Some stores have a lousy service. You find that workers are listless and even rude. Customer service is poor. These issues are more than compensated for by the low prices and customers do not make a fuss. View tend to be patronised by low income earners. Would you join the bandwagon to save on costs? Do you have examples of such stores?
Personally I try to balance it. Obviously I'd like to go to fancy stores with great service and expensive products, but that's not practical for me at this point. I'm a normal middle class America, so shopping at stores like Wal-Mart and Target is pretty much unavoidable. Of course I like to get good service, and it's sometimes lacking at those stores. I have noticed that Wal-Mart does seem to at least be trying to provide better customer service. It's been much better here lately at the stores I've been to.
There's this huge chain store in Southern Africa that's threatening to take over the whole continent. Quite simply put, I HATE it. It's brain washed people to think it's cheap, when in actual fact it's not. They sell products of mediocre quality and often shopping there works out about the same as going to better quality stores or more expensive. The staff are listless, disenchanted and rude. So I opt to go to them only when I'm absolutely desperate and can't get to any other store. Quite how they managed to get the whole nation to believe they are the cheapest is beyond me.
It really depends on what kind of store we are talking about. A grocery store I can deal with poor workers. The same for fastfood. However, if I go to a sit down restaurant, even if it is just a diner, it bothers me to no end when the servers are terrible at their jobs and have bad attitudes. It is 10x worse if it is a somewhat fancy restaurant. My view is that most people don't enjoy their jobs, there is no need to take it out on the customers.
This is a topic I was discussing with my fiancé this week. We went to this whole sale market, like a Big Lots type of place, and he absolutely hated it. Was so crowded, nobody could help, service was lousy. But All because it is way cheaper than other markets. We were debating if it was worth it, because we got out of there and shortly after went to another supermarket that looks so much better and was a little bit pricier but the service was so much better. We felt so comfortable in there after the bad experience at the wholesale.
I would never compromise service for cost. The low price is never an attraction for me. When I am buying things, I will always look for quality products as well as service (how and when my product will be delivered). When I am taking the service, I give more importance to the how it is delivered to me. I never dine in a restaurant where the price is low but service is poor.
I think for many of us, it depends upon our budget. I prefer to shop at a store like Nordstrom, where the service is very good and the employees are attentive to the needs of customers, but that's not practical for me right now. Some of the less expensive stores try to provide the semblance of service by greeting each person as they enter, but in many cases, it seems more of a rote exercise than that they actually care, or expect to follow that greeting up with actual service. I don't need to be doted on in a store, and tend to prefer to wander about on my own, but I like having employees available if i have a question or need assistance.
Well in the case of Target vs Walmart for instance, They are both budget stores, but I will pay a bit more to shop in Target as opposed to Walmart. Walmart it seems, always has some kind of chaos going on, where Target is usually a nice, clean well organized store..which is professional. Target may cost a few cents more...but the trade off in the store environment is worth it to me.
I am fine with shopping at Walmart, and to me, paying the extra markup on the same item jusst to buy it at Target i simply not worth it. It has been at least 2 years since we were in a Target Store. On the other hand We have Lowe's and Home Depot, within a block of each other and their prices are fairly competitive; but we always shop at Lowe'ss and never go to Home Depot. The people who work at Lowes are always easy to find when we need help, courteous, and just a lot beter shopping experience than Home Depot. Home Depot would have to become a whole lot cheaper in price for it to be worth shopping there instead of at Lowes !
I just think it is an individual choice. I do go to Walmart at times, I just prefer Target. It is also a bit more convenient for me, as it is the same shopping center as my credit union...and crossing the highway to go to Walmart is a bit of a hassle. Sometimes I will shop at both though, the same day if I think something might be significantly cheaper at Walmart.
I really hate to shop at Walmart because their service is usually not very good. They are rude and there is never anyone around to help you if you have a question. I find the same thing at Home Depot and much prefer Lowe's if I need to go to a home improvement store. I love shopping at Target as the staff is friendly and they will run some good deals on items that I purchase plus I use the cartwheel app to save money and their red card to get 5% off of my purchases. I do not think that Walmart is necessarily cheaper on most things.
This pretty much describes some of the dollar stores near me. Not the Dollar Tree, those employees are nice! I'm talking about the 99 cent plus stores that are locally owned. They are pretty rude! I still shop there though because they have some great deals!
Certainly not! Of course if i'm urgent need because of economic or time problems, then I most likely would make the compromise to go for a low cost-poor service situation. But in a normal situation (which is most of the time) I will feel very negative about a store if I get bad service, these days there is no one place you need to go to get anything, even the cheap places are more than one, so all that is left for me to choose between them is the quality of the service they provide. And don't even get me started on word of mouth, I will share my discontent freely if a store is particularly rude towards me.
There is a bakeshop here in our village that sells the best tasting bread. Every time we pass by that small bakeshop which is open 24/7, there's always a customer lining up to the counter. In the morning, the queue would reach to more than 10 people. When I myself bought bread one time, I noticed the slow movement of the attendant. I really don't blame her because she is the cashier and she is also the one baking the bread. In other words, it is a one-man team that made the service so bad. We seldom buy there because of that service so we just settle for the nearer bake shop which sells the morning bread with moringa. Not so good with the taste but their service is excellent.
I suppose such stores are lowering prices to lure back customers they already lost? Customers who may come back only once and never return when they realize that the customer service is still as bad as it was? That said, I'd only buy from such a store if all I do is pop into the store, get what I want and not have to interact with the staff in any way. If I'll be needing help finding something I want to buy then that would be last store I'd buy anything from.
