When retail environments go bad

Recent Old Navy trip. The management appears to have stopped caring about displaying clothing in an appealling manner. I’ve seen good will stores that were more clean. I had difficulty pushing Leta around in the cart because debris, clothing and hangers kept getting in the way.

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  • ellen

    Well…how can I let Andrew’s comment go unanswered? How?
    Improving economy? How can you attribute it to an improving economy? It’s exactly the opposite.
    It’s gotten so bad even large corporations are cutting back and laying off workers.
    Less people = less cleaning and organizing.
    Where I work the facility doesn’t look as good, the grounds aren’t as clean, the gardens aren’t tended. It’s not because we’ve had to hire “slackers” it’s because we’ve had to cut back. 30 year employees have been laid off. Too bad no one told us about the “improving economy”.

  • http://shenuts.com Sarcastic Journalist

    That picture makes me want to pick up clothes and throw them.

  • http://www.julienet.atfreeweb.com/retreat/ juli

    My local Kmart is like that. Not only can I never find what I need, I can never find anyone to help me find what I need. I think they just gave up when Wally World built a SuperCenter two blocks away.

  • http://www.tidewaterherb.com Steve in Norfolk

    As an owner of a retail store, and it’s lone staff member, we thrive on keeping the store clean and neat. It’s important that when people walk into my store they notice several things — least of which is the floors are clean, items are neat and not dusty, and are easy to find.

    We’ve really worked hard to make our store as it is and I’m proud to hear people walk in talking about how they hate to shop at our competition for this reason or another.

    Ageeing with the other commenters — you get what you pay for. We certianly are higher in some aspects as far as pricing goes, but I can assure you, when you walk into Tidewater Herb, you’ll not think of yourself in a second-class store. And our sales reflect that.

  • http://staysix.org Ali

    there’s a store in Boston called the Garmen District and they sell clothes by the pound… every week they bring in a giant dumptruck type vehicle and just dump a huge pile of clothes on the floor…

    …I used to think that was really cool, until my friend got some kind of mite or flea or something from scavenging

  • st. denis

    I used to work for Gap, Inc. (ON, Gap and Banana Rep.) and I can tell you that the reason those stores are often trashed is because the corp. constantly cuts payroll. It’s a vicious cycle — the store is trashed — it under-performs — brings in less sales — payroll gets cut — less people on the floor during peak hours to keep things straight — the store gets trashed.

    The only exception to this is stores in more high-profile locales or neighborhoods. For example, if some bigwig with the company lives nearby or visits regularly, that friggin store will get tons of payroll dollars. It sucks.

  • http://thefathousewife.blogspot.com/ Strizz

    You get what you pay for, no DUH but Old Navy is not THAT c heap. Ok I have issues spending 80 bucks on jeans (because I am not rich and have other priorities) but spending 20 bucks on a t-shirt is not cheap. If they are having a sale or some deals or something I will shop there. Or if I am splurging.

  • http://shenuts.com Sarcastic Journalist

    Amen for Strizz! I’m sorry, but I can’t even go on a shopping spree at old navy. That stuff adds up! I hate it when people try and say that places like Old Navy and Gap are slumming it.

  • http://shannononoccassionblogspot.com shannon o

    I’ve worked for both an independent specialty store (outside of the mall) and am currently a vendor merchandiser that works in many of the malls in my area. In a word — cleaning up other people’s messes is my life. My observations of the vast amounts of people working in the department stores is that they are the most apathetic people I have ever seen in my life.

    They seem to have no reason want or desire to do anything outside of their direct responsibilities. Most hate their jobs and dislike their co-workers or supervisors (and I’m talking about middle-aged workers here, not teenagers who really don’t give a rip). The few that do genuinely take pride in their job performance really are helpful in keeping the sections clean and helping customers.

    At the specialty shop, everyone really seemed to take ownership in the store (despite low salaries) — it was something they believed in and they went the extra mile to keep things clean and be helpful.

    Maybe it’s an issue of giving the people something they can buy into — something to believe in.

