The despair of the retail run-around
With the opening of David Jones in Wellington, the retail sector has come under a bit of scrutiny.
Many retailers find it hard to compete against large chains, yet the biggest threat of all seems to be online shopping. Why travel into town and pay for a park, if you’re lucky enough to find one, only to find from the surly shop assistant that what you want is out of stock or will take weeks to arrive, which will involve another trip into town or a prohibitive courier fee.
It’s so much easier to let your fingers do the clicking and buy online. Place your order and whatever you want will arrive in a few days, or sooner, at little or no cost.
Or so I thought when I recently had the task of purchasing some furniture for an elderly relative moving into a small retirement apartment. Because I am the worst shopper in the world, Mrs Armstrong – Newtown’s Imelda Marcos – came to the rescue. She saw a nice chair in a shop at the railway station end of town. Yes, they had it in stock and it would take only 7 to 10 days to arrive from Auckland.
‘‘Is it going to walk down from Auckland by itself?’’ asked my exasperated wife. ‘‘No,’’ came the reply from the assistant, who had recently had a sense of humour transplant, ‘‘that’s just the way it is.’’ In fact, it arrived in Wellington after just four days, causing Mrs Armstrong to loudly wonder if the chair had sprinted.
Trouble was, it had to be transported to Berhampore, but was too large for the Armstrongs’ Suzuki Swift. Could they courier it? Of course they could, for only $125 – half the value of the chair. Luckily, sister-in-law was happy to transport it in her SUV. She dutifully turned up for the ungainly L-shaped item and asked for some assistance taking it to her car.
‘‘Sorry, the new Health and Safety laws mean we can’t help you,’’ was the reply. Luckily, a man had turned up to pick up a large item his wife had bought days before, who had also been told she would get no assistance, and kindly helped sister-in-law with the package.
A call to another Wellington furniture shop confirmed that the Health and Safety excuse was complete rubbish, and simply a ruse to save money.
Rather than dealing with more shops, Mrs Armstrong got online and ordered a lovely small table and chairs from an online store in Auckland. The freight cost was reasonable and the size perfect. Even better, it would only take a few days to arrive so elderly relative wouldn’t have to eat hot soup on her lap. ‘The freight company will contact you,’ said a staff member.
A week later there was no table and chairs. A phone call was made and Mrs Armstrong was transferred to four different people, none of whom knew what was going on. Finally someone reported that the table and chairs ‘just missed the truck, but it will be there in a day or two.’
The errant table and chairs missed the truck a couple more times then finally an email arrived. The company had ‘‘just discovered’’ the table and chairs were not in stock. However, there would be another shipment in ‘‘late October’’.
The order was cancelled and a credit card refund requested, which, four weeks after ‘purchase’, is ’in motion’. Meanwhile, Mrs Armstrong rushed down to Farmers, and bought a table and chairs. The obliging sales assistant delivered the furniture that evening and elderly relative was happily eating at the table that night. A trip to Big Save in Thorndon for a chest of drawers saw similar excellent service and pleasing results.
So what were our learnings from the experience, as Hekia Parata would say. Both online and in-store shopping have advantages and disadvantages, and are capable of providing both exceptional and appalling service.
Our local business community are vocal about the need for councils to support businesses. Fine, but it goes both ways. Train staff well and provide exceptional service, and businesses might find that’s the biggest factor of all in retail growth.
It's so much easier to let your fingers do the clicking and buy online .... or so I thought.