding one to help me when I need assistance. They’re great.