My current impressions of the state of modern retail may sound like an angry Generation X rant when I am talking about the topic with people. We can all get into conversations about how things have changed and reminisce about things we miss from the past. In a constantly changing world, the way we shop has been changed forever and there may be no going back. I am all for online shopping and technology making my life easier. Whether it is supplies for my business or items for my home, I purchase many things online. But there are some things that I like to shop for in person.
I like to go browse in a store from time to time. Shopping for groceries online isn’t something I will do in the foreseeable future. I like to pick out my own food, especially vegetables. I prefer to eyeball my own bananas too. I don’t think I can trust an Instacart shopper to understand my likes and dislikes. The common types of shopping I do have been part of my adult life so long I don’t see a need to change. I do take advantage of free shipping from warehouse stores or Amazon Prime. My first choice for shopping is always online first. It is a reflex now that we are living in a connected world. I recently was shopping in a Walmart but was scanning items with my Amazon app to make sure I am getting a good price. If I am in a store and trying on shoes I will scan the code and see if I can get them cheaper somewhere else. Maybe time is of the essence and I have to have something faster than in a couple days then I will buy in a store. Shoppers have options. These options don’t seem to be making brick and mortar retailers create a better experience for the shopper.
Customer service seems to be getting worse. Yes there is always an exception and there are some great people working in retail. But the overall experience in a store has been downgraded. The number of self-checkout lanes are growing at a fast rate. A self-checkout line is fine at times but now the optional choice to use it or not is being taken away. We have all be inside a retailer and want to check out with a cashier’s assistance but the faster option is self-checkout. One or two cashiers may be working if you’re lucky. The shopper’s experience and convenience are not a priority any longer. I can just as easily order online and check myself out at home. Self-checkouts and the inability to use cash for a purchase sounds an awful lot like buying online. I am getting a better experience with home delivery by shopping online. I am seeing less and less advantage to go to a store and purchase things the old fashioned way.
I understand the golden age of retail is gone forever. I have been in beautiful stores with grand pianos and sharply dressed men and women waiting on the customers. I really never sought out this high brow shopping experience. Actually, I avoided it. The prices were better at discount department stores and the experience may not have been as fancy but it was not anything like we have today. Most stores were stocked well, clean and organized. There were no self-checkouts and help wasn’t far if you needed it. Try to find a sales associate in a store for help nowadays!
I don’t need a five star shopping experience but can we at least have clean stores?Some kind of organization? A little appreciation? Some retailers offer what is almost a thrift store experience. If you have been in store like TJ Max, Marshall’s, Burlington Coat Factory or Ross to name a few, they are just a step above Goodwill when it comes to shopping experience. I am told there are good deals in these stores. I have visited these stores and they are chaotic and unorganized. Merchandise is placed on shelves with little or no care. The patrons rummage through shelves and racks of clothes with reckless abandon and the employees seem to have little care for the display of the goods they sell. I will avoid these stores at all costs. My wife has the time to shop at them and can find good products but I don’t want to support stores that provide such poor service and a terrible experience.
It is true that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. I am sure there are some pleasant stores to shop in around this country but some of the big players are terrible at what they do. Would I feel bad if some of them went out of business? No I would not. Do I worry about retail shopping dying and jobs being lost? No I do not. I would not want to work in a high stress, dirty retail environment. The employees never seem happy and many times the service is subpar. Should we mourn bad businesses failing?
I am all for retailers making money and succeeding at what they do. However, they should try and do it well. Then maybe people would choose to buy in the store instead of online. I try and limit my visits to Walmart Stores to maybe once a year. More often than not I have a subpar experience in these stores. But they seem to be able to make billions in profits every year. They are proof in the modern world that you do not have to do things well to be profitable. We sold our collective souls in this country for cheap goods. Now we get cheap experiences, with little care for the convenience and experience of the shopper. I don’t need every store to be a modern Marshall Fields but we have lost something in our society. Respect for one another and respect of ourselves would be a good place to start. Retailers seem to have little concern for shoppers. In turn, shoppers have little respect for retailers.