The Place Where the Customer Is Probably Never Right
During this holiday season, you think people who work in retail stores would be sure the customer was satisfied with their purchases, in hope for a return visit.
You may think that, but you’d be wrong.
A friend of mine and I went to the town of Somerville last Sunday. Watch some football, order some food, then a walk through town for more Christmas shopping. We would pop in and out of stores, nothing special, until we hit one that was definitely memorable.
As we browsed the shop, the owner came over. My friend looked for something in particular, for a friend, and the owner pointed out items and spouted prices.
Our faces fell when she identified a small, not particularly spectacular, ornament.
"This one,” she said with a straight face, “is one-hundred-and-thirty-five-dollars."
Not sure how my friend found her words (without including the phrase ‘are you f’n crazy??’) but replied, “Sorry, that is out of my price range”.
After a few more exchanges, with prices painfully exaggerated, the owner said proudly, "If people want cheap they don’t shop here, they can shop at Walmart."
Did she know what she was saying? To customers?
Apparently not, as we were about to find out.
We browsed some more. I saw price tags of fifty-three and seventy-five dollars for basically plastic ornaments.
A few minutes later the owner circled back, pointed out another over priced item, and when my friend said no thank you, the owner said, in the most condescending voice I ever heard, "Oh, honey, money will come to you one day, you just have expensive taste."
Stunned, I looked away because WTF was clearly stamped on my face.
When I turned back to my friend, she had her own, astonished look.
“Did she just say,” my friend asked, almost bewildered, “what I thought she said?”
I told her, “Yes, yes she did.”
We walked around a bit more, in stunned silence, before we decided to leave.
Bottom line, we didn't buy anything.
Kudos to my friend because as we left, she said to the owner, in a calm and concerned voice, "I just want to tell you something, so it doesn't happen to another customer, but we didn't appreciate the comments you made to us earlier."
The owner looked shocked, probably not at what she said, but that someone would call her out on them.
She tried to explain, how she worked twelve hour days.
“And,” she continued, “I was on the phone with the cable company, they had me on hold forever, and I’m just having a bad day.”
My friend looked her straight in the eye and said, "Maybe I’m having a bad day," she then continued, "at least I wasn't until I came in here."
More fake apologies from the owner, then it was my turn.
"Listen,” I said, “its not about the money. We have money. It's about not wanting to spend seventy-five dollars for a plastic ornament.”
That drew a physical reaction from her.
“We don’t have any plastic ornaments, show me where you saw them?”
“It’s your store,” I said, “you go find it. What I am saying is that what you are selling is not worth the price you are asking.”
This seemed to plant a seed in her head.
“See that young man at the counter,” she pointed.
There was, indeed, a young man at the counter, while the cashier rang up his purchase.
The owner continued, “That young man came in here with a budget, and we were able to keep him under that.”
My God, this woman still didn’t realize just how insulting she was. It was not about not having money, it was not wanting to overpay for worthless merchandise. She really needed to keep her mouth shut if she ever wanted to keep any customers.
We left with no intention of ever coming back.
That was until today, when we were back in town. As we passed this store, my friend looked at me and we went inside.
She found the owner.
“You know,” she said to the owner, “you were right, the money did come and now I’m going to take my expensive taste and spend that money somewhere else.”
Okay, that last part didn’t really happen.
Although, we were in town today, and my friend really wants to do just that so, you never know.
