It's official we have no more bags for customers. It's raining today, too and a customer just bought some books and was angry. She wanted to speak to a manager. Manager offered to gift wrap them. Customer was so angry she returned the books. AS far as I know or heard, we are not getting anymore bags in the near future.
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No bags !
Makes us look ridiculous.
Secret shops are a joke.
It came back that I smelled of c-gare--es.
I do not smoke.
Also said I was chewing gum while I was talking to the secret shopper
. I never, ever, chew gum.
"Yeah, the priorities are a bit skewed:
This customer just made a large purchase & requests a bag.....NEVER MIND THAT, WE SCORED A 60 ON OUR SHOP!!!!"
One of the more insidious things about Secret Shops is how it divides the crew and management of a store.
Now, the MBAs out there--you know, the ones who were too stupid to get a decent paying job in the financial sector and settled for retail--would say that the first thing one should check when a secret shop was posted is this--what did we do right, and what did we do wrong, and how can we use this to grow our business, and increase shoppers happiness?
Well, that is, of course, bullst. Instead, in Real Life, the first thing you look for is who was MOD when the shop happened. If it was you, you start building your defense so you don't get reamed by your SM. If it was another manager, you have a frisson of schadenfreude--a word only the Germans could have come up with--that it wasn't you.
Secret shops are the way a company implodes when it doesn't respect the opinion of its SMs and DMs.
Yeah, the priorities are a bit skewed:
This customer just made a large purchase & requests a bag.....NEVER MIND THAT, WE SCORED A 60 ON OUR SHOP!!!!
JUST HOW STUPID ARE THEY?
They pay for these stupid secret shoppers but then won't supply us with shopping bags!
No wonder this pathetic company is doing so poorly- NO COMMON SENSE!
Pretty sure we never stopped ordering bags. This company has always been so inconsistent. Some stores run fine, others are constant anarchy. It's hard to communicate problems because it varies so much from district to district and region to region. Regionally, especially, it's almost like different companies.
I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt when they communicate something awful, because I've been here a while and I've seen how something might be working great at one store and it's a disaster at another. The culprit, I've found, is usually an incompetent SM or DM. It's quite stunning how many loose cannons the company allows, and everytime a store gets redistricted or the DM gets sacked, it's terrifying wondering if your number is up because you drew the short straw and inherited a tyrant.
In any case, if your SM/DM let you run out of bags because of the hold on ordering (even though corporate said you COULD get things that are NECESSARY to run the business, and I would say that BAGS definitely count) then they are negligent.
Would they let you run out of receipt paper, printer paper, or TOILET paper?
I can't wait to hear that one. It's coming.
"Miss, there's feces all over the stall!
Sorry...i think there's a public rest room at that place across the street."
Friend of mine just went to a store in NYC and said the ladies' room was atrocious. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned for days.
Last year, they were skimping on toilet paper, bleach, plastic gloves, and garbage liners. They're probably doing it again this year, along with just normal bags. What a joke.
I knew all these mo--ns insisting on a giant bag for one greeting card, would bite us in the a-- one day!
Wait. People still buy printed books???
“I have friends who now read this site and they're laughing at all of us.”
Can’t blame them. A once great company is an industry joke.
“We can’t afford bags. That’ll be 35.99 for the 8 year old DVD.”
I have friends who now read this site and they're laughing at all of us.
This is absurd. A bookseller shouldn't have to call a manager up to give a customer a bag.
However BN wants to move bags around a district, it shouldn't matter. BN is, in essence, a high-end retailer. It is probably the last place on planet Earth where people pay full price for books. If a customer wants a bag to take out her purpose, BN should, no matter how much it costs, no matter how terrible the P and L looks, to provide the customer with a bag. Period. If an ASM has to get in her car and drive fifteen miles to pick up some bags from a store that's flush with them, then so be it.
We're talking about freaking bags, for god's sakes, not payroll, not rent. A bag costs about five cents. If booksellers have to get into beefs over bags, then there's some pretty dark clouds on the horizon.
Get your resumes really, folks. Really. And do it yesterday.
It's gotten to the point where anything goes: Need a bag? Let me rummage through the trash...wait...how about a trash bag?
Sir, can someone help me in music & DVD?
Sorry, can't get anyone in there....just grab whatever and stuff it in your pants.
Miss, there's feces all over the stall!
Sorry...i think there's a public rest room at that place across the street.
Someone just corrected me on the second communication: it included "partner with your DM." So obviously, this store's DM said "no" to the emergency ordering that the company approved.
Sounds efficient to me! Enjoy those wet books.
I'm a bit confused here.
The first communication from corporate two months ago was "stop ordering for the rest of the fiscal year and don't give out bags unless you absolutely have to."
The second communication was "okay, that was a bit harsh. If you absolutely need to order something so you can continue running the business, do so but only get what you immediately need."
Did some stores miss the second communication or was that one a regional level communication? That is, are some stores still operating under the impression that they absolutely cannot place ANY supply order?
Hold the phone here--are the stores actually out of bags, or are they just not giving them out?
It's one thing to ask the customer if they want a bag--I had a lot of customers who told me to save the bag--in order to cut down on supply ordering. Telling a customer that they can't have a bag is insanity.
You want a cup of coffee?
Bring your own cup!
( better bring sugar ,too, If you like it in your coffee)
No bags? Next they'll be telling customer to bring their own toilet paper for the bathrooms.
A customer would be a fool, to shop they are, anymore. I would’ve return the books also. But then again, I haven’t bought a thing from Barnes & Noble since I’ve been reading how they treat their employees.
What a stupid way to run a company! Get rid of those managers and DMs!