The thing is, when (and note that I said when, not if) customers do react by abandoning carts or complaining aloud, the reaction from management isn’t “Gee, we just lost a sale because we’re inadequately staffed. Maybe we should do something different.” It’s “Well, there’s another hissy fit story for notalwaysright.com. Oh well, we don’t need customers like that anyway.”
And that’s what shows lack of competency. All you have to do is stick your head out of your office door once in a while to see when customers are having to wait too long.
Indeed. I don’t have a background in this particular business, so all I can do is observe, and trust that sometimes “better for the company” isn’t the polar opposite of “better for the customer”
I’m not going to abandon my cart in the store, barring some unprecedented line length–I drove a long way to get there and will make the purchase anyway, so I’m only inconveniencing myself if I drag out the interaction by leaving and coming back.
The cart move sounds like something I would have done when I was younger, like asking to speak with the manager when something went wrong or writing a letter to the regional manager. That part of me has mellowed over the decades and these days I just let it slide.
While we are on the topic of shopping carts and back to the OP, I hate those crappy all-directional non-steerable carts with a passion. I don’t understand why they think it’s a good idea for your heavy cart to continue rolling forward when you want to make a left turn.
I’m an IKEA virgin. Going to be deflowered next Monday. Looking forward to lunch there. I can’t bring even one more stick of furniture into my house, but I might pick up linens, kitchen stuff, tableware, etc. (I didn’t read the whole thread.)
I like it well enough. We have quite a bit of it in our house. Some pieces more than 10 years old are holding up just fine. Some pieces didn’t. Hands down, though, this is the best dish towel ever.
I love IKEA. I like the simple lines of their pieces. I like assembling it and the DIY system in the stores. Never had a problem navigating the stores, either.
Quite a bit of my furniture is from IKEA. It’s cheap laminate, but I prefer that. I don’t want to be tied to furniture for decades. I don’t want to inherit it, or pass it down to anyone.
So far, I’ve had my IKEA stuff for 10 years, and aside from a heavy-use side table, it’s all still in great condition. I’m sure some items will break eventually, but at least it won’t feel like a waste when toss them. I’ll have gotten a lot of use out of them.
I go once a year, before Christmas, to get plastic cutting boards which are better than any I can find. But not any more, so they lost my tiny bit of business, and more if I chose to buy some more bookcases or something.
And I enjoy putting the stuff together.
That they immediately added 4 new checkers shows they weren’t blocking the lanes to save money - it is not like they hired the new people on the spot.
My grocery store does put new people on, and directs the shoppers at the head of a long line to the new one. One of the reasons I keep going there.
It looks pretty nice in real life though. I like all their stuff apart from their artwork which, if I put up in my house, would make me want to start a fight club.
When one opened near me, I went, but couldn’t find anything I wanted or needed. So I entertained myself by going through the stuff in the housewares section and looking at the country of origin. I think I looked at fifty items before I found one not made in China. And then when I drove out of the enormous garage, I noticed a giant stack of shipping containers behind the store. Basically the entire enterprise owes its existence to Malcom McLean (who is basically responsible for the whole containerization industry).
*Actually, the few stores is totally part of the program.
*I’ve never been, the nearest one is a good four hour drive away and this is in the well-populated north-east. I have ordered housewares online, I appreciate their excellent design. I’ve bought duvet covers in soft cotton, office organisers–can not resist all the storage options, a solid wood rolling taboret (only one drawer sticks and I replaced the castors with better ones from the hardware store)… the best deal was when I lived on the top floor of a mansard-roofed townhouse. Every wall, even some *interior *ones, slanted inwards above three feet. Hanging pictures on the wall was out of the question but thanks to IKEA, I managed a bookcase. It had spring-loaded metal uprights that attached to the ceiling, adjustable wood plank shelving so it was able to straddle the radiator. Perfect.