HUMAN TOUCH SAVES DAY
Retail fails in quest for efficiency
Effie, this one’s for you.
It had been a frazzling Saturday afternoon for an exasperated consumer, first locking horns with Staples, then going a few bruising rounds with General Electric.
He’d purchased a large desk lamp a year ago and now its halogen bulb had given out. So he went back to the Staples where he’d bought it, only to be told, “We don’t carry any bulbs like this.”
He tried another Staples, then Office Max, True Value and Home Depot. No one had such a bulb. Returning to the original Staples he was told, “Why don’t you try the internet?”
“No,” he seethed. “You try the internet! I’m leaving here with either a new bulb or a new lamp; what’s it going to be?”
The young manager then went to his computer and the problem was solved.
Meanwhile, the consumer had a second problem. Shortly after his new kitchen stove was delivered, he noticed it didn’t come with an owner’s manual telling him how to use its features. So he called the store where he bought it and was told, “G.E. doesn’t include manuals anymore. You’ll have to go on the internet.”
Once again he blew his top, until the merchant personally intervened and got G.E. to mail the needed manual.
Terrific. But why should it have taken a confrontation to get a corporation to simply do the right thing?
Then he looked at his watch and was horrified to see it was almost 5 p.m. He had yet to order flowers for a dear friend’s wake in Malden the next day, which was the Sunday of a three-day weekend.
Living south of the city, knowing no florist north of the bridge, he began making frantic calls, only to hear: “Sorry, we’re closed!” “Sorry, we just locked the doors.” “Wish we could help but we can’t.”
Then his phone rang and a lady named Effie Mihos, who owns a Medford shop called Capelo’s, asked, “Are you the man who just left a message about needing flowers for tomorrow?”
He said yes, and began telling her what the deceased had meant to him.
“Let me call you right back,” she said, which she did.
“We’re closed, but I just called my designer. She’s willing to go back and put something together, and my driver said he’d be happy to make the delivery. So what can we do for you?”
After placing the order, he asked Effie why she did it.
“Because I know how important this is. It’s the last thing you can do for your friend and you have to do it now. A birthday can wait; this can’t. I am sorry for your loss and happy to help.”
The suits at Staples wouldn’t understand this story.
Neither would the brass at G.E.
But for those of us who do, thanks, Effie. Efharisto!