Restocking for Dollars

Even as I am slowing down and entering the final stage of life, I still cannot bring myself to enjoy the process of shopping.  In the earlier stages of my life, I was too busy running the rat race to notice what a pain in the ass shopping really is.  That feeling is now increasing as I have slowed down enough to get a good look at the event, we call shopping.

My shopping routine happens on Sunday morning, usually between the hours of 9-10 am.  Normally, these are the golden hours for going to store as most of the faithful are in church and most of the late-night crowd is still asleep.  However, by 11 AM all that changes, as the stores become a bustling nightmare of crazed, cell phone addicted assailants.  So, the sweet spot of shopping happens in that 9-10 AM window when the stores are usually very empty, and shopping is a breeze.  Well, the managers at my local store with the smiling faces have found a way to change that.

Now, during my chosen hours of shopping, the store has decided to do restocking of the shelves. What this all amounts to is every friggin aisle of the store is block by 5 or 6 very tall carts obstructing everything.  Ok, I understand that Saturdays can be very busy shopping days and the shelves emptied of their bounty.   My store is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, so I have a question; can’t they restock this facility at 3AM when no one is there?

Having to play dodgeball with all of these shelve stockers takes an additional hour from my day that I will never get back.  I had finally begun to manage my frustration with shopping, then they add this mess to the mix.  It really doesn’t make any sense to wait until store traffic is increasing to block half of the store and make shopping a less enjoyable experience (like it needs help with that).

My guess here is, as with many other things that have made being a customer less enjoyable, low pay and little incentives make it difficult to find people to work late night/early morning hours to complete a task such as shelf restocking.  It really shouldn’t take a lot of management or thought as there is a blueprint for putting things where they belong.  If customer service or happiness really meant anything to corporate criminals, then there would always be an effort to maximize the shopping experience instead of putting up roadblocks.

I guess this will require a change in my shopping strategy, that will require setting the alarm earlier and race to the store not only to beat the onslaught of shoppers but also the stocking crew.  What this means is that every shopping day has now become “Black Friday” —-Criminy!

Talk to Ya Later

The Grumpy Old Fart Customer @2018 All Rights Reserved