A rare Costco fail

[SOUNDMAN5000]

In the USA we once had IMO nice shopping options, You may had to put up with a so called pushy sales person at a Circuit City asking to help you but Congrats as those days are NOW gone.

During the busy Christmas season I seen a old man standing in the electronics department of a Modern Big Box, he was was actually loosing it, yelling ( to himself as an employee could NOT be found ) I NEED HELP he yelled! Why can't I get any help in the TV department, screaming at the top of his lungs I need HELP! I need some HELP as customers walked past and looked as if he was CRAZY!
I thought bud, I can't transport you back to 1982 when retail had commission sales folks that didn't eat if a customer didn't buy anything from them!
You modern electronics so called "sales person" is in the back break room or out by the flag pole smoking a cig if you are at Walmart!

All in the name of the LOWEST PRICE POSSIBLE, Its 2025 so enjoy that inexpensive China made Junk as you enjoy that warm and friendly " grumpy " modern BIG BOX vibe and that self checkout one now gets when low price is the ONLY thing that matters.

 

[Selmorides]

I like Costco. Nearest one just opened and it’s 40 miles away. Haven’t been there yet. Easiest one to get to is almost 70 miles. It’s the only one right off an interstate. Help is friendly the few times I asked for it. Checkout seems to go quick too, even when lines are long. I could almost do without membership but there are a few things I can’t find anywhere else. Only complaint is inventory varies from one location to another at times. I have to check their app before I decide where to go.

 

[goblin]

I think the cases described are simply outliers of employees having reached their peak at what they do (wink-wink my previous post in this thread), and/or a genuine brain freeze on the employee's side at that very moment.

In the grand scheme of things, Costco continues to be leaps and bounds ahead of other equivalents, simply because of the retention rate they have for their employees that gives them the chance to actually learn stuff. Anyone complaining about Costco service should end the day with a visit to the local Lowes or Home Depot in the same area, the same day. Mission: find relevant information on ANYTHING.

Very simply, in my area, needing 10 items at the big box hardware stores, with five of these items requiring help or advice, is a two hours experience. It has happened to me. One of the items was "What are these thingies that you pull to turn lights on and off?". I didn't know what it was called. Turned out it's called a "pull chain". Duh. 25 minutes diagonally criss-crossing that HD, sent on different missions checking things that could be but were not. Each one included several minutes of running and screaming to actually get anyone to talk to.
Amazingly enough, my debit card also got hacked in that same HD that same day.

Three weeks ago I spent 25 minutes at Lowes searching for "paint to seal my foundation with". Literally - that's what my guy said. "Go to the hardware store and get that black thick paint thingie that looks like asphalt"

Twenty five minutes of my life spent with people who had no clue, speculated on Drylock (yeah but there were three million of them), looking for cement, concrete and everything in between.

Eventually I called it a day and asked Ai, and it turned out it's called - drumroll "FOUNDATION SEALER". Henry's. Black stuff that looks like liquid asphalt. That SEALS. Seals what ? FOUNDATIONS !!!

Go to your local Costco. Look at the employee's tags. They list the year of hiring. Do the average of how long they've been working there.

PS: Shoutout to the REAL hardware store in my area, Ring's End, which I'm blessed to have (apparently they are NE only). Will only say that they have Festool on their shelves. Nuff said.

 

[walterjay]

The Ace hardware in my area is staffed with helpful knowledgeable people who know exactly where what you want is. A two hour big box shop is reduced to a few minutes there.

 

[goblin]

The Ace hardware in my area is staffed with helpful knowledgeable people who know exactly where what you want is. A two hour big box shop is reduced to a few minutes there.

My theory is that the big box shops are expressly made nowadays to cater to contractos who know exactly what they want and won't allow anyone to get in their feet helping them.
The employees are trained to sniff the clients who know nothing in the flooring department, as that's where the big bucks are. The paint mixers are there to mix the paint the clients have already selected on color sample. Everybody else's job is to masterfully avoid ANY client that has any other type of question.

 

[SOUNDMAN5000]

I think the cases described are simply outliers of employees having reached their peak at what they do (wink-wink my previous post in this thread), and/or a genuine brain freeze on the employee's side at that very moment.

In the grand scheme of things, Costco continues to be leaps and bounds ahead of other equivalents, simply because of the retention rate they have for their employees that gives them the chance to actually learn stuff. Anyone complaining about Costco service should end the day with a visit to the local Lowes or Home Depot in the same area, the same day. Mission: find relevant information on ANYTHING.

