Better customer service in store?

FROM MY CORNER .... with Ann Brunswick

With the retail sector supposedly being squeezed at present, it occurs to me that some larger stores could do very simple things to make life easier for consumers and which maybe might also boost sales by increasing their number of repeat customers.
A case in point is one particular branch of a national variety store chain which on occasions is the beneficiary of my patronage.

The only trouble is that while it is always a breeze to enter the store and fill a trolley or hand basket, it is often a struggle to get out again.
On several previous visits to this particular outlet it has been my misfortune to be among literally a dozen customers lined up at only one or sometimes no more than two check-outs.
To say it can take some time to pay and exit the store is somewhat of an understatement. So much so, that on several visits I have waited and waited in line but then resorted to returning items to their respective places on the store's shelves and walking out empty-handed.
Now, given that this problem is not likely to be isolated to this particular store, it seems a tad unfair to name it.
So let's see if you can work out its identity if it is referred to cryptically only as K-Mart at Toowong Village.
A visit last week to the store presented the same old problem. Once my shopping had been completed, a trip to the checkouts revealed two queues moving at glacial speed.
After several minutes two more checkouts were opened.
But as usual, whenever that happens it is always those who have been waiting the shortest time who gain the benefit by being first into the extra checkout line.
Surely it is not difficult for stores with multiple checkouts to have just one queue leading to multiple checkout points - just like most banks have and just like some supermarkets have at their express checkout areas.
If the unidentified store mentioned above adopted such a practice, it might enjoy more of my custom.

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Speaking of the retail sector, another pet peeve of mine is the advent of do-it-yourself checkouts at some supermarkets around town. It is not so much the principle but the practical issues involved.

It has been my misfortune to use self-service checkouts on a handful of occasions, mainly at a major national supermarket chain that once again shall not be named. But I can give you the hint that this particular chain's name begins with "wool" and ends with "worths".
I can honestly say that not once has the experience been a pleasant or swift one.
Now, my high school rugby/netball playing careers may have knocked around a few of my brain cells, but I am hardly totally incompetent when it comes to what are meant to be intuitive IT systems.
Yet each time I have ventured into a DIY checkout, something has gone awry - an item has not scanned properly or there has been some other problem.
Most recently I was very proud to have got to the end of my transaction only to have the system flash up a screen telling me to seek the assistance of a staff member.
One promptly appeared at my side and advised that the machine I was using had run out of sufficient cash to make enough change for me. It gave me a couple of $2 coins and a 20-cent piece, but I was still been short changed to the tune of 45 cents.
The staff member politely asked if I could follow her to the store's service counter where she would give me the necessary coinage.
But no, the rather serious looking woman behind the service counter advised her colleague that the extra money had to be obtained from the checkout machine I had been using.
This rather puzzled me because if that particular machine had frozen because it had insufficient change for me, how could it provide it just a few moments later?
But once the staff member opened the machine she was able to retrieve my 45c and send me on my way.
But not before we both had to wait, and wait, and wait while another customer completed his purchases.
To think I had headed for the self-service checkout because the 12-items-or-less line looked too crowded. By my calculations I would have been out of the store and in my car driving home by the time my change arrived.

***
This column has previously highlighted how quickly Easter eggs and other such merchandise appear on the supermarket shelves once the Christmas sell-a-thon is over.

But it was not a big surprise to me when a colleague reported sighting hot-cross buns for sale in the first week of the year.
While Easter eggs themselves are yet to make an appearance, they may not be far behind.