Monday, January 02, 2006

Dear Retailer: How to guarantee we'll shop you next year

ALLISON KAPLAN

The unused promotional coupons are crumpled at the bottom of our bags, bad gifts remain piled in the back seat to be returned when the lines die down and the Muzak version of "Deck the Halls" continues to ring in our ears. But it's time to look ahead past the 80 percent-off racks of stretched-out sweaters and mismatched mittens to next holiday season.

Yes, I know, your blood pressure spikes just thinking about how it took 20 minutes last week to find a parking spot at Target, only to learn they were out of the toy you needed. Soon enough, that toy will be out of favor anyway. The stores will be empty and the shelves will be restocked. Then, the bathing suits will appear, the flip-flops and halter-tops will go on sale and before you know it, the jack-o'-lanterns and wreaths will once again compete for shelf space.

While there's plenty of time for retailers to plan, I'd like to suggest some ways holiday shopping could be made better next year if only retailers would listen to customers. Come to think of it, make that No. 1:

Listen to us, retailers! We're the ones waiting in your long lines, sorting through your mounds of unfolded shirts and being treated like criminals at your return desk. Let us help you help us.

2. Ban holiday music before Thanksgiving. We know there's no stopping you from putting up the Christmas decorations before Halloween, but at least spare us the autumn carols.

3. Call for a Black Friday truce. Why don't all of you promotionally crazed mass merchants agree to open at 10 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving (rather than 5 a.m.) so we can spend the holiday with our families and not camped out in your parking lots? We'll still show up and be a lot jollier for having slept in.

4. When you create new retail "holidays" like Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving, now considered one of the biggest days of the year for online shopping), make it worth our while. For all the hype, most Cyber Monday special offers were little more than free shipping.

5. Keep an ample supply of gift boxes at the checkout counter. There's no excuse for running out of boxes, and don't make matters worse by telling the customer to hunt one down in another department. That's your job. While we're on the topic, make sure you have a variety of sizes; I'm not going to jam a wool sweater into a tie box. And please don't make me beg for tissue paper. Of course, I want some.

6. If you offer free gift-wrapping and you should, it's a memorable extra touch make sure there's another employee available to ring up sales. Customers anxious to make a quick purchase get highly agitated watching the sole employee tie pretty bows.

7. Know your store's busiest times and arrange for adequate staffing. In the past few weeks, I walked out of many a store without even browsing because I knew that no matter how much I liked something, there was no way I was going to wait in that long line to buy it.

8. Don't bother issuing discount coupons if they contain a million exceptions. Thinking I'm going to get 20 percent off and being turned down at the register puts me in a bad mood, and that's worse than offering no special deals in the first place.

9. If you're going to collect information on shoppers who return merchandise, make sure you also know who your loyal customers are and treat them accordingly when they have a problem.

10. Put store greeters to work doing something useful like offering free valet parking at malls and big-box stores. Now, that will draw shoppers.

11. Prominently list all pertinent holiday information on your company Web site. Don't make me go searching around as I found myself doing again and again this year. I want to know your extended store hours in December. I want to know the latest time and date I can place an online order for Christmas delivery, as well as the cost. I need to be aware of any deadlines or special conditions for returns. Give me all that, and I won't have to call and bug your frazzled salespeople.

12. But if I do call, make sure those sales associates know the answers to my very basic questions.

4 comments:

  1. She touched on many of my own "suggestions" I'd make. I have more I'd make, including some very specific to Target and Wal-Mart. I also was disgusted by a few stores that had buy one get one for 50% off sales. If I only want one ...dont make me buy two to get a sale price. I also tried in vane to use a Kohls gift card, only to find that there was NOTHING there that I would even remotely consider buying at the prices they had everything set at. I am either going to just get some towels...or wait and hope they dont start deducting money off of it over time. If you give a gift card, make sure it is at a place that doesnt play pricing games like Kohls. (marking things up to outrageous prices, only to put a sign up announcing it is 50% off) My other complaint is that at Target, if you exchange without a receipt, they make you exchange it for ONE item of that price or more of that SAME department. This was a pain, but finally we settled on something from the toy department we could use for a friend's child who is much younger (as I didnt have a Christmas present for her yet). We were exchanging a game, and beyond getting another game (which he has plenty already), there was no other choices that appealed to him....in THAT department. Silly policy.

