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My wife, Pam, thinks I am
well on my way to becoming a full-blown curmudgeon. I think she is sweet,
but I have a long way to go before reaching my goal. I am not old enough
to get my certificate, and besides that I occasionally still care about
what people think about my outbursts. That doesn’t mean that I don’t
have outbursts, it just means that sometimes I tone it down so as not to
embarrass my family or myself. This is the story of one of those rare
occasions where I chose to write my outburst instead of having one.
Wal-Mart is one of those
places that for many people has come to symbolize both what is best and
what is worst of America. As a symbol of what one man can accomplish with
simple beliefs and a lot of effort, Wal-Mart is unparalleled. Sam Walton is
one of my heroes.
When I was in high
school, I worked for Fred’s Discount Stores. I learned as much about
retailing working there as I did studying to get a marketing degree in
college. There is nothing that prepares you better for working with people
than working in retail. After I started working there, I came home every
night swearing that “Tomorrow, I’m going to quit!” and every day I
went back to work and did my job. After the first year, I began to realize
that the key to retailing was the customer and making the customer happy
is crucial to your success.
In the men’s room for
staff, there was a sign hanging there that I believe said it all when it
comes to retail. It said:
Always
strive to provide:
The
Right Product in
The
Right Place at
The
Right Time for
The
Right Price for
The
Right Customer with
The
Right Service.
I remember this sign not
because I spent a lot of time in the bathroom, but rather because after
reading all the labels on all the bathroom products several times over, I was frankly looking for new material. I looked up and saw this sign on
the back of the door and it burned itself into my memory.
I remember one customer
in particular who came in every Saturday and bought about 20 cans of cat
food. Like clockwork, I could expect her around 10:00am and it didn’t
take long for me to realize that she might be having difficulties with
carrying all those cans in the flimsy paper sacks we used. So one
Saturday, I stopped her and went to the back and found a box for her to
put her cans in. She was so grateful that the next week I saved the
perfect box from the box-crusher just for her. When she got there, I met
her in the pet food aisle with the box. We talked for a few minutes and
then parted ways. The next week I did it again. This continued for over
two years and she never failed to come and buy her cat food from Fred’s.
Whenever I couldn’t be there for her, I asked one of the other employees
to make sure she got a box. I don’t know if she remembers the boxes, but
I sure remember that customer. It was a simple, common sense solution to a
problem and over the years we sold her a boatload of cat food.
It was that same level of
attention to detail that I’m positive got Wal-Mart to where it is today.
Sam Walton fully understood the concept of doing whatever it took to make
the customer happy. However, along with Wal-Mart’s success and the size
to which they have grown something has gotten lost in the translation.
Someone along the way decided that low prices were the only reason people
were shopping at their stores. While I agree that price is a big issue for
many people, I also believe that service plays just as big a role.
Which brings me back to
the story I’m really trying to tell. Pam had put together a list of
things we needed from Wally-World. It included dog food, birdseed, and
fish food among other things. Unlike many people in many towns, our idea
of a romantic evening is not “dinner and Wal-Mart”, but we usually
find a way to enjoy ourselves while we are there. After picking our way
through the health and beauty aids, we moved on to the pet department
where we found a clearance rack (our favorite shopping area!).
Pam spotted a cool dog
toy that was a simple ring of latex that she and I both knew instantly our
dog, Magee, would love. Bad news was: no price tag! I found a much larger
chew ring with a price tag, but I could find no other chew rings like the
one we wanted. Being the responsible couple that we are we tracked down
the employee working in that department over at the fish tanks and
explained the situation to him. He told us that there should be some more
over on the dog toy aisle. We told him that there weren’t any more. He
expressed a great deal of ambivalence about us buying this important piece
of play equipment for our un-spoiled four-legged member of our family. He
came over to the dog toy aisle and pretended to look for a similar ring
but within 60 seconds he was back over at the fish tanks.
I decided that the best
solution was to take the small ring that I wanted along with the bigger
ring with the price tag up to the counter and let the cashier figure it
out. What a great idea! We finished filling our shopping cart and headed
for the cash register. We were in luck and found an open register and
began to unload our goods on the conveyor belt. In an effort to help speed
up the process, I told the cashier the problem with the chew rings and
asked her to go ahead before she started checking out the goods to call
someone to figure out the price. That way, we would accomplish two goals
at the same time! She mumbled something and flipped a switch that turned
on a flashing light above our heads.
After ringing up the last
of our 200 bucks of stuff, a supervisor ambled over and I explained the
problem to her. She took both chew rings and headed to the pet department
I assumed to locate the gentleman who was so helpful to us earlier.
Finally after having to turn away a couple of people who were trying to
line up behind us, the supervisor returned with both of the chew rings and
my hopes soared! Then she dashed my hopes for giving my dog, Magee, a
wonderful surprise on the rocks of despair. She told me that
unfortunately, they would be unable to sell me the chew-ring because it
didn’t have a UPC code.
I was dumbfounded. Here I
stood in the middle of Wal-Mart with money in hand and a product I desired
and I couldn’t buy it. She didn’t make another offer. She didn’t
call the manager. She didn’t suggest using the $4.00 price tag on the
larger chew to sell me the smaller one. She simply said that I couldn’t
buy the one I wanted. I stood there unable to understand how after
purchasing over 200 dollars worth of stuff, she couldn’t come up with a
way for me to spend 4 dollars more. I had the right product at the right
time and I’m sure that I was the right customer, but Magee didn’t get
her new chew ring. And, I didn’t know how I was going to explain it to
her. She so looks forward to getting new toys!
I didn’t act like a
total curmudgeon there in the store though I really wanted to. I did state
my disbelief at the absurdity of the situation, but my comments were lost
on employees who really didn’t care whether I purchased the chew ring or
not. And that made me wonder if Sam would have approved or not. Somehow, I
think he would have been just as shocked as I was.
Paul H. Tarver |
