The mission was a simple one: flash drive & daughter’s prescription. The store has recently been remodeled, so I expected to have to search.
While I was there, the daughter texted & asked me to get her a flash drive as well. No problem, right?
I wandered the aisles, up and down. Looking at the new items, and wondering where the computer accessories are. (Answer: strewn everywhere thanks to retail psychology – the more stuff you look at the more you’ll buy). Finally I walked up to the counter and said “Excuse me.”
She continued working.
“Hi?”
“OH! I’m so sorry! How can I help you?”
“Where are the flash drives?”
“They’re over by the printer ink.”
“Okay, thank you.”
So I walked over to the area where the printer ink was and walked up and down. You would THINK that an employee of a secure department would follow behind with the key, wouldn’t you?
You would be wrong.
Instead, I stood there, leaning against a display….waiting. Watching. I’m not sure how long I stood there…five minutes maybe? when another associate walked by and asked if I needed help.
Angels descended from above
I told him what I needed, and he went RIGHT to the employee that had been ignoring me and asked for the key. I thanked him for his help and made my way to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription and pay for my drives.
The pharmacy employee cheerfully rang up the prescription, handed it to me, and told me to have a nice day.
WHILE I was trying to hand her the flash drives to ring up.
I bit my lip, nodded my head, and made my way to the cash registers out front.
The speedy checkout line had no customers, but it *did* have two associates talking to a customer. I slid the drives to the cashier and waited while the chatterbox made her way AWAY from the card slider. The cashier asked me how I was doing (Don’t ask. Thank you for asking, though.) and completed the transaction. I made my way to the doorway
walked through
and set off the alarm.
Then I went home and fired off an email to their customer service department where I closed the letter with:
You’re fired. Seriously. I can get everything that’s available in your store from other retail outlets.
And now I’m telling y’all!