Very simply, in my area, needing 10 items at the big box hardware stores, with five of these items requiring help or advice, is a two hours experience. It has happened to me. One of the items was "What are these thingies that you pull to turn lights on and off?". I didn't know what it was called. Turned out it's called a "pull chain". Duh. 25 minutes diagonally criss-crossing that HD, sent on different missions checking things that could be but were not. Each one included several minutes of running and screaming to actually get anyone to talk to.
Amazingly enough, my debit card also got hacked in that same HD that same day.

Three weeks ago I spent 25 minutes at Lowes searching for "paint to seal my foundation with". Literally - that's what my guy said. "Go to the hardware store and get that black thick paint thingie that looks like asphalt"

Twenty five minutes of my life spent with people who had no clue, speculated on Drylock (yeah but there were three million of them), looking for cement, concrete and everything in between.

Eventually I called it a day and asked Ai, and it turned out it's called - drumroll "FOUNDATION SEALER". Henry's. Black stuff that looks like liquid asphalt. That SEALS. Seals what ? FOUNDATIONS !!!

Go to your local Costco. Look at the employee's tags. They list the year of hiring. Do the average of how long they've been working there.

PS: Shoutout to the REAL hardware store in my area, Ring's End, which I'm blessed to have (apparently they are NE only). Will only say that they have Festool on their shelves. Nuff said.

I find my local ACE Hardware a refreshing shopping experience! My local ACE is small enough to care about customers and big enough to always have what I need.

In my Resort area I can always count on the fact that my local ACE employee is perhaps a retired older person with years of hardware experience and he grew up with a strong work ethic and is simply a nice person willing to help a customer!

Its NOT Rocket Science as My local Chick-Fil-A gets it! I am always greeted with a smile and a I get a "My Pleasure" as the response I when I say thank you!

Ever notice the confused look you get if you say Thank You to a Walmart employee?
I have fun with it, EVERY checkout be it Walmart, Lowe's, to McDonalds I always ask the cashier so "How is your day"? I then shut up, look them in the eye and enjoy the response.

I find the response I get tells me EVERYTHING about the "Culture" of the Company from the owner to the manager to the cashier themself.

I may get a nice "As long as I'm breathing I'm doing GREAT and Blessed" with a smile or I may get a grumpy " I'll be better in 30 min when my shift ends"...

But even that grumpy one I try to spread some cheer or a simple God Bless... But I find sewer flows down hill as if you have a grumpy cashier you got a grumpy manager / owner.

In General ( not always ) I know what response / customer experience I will get depending on the name of the Business over the front door.
As bad business "culture" brings more "bad business culture".

I could write a book with the comments I have heard over the years just walking the isles at Walmart from employees talking to each other. Constant complaining for all to hear with things like "IF She expects me to do this, she has another thing coming" to she did this or that to my schedule, I seldom EVER see a employee smile or say anything nice, from what I see is Walmart is one BIG Grumpy place to work but it flows from the top down!

Toxic culture IS Toxic and spreads...
At least with Amazon you don't hear how bad the employee has it when simply buying shampoo.

 

[goblin]

...
At least with Amazon you don't hear how bad the employee has it when simply buying shampoo.

Till, G. forbid, they run over your neighbor's dog and blast away, like it happened to our neighbors in our sleepy dead end street.

I've been stopping them repeatedly before to ask them to drive slow, because there are pets and SMALL KIDS playing behind that blind curve.
Blank stare, blank smile, 100% not understanding a single word of English, and just waiting for you to let them off. Once off - gone drifting.

I actually had to start parking one of the cars in the second driveway (the gravel one) as I was tired of them backing into it and throwing all my gravel in one spot when leaving.

The dog died in horrible suffering the next day, thousands in vet fees, and amazon didn't lift a finger for a full three weeks. Then local TV was called, and amazon suddenly became the best pal ever.

The worst part is that I was that guy when I was young. I was delivering bread in my student years back in Europe, and boy was I the best of Hamilton and Fittipaldi combined (in my mind). Good thing I didn't hurt anyone (other than the overhang garage cells roof I once ripped 10ft of after a - you guessed - 180 drift U-turn).

 

[loneryder]

My last trip to Costco was right before Thanksgiving 4 years ago. I wanted to buy a Turkey; I have a bad ankle so I always grab a cart even for just on thing to help hold me up.

I decide once in not to buy anything so I'm headed out the front doors to return my cart and the old man employee jumps in front of me to stop me and my cart so he can inspect it. He starts looking inside the cart, under the cart all while holding me up stopped with his hand on my cart no big deal but as time starts to pass it gets strange...

