I had a most unpleasant experience this evening at Lee’s
Food Fair Limited, Red Hills Road branch.
I am a regular shopper there, have been for years. I also shop at their Washington Boulevard
Branch from time to time. I find their
prices to be reasonable, they have a nice enough fresh produce section and
their meat offerings are fresh and competitively priced. But this evening…
I had picked up the children and needed to buy some
groceries having just returned from an extended stay overseas. I had put in a
full day at the office, the kids likewise had had a long day at school and we
just wanted to get the grocery shopping chore out of the way and head home to
deal with homework, have dinner and prepare for the coming day.
I left them in the car, and headed into the grocery
store. I started at the left hand side
of the store, where the fresh produce section is. I wound my way efficiently up and down the
aisles, picking up just what I needed. I
eventually made my way to the opposite end of the store, to pick up what were
supposed to be the final items on my list: chilled meats…you know, boneless
chicken thighs, perhaps and piece of beef pot roast, maybe some pork depending
on price. The shelves were empty. Nothing. No meat. No sign. Nobody. I looked around in wonderment, tired,
slightly confused and became aware of rising irritation levels. I inhaled deeply and then pushed my trolley
to the door to the supermarket’s back-room.
I asked if I could speak to someone from the meat department. I really needed boneless thighs. I had promised my son to make garlic chilli
chicken for him after he hugged me on my return and told me that he really
missed my cooking. After almost 5 minutes,
a gentleman in a butcher’s apron sauntered out and informed me that “the fridge
nah work”. Duh. So can I get two trays
of boneless chicken thighs please? “Mek
mi see…mi nuh tink we have none”.
Waiting…waiting…waiting…while he disappeared behind the doors. Enough is
enough. I headed to the check-out
area. While the cashier rang up my items
(sans boneless thighs), I requested
to speak to the Manager. “They are all
in a meeting”. Businesses in Jamaica
keep forgetting that the Customer is the reason why they are in any meeting to
begin with; if we don’t buy what you are selling, you have precious little to
meet about. I refused to budge. I spoke with two customer service reps behind
the front counter and explained that I needed to speak to the manager, please
tell him/her that I am waiting, and will continue to wait. I was determined to speak to a manager.
After 10 minutes, a lady approached me having descended the
stairs. I will spare you the details of
my rant. I will spare you a replay of my
emotions that were out in full force. I
will summarise my issues as follows:
1.
How dare
Lee’s not demonstrate respect for the Customer by advising them that some core
products will be unavailable by way of a simple sign at the entrance to the
supermarket? Give us the option to shop
or not. Do not treat us like a captive
audience, taking our time, energy and money for granted.
2.
Mrs. Lee (I asked her her name after I
introduced myself…she did not think it necessary to introduce herself to
me. Perhaps she thought she knew
me? Or that I knew her? ) said that no
one told her that the fridge had broken down. Top management has FAILED, if their
Supervisors did not find it necessary to advise them accordingly. Top
Management has further failed if not one supervisor could summon up initiative
to get a sign in place.
3.
Too often simple back-office fixes can result in
a way more pleasant experience for Customers.
There were other fridges/freezers functioning in the supermarket. All it would take is for someone with just a
little energy to rearrange some of the items in these functioning freezers, and
use freed up space to merchandise the now displaced offerings from the chill
area, ensuring that signs in the malfunctioning zone pointed valuable customers
to the new location, complete with an apology for the inconvenience.
Mrs. Lee apologized, but I feel strongly enough to take the
time to document this entire episode. My
time is very valuable. I felt taken for
granted. I hope Lee’s finds out why their
supervisory staff have demonstrated such a laissez
faire attitude towards the business that pays their salaries. I hope the person in charge of operations is
made to answer for the lack of a work-around to a very real problem that the
business experienced today. The Customer has options.
So disappointed with what happened to me at Lee's today.
Labels: boneless thighs, Customer service, grocery, Lee's Food Fair, meat, operations, Supervisor, top management
