Skimping on employee training bad for business

Around Christmas time, you can usually tell the competency of management by the attitudes of employees.

Recently, I was in a chain drug store looking for glue sticks. (I hate getting those tongue cuts from licking envelopes.)

It’s not the easiest place to locate things. There isn’t a lot of logic or direction as to placement of various items. While looking for the sticks, I noticed an employee coming through the front door to start her shift.

“Excuse me, miss,” I inquired. “Do you carry glue sticks?"

“We don’t have any!” was the curt reply as she marched toward the storeroom.

I was ready to leave when a tall thin young man, standing innocently by the register, interrupted:

“I think we do carry those,” he said timidly.

Leaving his post, the competent clerk took me to a specific section. Lo and behold, there hung the desired product.

“Perhaps it’s not the store. It’s just that young lady with a poor workplace attitude,” I thought. There are a lot of those types around these days.

I got the sticks home, and they worked about as well as nothing at all. I hoped the environmentalists hadn’t killed these things too! It was back to licking envelopes again.

A few days later, I journeyed to the same store searching for a different product. It was a “two-forone,” special, but unfortunately, only one item remained on the shelf.

Thinking I was in luck, I spotted an employee in the next aisle who was checking inventory with a hand-held computer.

“Excuse me, sir: Can you help me find another bottle of this product?” I asked.

“I’m busy doing this. Go ask that girl behind the photo counter,” he replied without even a glance at my confused and befuddled face. His answer made me feel guilty for asking such an intrusive question in the first place.

Next, I looked at the checkout line. It was in chaos. A little old lady was holding everybody up with questions no one could answer — or even understand for that matter.

Despite the fact that another clerk was standing by, he did nothing to help ease the situation.

Needless to say, I had enough and headed for a supermarket on the west end of town. Here people will not only stop what they are doing, but consistently guide you to the right spot. If it’s not on the shelf, they’ll check in the back for additional inventory, if asked.

In the recently remodeled store, I found the same product I was trying to locate at the other place, and with the same two-for-one deal, but actually at a lower overall price.

The register line was a completely different experience as well. Not only did they have self-service machines (which I hate), but plenty of employees to check out customers for those who prefer personal service. If the lines gathered customers, clerks immediately called for help.

The reason most still prefer to use the staffed checkout lines is that many clerks know their customers personally. Employees make it a point to call them by name and visa versa. Small talk about family and other interests takes place while work continues — including a bagger who will help take groceries to the car, if needed.

Even if customers are unknown, some clerks make it a point to strike up conversations in a get-acquainted atmosphere. It’s quite a contrast to the bare bones drug store.

As rising labor costs in California continue to be an annual problem (thanks, Jerry), every business in this state is looking for ways cut expenses, and who can blame them?

But by contrasting the two retail outlets, I think it’s plain to see that poor supervision and skimping on employee training are probably not in the best way to take care of company stockholders nor its discontented customers.