    I found the best situation strangely enough in the BMOC, at the Bass outlet store. Great markdowns on very nice clothes for my husband and daughter and then to top it off, they gave us two $5 off coupons for Izod and Van Heusen. Likewise I went into two other stores I might not would have ventured and found the same great pricing, great quality, and ended up being able to pad their gifts with a few extras because of all the other money we had saved elsewhere. My husband was very pleased (as was my daughter), ending up with some really nice gifts all within what I wanted to spend. The staff at all three stores were extreamly helpful (yet not overbearing), friendly and cheerful. (and this two days before Christmas)

    I could add more to this...but I just mainly wish retailers would take note of things mentioned in this article and understand that if not for us, the customer, they would not be sitting on the 18th floor in that corner window looking out over the city.

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  2. BMOC is wonderful. I like the Allen-Edmonds outlet there, and they provide great service and fair prices. I’ve never gotten the coupons at the other stores, but I know that they tend to be just as easdy to workj with as Allen-Edmonds.

    Kohl’s plays more pricing games than Bob Barker. I’ve grown increasingly tired of their faux discounts, not to mention their rather bland fashion sense. The only time I go is if I need something and can’t possibly find it anywhere else.

    The one that used to bother me the most was Hecht’s, though. They used to print an endless stream of coupons, none of which were valid at full value on anything you’d actually want, if they were valid at all on same.

    They softened their stance somewhat as of late and actually provide some fair pricing from time to time. But, wouldn’t you figure, they’ve been bought out by Macy’s, which tends to adore the worthless coupons, although they tend to put more stuff on real sales than Hecht’s did.

    The only time anyone else I know ran into Target’s return policy was a few years ago when my aunt bought some purple Christmas lights that did not work and they refused to offer her anything but store credit, even with a receipt. They tried to claim the time limit had expired while the receipt clearly showed it had not. She ended up getting a refund after much haggling, They’ve changed their policies since then.

    The only item I would add to the wishlist is: never stop carrying the basics. Store buyers have become so enamored at getting “unique” merchandise (that looks suspiciously like their competition’s “unique” merchandise) that getting basic stuff like white sheets, plain towels and can openers has become an adventure.

    I was looking for a citrus juicer for my mom, and tried in vain to buy one from a department store, because I wanted a decent-quality one. After going to each and every department store in The Streets at Southpoint mall and finding nothing (one small appliance salesperson at Hecht’s could not even identify a juicer when asked), I ended up at Wal-Mart because my only other option was Williams-Sonoma, and they were charging for the entire orange tree rather than for the juicer. LOL

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  3. I agree, they should always keep the basics. Even in a nice department store-they should have a good range of products where someone can have a choice as to buying something relatively inexpensive to buying a name brand at full price.
    (this is part of what irked me about Kohls the most...as I exausted my thoughts about things we could buy from there)...I thought to look for a new crock pot or a new mixer (both of ours we own now were wedding gifts) They were way over priced. Even with the gift card, I would have had to put out another 10-30 dollars to buy something I could easily get at Wal-Mart for WAY less (and a name brand at that)
    I have not really ever taken to Hecht's . I liked Thalheimers much better.

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  4. My crock pot is from Kohl's, but mostly because they were the only ones who had what I was looking for: a 6 quart oval stainless steel crock pot with mechanical controls. I paid too much (it went on sale ther next week) and it was buried deep in the store behind their funky looking china department.

    Hecht's (and Dillard's) improved when they built their own stores in North Carolina, but they definately were a step down from Thalhimers and Ivey's, respectively. They fired all of the old staff, loaded the stores with junk (Hecht's more than Dillard's)and then tried to have a "sale event" every day.

    Hecht's biggest selling point has been their long store hours and spacious locations; Dillard's, the fact that they weren't Hecht's (LOL) but little else sets them apart from the fray unlike the Thalhimers and Ivey's stores they trounced in their wake.

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