Supermarkets & Customer Service

When I was young my mom would tote my brother and I to Harris Teeter or Kroger for our grocery shopping. We lived down south in North Carolina and Tennessee so by default everyone was friendly and cordial. Then we moved up north and I was exposed to the wonderful life of Wegmans. As a past employee of Wegmans I can tell you that customers come first. If customers are happy, employees are happy. And I mean that. Now in NYC Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have replaced the hole in my heart that is Wegmans. The most depressing part of this is that they are not on my commute home and not near my home or job. Ridiculous I know.

I'm stuck with C-Town and Associated. Depressing wastelands where maybe the produce is edible and the baking section is tucked in some unknown corner only accessible by shimmying past freezer doors and mops. I place great value on customer service. A few days ago I went to C-Town and said a friendly "Hi" to my cashier. Nothing. "How are you doing?" Nothing. She wouldn't even tell me how much I owed. As I left "Thank you." NOTHING. Today I returned to said establishment and received the same icy demeanor. I couldn't see the screen so it was a mystery as to how much money I actually owed. I'm going to kill them with kindness. Mwahah.

This may be naive of me but, what has happened to customer service? Even a friendly greeting, a 'hello, how are you?' The lack of engagement between myself and the staff leaves me who loves to interact with people sad and lonely. Sad and lonely roaming the aisles of overly fluorescent supermarkets.  Why don't these places have policy's like Stew Leonard's? "Rule #1 The Customer is Always Right, Rule #2 If the customer is ever wrong, reread rule #1!" How awesome is that? Does living in an outer borough of Manhattan doom me to a life of terrible customer service? Even at the cash register at one of the stores THERE IS A TIP JAR AT THE REGISTER. And most of the time I AM THE ONE BAGGING MY OWN GROCERIES. If you think this is a rant. IT IS.

The only tip I will bestow on you, glorified bodegas of the outer boroughs, is tell your staff to look up, make some eye contact, say hi and tell me how much money I owe. And I will continue the fight to get a Trader Joe's in my area. Thank you.