Many years ago we used to have Kmart's here in Houston. In fact my first job ever was at Kmart. In the shoe department! And they paid in cash every Friday! All was right with the world back in those days. But then one day Kmart deemed Houston unworthy of their blue light specials and they closed all of the stores in the area.
I'm still a tad bit bitter about the whole thing.
Fortunately for me Walmart was waiting in the wings with open arms to help me and my money transition through the loss.
It took a while for me to get used to Walmart. After all any adept shopper knows that Walmart and Kmart are like apples and oranges so I had to work hard to adjust. But like an athlete in training I was diligent and before long it was as if Walmart and I had always known each other.
So imagine my horror when I went to my local Walmart this morning only to discover that they are doing a complete remodel! Nothing was where it was supposed to be. I asked one of the employees why they were defiling the store and I was told it was to "update" and "give the feeling of openness" to the store.
Oh Walmart I wish you would have come to me first!
If I want to shop at an updated, modern store I will shop at Target. I will choose familiarity to trendiness any day of the week. I take comfort in knowing where everything is in the store. I look forward to mindlessly wandering down the aisles tossing things into my basket and I don't want to have to think while I'm shopping.
I'm sure millions of dollars where spent on marketing experts to tell Walmart that if they put the toys closer to the food they would sell a few more Hannah Montana dolls. Or if they move the pharmacy to the middle of the store more people would get their prescriptions filled there. They could have saved a bundle and just consulted with the people that shop there on a regular basis. I would have told them to forget about the remodel and invest their money in customer service training for their employees.
I'm sure I will get over the initial shock and in time I will know the new layout of the store enough so I won't have to exert any brain power to find my way around. It just takes this old dog some time to learn new tricks.
2 comments:
awwww booo! I hate that! Now that I do a lot more shopping in "aisles" these days, I feel your pain. I would go nuts if they remodeled Krogers.
p.s. I like the customer service comment, however I think they would need more than is in the stimulus package for that.
Too funny! :) When I don't shop at my "usual" grocery store I'm just lost and can't find anything.
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