I say "dude" that cart is EMPTY what are YOU looking for? He continues to search a empty cart with his hand on the front keeping me from my exit and I say " Dude, I didn't buy anything I'm just returning the cart! As he continues his strange, bazar search of a EMPTY cart and I respond Dude" You take the cart and return it and he responds Ohh NO you must return the cart as he continues his crazy empty cart search so I let go of the cart and say dude IF this cart is that important to you, It's NOW YOUR cart do what you will with it.

I walked out as he is screaming at me that I must take my own cart outside. Strange old man he was... Was like he was a ROBOT and his brain could not compute my cart was empty, I did NOT buy anything...

I have lots of reasons to no longer shop at Costco but after that Strange, empty cart search I shop Sam's, No longer Costco.
The $1.50 Hotdogs are better at Sam's anyway...

And Sam's hires better people????

 

[97prizm]

Had an odd situation at Costco tonight. Rolled my cart up to the self checkout, there were three open registers and a customer with a cart in front that seemed confused, I pushed forward to one of the open registers. I hear a Costco employee -

Costco employee - Sir! Sir! The line starts back here!
I look back and see nothing but move my cart back.
Me - Where's the line?
Costco employee - You're next
Me - You said there was a line?
Costco employee - You're next
Me - There is no line. Why are you wasting my time?
Costco employee - blank stare

I moved back to the register I was initially at wondering what had just happened.

I just purchased an HP LaserJet all-in-one printer at Costco after my Epson of 15 years died. Paid in the self checkout with the one item WITH my receipt in hand. The door lady stopped me and said that any purchases over $300 now need a manager sign-off. So I had to wait while they called someone over. Apparently it's a new policy. Well they'd better staff managers at the exit as alot of business buy way more than $300 in goods at a time.

 

[loneryder]

I think the cases described are simply outliers of employees having reached their peak at what they do (wink-wink my previous post in this thread), and/or a genuine brain freeze on the employee's side at that very moment.

In the grand scheme of things, Costco continues to be leaps and bounds ahead of other equivalents, simply because of the retention rate they have for their employees that gives them the chance to actually learn stuff. Anyone complaining about Costco service should end the day with a visit to the local Lowes or Home Depot in the same area, the same day. Mission: find relevant information on ANYTHING.

Very simply, in my area, needing 10 items at the big box hardware stores, with five of these items requiring help or advice, is a two hours experience. It has happened to me. One of the items was "What are these thingies that you pull to turn lights on and off?". I didn't know what it was called. Turned out it's called a "pull chain". Duh. 25 minutes diagonally criss-crossing that HD, sent on different missions checking things that could be but were not. Each one included several minutes of running and screaming to actually get anyone to talk to.
Amazingly enough, my debit card also got hacked in that same HD that same day.

Three weeks ago I spent 25 minutes at Lowes searching for "paint to seal my foundation with". Literally - that's what my guy said. "Go to the hardware store and get that black thick paint thingie that looks like asphalt"

Twenty five minutes of my life spent with people who had no clue, speculated on Drylock (yeah but there were three million of them), looking for cement, concrete and everything in between.

Eventually I called it a day and asked Ai, and it turned out it's called - drumroll "FOUNDATION SEALER". Henry's. Black stuff that looks like liquid asphalt. That SEALS. Seals what ? FOUNDATIONS !!!

Go to your local Costco. Look at the employee's tags. They list the year of hiring. Do the average of how long they've been working there.

PS: Shoutout to the REAL hardware store in my area, Ring's End, which I'm blessed to have (apparently they are NE only). Will only say that they have Festool on their shelves. Nuff said.

There are a lot of Costco employees that have been there for many years. Usually listed on a wall going to the restrooms. There is upward mobility to be had. A friend of my son's growing up was talentless and ended up being assist mgr of a store where he wanted to live.
My closest store is in Winchester, Va. It's a smaller store that doesn't move as much stuff as the typical one. Recently I was at the gas station and they were painting the islands. I talked to the attendant and he said the new CEO was coming to the store. He had never visited any store before and they were "puckered up" about it. I was in there the day after his visit and several employees told me it went great. He spent about an hour talking to people. The guy who was always at the door checking out people said he gave him a big hug and thanked him for his work. The guy was still beaming the next day. Nobody knows why he went to that store....maybe his child was in college in the area??

 

[loneryder]

The Ace hardware in my area is staffed with helpful knowledgeable people who know exactly where what you want is. A two hour big box shop is reduced to a few minutes there.

In Florida they are staffed by retired trades people and will tell you how to fix something and what you need. I loved it.