Today I went to Staples to purchase a handful of SSD drives to replace some dead storage devices on some “just past warranty” PCs we have. Staples thoughtfully plunked a store down just about a mile from my office and I thought – I’ll take a run down to the store and grab a few. I should be back in twenty minutes and get these PCs back into service.
My first regret was the drive itself. We’ve traffic calmed everything. That mile – well, that’s a ten or more minute drive. You sit at every light. Nobody will move when it turns green. The left lane is for controlling, not passing. Things just have to take longer to save the world. It’s not saving anything, of course. All that idling really doesn’t make a V8 Tahoe save fuel, nor does the constant starting and stopping.
When I arrived at Staples, I was completely unable to use their website to find the product I needed. It was so focused on selling me stuff I could order for delivery that I had an almost impossible time figuring out where the M.2 drives were, if they even had any in the store.
Worse, none of the employees would help me with this. I needed to discuss this with an ‘expert at the Tech Center’. I stood at the Tech Center while person after person came in with Amazon returns. The person in the office behind the Tech Center ran out several times to help people at the Amazon returns desk, but I couldn’t get any help.
I walked over to the copy center, and was told “someone would be right with me”. Okay … let’s wait another 5-10 minutes.
It became apparent I would grow old and grey before I saw an “expert” to make my purchase, so I got in line at the register to ask the cashier. As soon as I walked over there, an “expert” walked out from the office and picked some stuff up from the desk I was just standing at. When she saw me walking over … right back into the office. So I get back in line.
… and waited some more. Apparently, the woman at the register really wanted to know about her rewards points, the program at large, what she could use/save. Who it’s registered to. How many purchases would qualify her for a higher tier. What the purchase levels are for a give reward. What are her options for her purchase today? Oh, by the way, she has these Amazon returns, too. Do the rewards apply to shipping costs?
After another five minutes, the same tech “expert” who had ducked my presence several times ran right out to the Amazon returns counter to process another return.
And I left. What’s the point of trying to spend $300 in a store that’s more interested in handling returns for Amazon or managing customer rewards points than it is selling product that’s sitting (presumably) on a shelf for cash.
I had cash. I wanted to buy a product on a shelf. I had to go through a sales process to obtain said product. But, had I wanted to return product another company sold me, I’d get priority service.
Ironically, I attempted to go to Walmart of all places to buy the same product, but aborted the attempt after sitting in artificially created traffic-calmed backups designed to wistfully force a reconsideration on whether or not I needed to even own a car, apparently at least.
Should I stop at Starbucks on the way back? Do I sit in the line of twenty cars while they make intensely complicated drinks for people who don’t want to walk in, or do I walk in and wait for everyone in the drive-thru line to get their orders completed along with the people who mobile-app ordered. Do I have fifteen minutes to wait for that latte?
Do I stop at CoreLife and wait in a 30-minute line while the staff does take-out order after take-out order or whips up a yummy labor-intensive smoothie?
Or I could get to the point … retail is dead. Not because big ol’ mean Jeff Bezos started Amazon, but because companies are too worried about downsizing their workforces, optimizing sales pipelines and capturing alternative customer bases to serve the people who are standing right in front of them.
My Amazon order will be here tomorrow, delivered right to my front door. Not because I wanted to send my business to them, but because I don’t have the time to do anything else.