Keep Pant Stackers At Wal-Mart Not Your Retail Store

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

 

Restoration Hardware

As I was checking out a mall the other day it hit me that the problem with retail now is that the people who are comfortable stacking merch have replaced the ones who are comfortable talking with customers.

Case in point. I went into Restoration Hardware last week to find a wealth of stuff still leftover from Christmas – it was fully stocked and displayed.  There were four of us in the store shopping but it was virtually empty of employees.

As I walked further  in I saw a woman go up to the cash wrap with a clipboard.  As I looked at a display and its POP, I couldn’t tell if they had one of the sizes of candles listed. I finally got her attention; she came over and told me they were, “Out.” And with that she returned to walking by every display making notes on her clipboard.

After a few minutes, I started to leave. She was now at the front of the store talking on a walkie talkie to someone about what merch to bring out.  She said, “Excuse me,” as she walked around me to another display that was missing one item.

Crate & Barrel

Another instance was when I visited a beautifully displayed Crate & Barrel.  There were 8 employees in the various departments straightening, cleaning, stacking and not a one said anything to me or the other eight customers in the store – or even their co-workers. It was like a morgue with Kenny G playing overhead.

I used to call them “pant stackers” from my days in western wear.  You could tell the new guy or the new girl to go straighten the wall of jeans, to stack them so the largest size was on the bottom and all the rest were in order in each stack.

You knew if you had a pant stacker because they were quite happy to stay there for hours taking the jeans off, refolding and stacking.  They didn’t say they were bored, they didn’t try to leave the job and go help customers; they just stacked pants.  I didn’t take to these folks well.

The salesmen, the people who liked other people, the ones who wanted to get ahead, to connect, to do something with their lives, always were engaging customers while they stacked. They usually asked for someone else to do it or left it for the pant stackers.

Pant stackers now I believe, like to work at a big box like Wal-Mart where they do not have to interact with people; they can straighten until their hearts content.  And there is nothing wrong with that in a big box. It’s not a black, white, young, old or any other physical attribute, it is their comfort level in the world.

The trouble is these people are now managing major specialty shops and have brought all of their insecurity, fastidiousness with order and lack of engaging the customer to places like Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and Crate and Barrel.

Pottery Barn

What’s funny is the big boxes are beginning to get ink about how helpful they are becoming, how focused on improving service and how dedicated they want to become to the customer.  

Finding the widget for the customer is nice but it doesn’t build sales. Here’s a clue to winning retailers - you have to find out why they want the widget in the first place.

You want to survive in this doom & gloom economy? Get the pant stackers out of your business. Hire salespeople. Keep the Wal-Mart employees at Wal-Mart and find the salespeople for your business. It’s not easy but neither is closing your store.

It’s now or never my friends.

If you need help, remember the Retail Doc makes house calls.