  • texbecks

    Since other folks are sharing stories…

    I worked for a well-known and privately owned/operated running store in Dallas. We often had runners come in asking to use our store bathroom (not open for the public); but since we had pity on those struggling through their long runs, we sort of developed a rep for being “that store that has a bathroom.” It became the thorn in the side to the employees who were required to clean it.

    One day a well-dressed woman rushed in and asked where the restroom was. We begrudgingly told her only to have her rush to the back storeroom leaving a trail of diarrhea in her wake. It was horrible. We were so angry and upset and she destroyed our restroom, evidently behaving like some gorilla in the zoo who flings their poop about. That’s why I do feel sorry for some retail employees — you can work hard to keep your store looking spectacular but some people save their abhorrent behavior for the weirdest times.

  • http://www.veryzen.blogspot.com Amanda B.

    This is why I haven’t been to WalMart in a month. That and the redneck family reunions that always seem to take place on the ONE aisle I need access to. I hate WalMart.

    We are actually getting a Super-Target and an Old Navy here. I am very excited.

  • http://aredeaf.blogspot.com Coelecanth

    Another tale from the retail front lines:

    We used to have a customer restroom. It’s closed now because the meth-heads were stealing the lightbulbs, or at least that’s what my employee’s said was happening. You know you’re getting old when you don’t know how the drugs are done. Sigh.

    Back when it was open to the public an employee came to me red-faced angry. “Someone shit all over the bathroom!” Sure enough there was poop all over the place. Some attempt had been made to clean it up, not very effectively. I took pity on the poor girl and cleaned it myself. The usual rule was: you find it you clean it.

    I had to point out to my employee that despite how ugly cleaning up was, I was still having a better day than the woman who left her panties in our garbage.

    Yah she should have cleaned up after herself, but someone sick enough to shit like that might not be in any condition to make rational decisions, let alone act on them. A little compasion goes a long way in these situations.

  • http://usako.ca/ usako

    i agree with shannon o.:
    give the employees (even the teens!) a reason to care about the work they’re doing, and you’ll get a shopping environment with respect for customers, coworkers, and the shelves.
    nothing discouraged me more from keeping up the good company profile than the ‘we don’t give a crap about you’ attitude my management had at a retail store i worked at. once a supervisor came in and told me that i matter to the company, i put myself back into the work and our sales went up dramatically.
    happy workers = productive workers!
    haha :)

  • http://sparkomatic.typepad.com heather

    Weasel, Crystal: Philly representin’!!!

    Jon, so long as you maintain some affinity for Lowe’s and/or Home Depot, that’s cool.

  • http://pinktaffy.com Pinky

    I contacted them, via email, last week about this very problem because I was treated like crap in their stores and it was a total mess… Anyway, they emailed me back and they want me to call and talk to someone in their “Customer Relations” dept about it and I am going to do just that. Anything you’d like me to add when I talk to them?

  • vmc

    Part of the solution to this is: Shop LOCALLY-OWNED stores! Yes, it costs more, but more of your money is staying in the community you live in, instead of going to corporate headquarters. A study conducted in Austin showed that for every $100 spent at a locally owned shop, about $43 stayed in the community. When the same amount was spent at a chain, only $16 stayed in the community. I live in Louisville, KY, and the local shops have a new campaign, “Keep Louisville weird,” to get people to think about where and how they spend their money. If you want your local shops to survive, you have to support them.

  • jlw

    Well…just needed to say that I understand teh frustration of having to walk in to a Old Navy store and deal with all the mess. I work in one, and am lucky to have staff that actually CARE about their store. However, with minimal hours from CORPORATE we are left trying to do teh impossible…maintain a huge store on sometimes 5 associates. However, what does nto help are customers who have NO MANNERS who feel fine leaving half empty coffee cups and ditching clothing randomly around the store. I can work my ass off and fold an entire wall of denim and come back 30 minutes later to find that customers have ripped it apart again. And it usually is the ones who destroy the store that make it a point to complain about the mess!! Its very frustrating. The rip through tables like they are digging for gold, even when there are size stickers on everything! So my advice.…get down off your high horse and come work for a day or two in our world…and see if it might change your mind.

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