Amazon Is Crushing Main Street and Threatening the Vitality of Our Communities

[csziggy]

65. Local stores need to do a better job of getting information to customers

Two instances I have dealt with:

1. Local specialty shop that supplies items that are best selected in person. The owner does not have regular hours and you pretty much have to call ahead and make an appointment to make sure the shop is open. I've been in the shop twice. First time, in the middle of checking me out the owner walked away, disappeared for ten minutes, came back with no explanation and finally finished the transaction. At the same visit I special ordered an item. Never heard back, never got the item, the owner has never said anything else about it it - in four years. I called ahead another time to check availability and to make sure she would be open. Got there, had to wait (after calling her again) for her to open the shop and then found out that the item I had called ahead about was NOT in stock, that she never carried it, and she "just want to get you in the store to see what else I have." It's a forty mile one way trip for me to her store. I wasted an afternoon and a lot of gas going to buy an item she NEVER had in stock. I went home and ordered the item (plus some extras) from a website.

2. I want to buy a selection of teas as a Christmas present. I have online sources, but thought I would try to find them locally. I'm sure there must be shops in this town that have teas, but I can't find them. They are not listed in the Yellow Pages, either in the physical phone book or online. I found one tea shop but their website does not say if they sell teas or just are a tea cafe sort of place. I tried calling - no one answered the phone. I am not going to spend days driving all over the area to look for stores that do not answer their phones and have no information online about their merchandise.

It's ten miles for me to get to anywhere and the vehicle I get to use is my truck that gets 13 miles a gallon. I'm going to select the items I want online tomorrow and be done with it - even though I would prefer to buy locally.

It's frustrating to see how customer service at local stores has gone downhill. I used to be able to call stores to check on availability. A very few stores would do the bait & switch - tell you they have something in stock to get you in the store in the hopes you'd accept something different - but most locally owned stores were honest about what they carried and if possible would special order items.

If I want to browse for things, I'd like to have at least a little idea of what kinds of things a specialty shop carries before I make the effort to drive a long way to look. It's not that hard to put up a little information on a website or even Facebook and to update it occasionally - the first shop I mentioned has a Facebook page. They moved last February but their old location is still on the Facebook page. In all those months, the owner has not taken the time to update with her new location and has never made one post to Facebook.

Given how many stores have closed, if I call and there is no answer, I will assume the store is permanently closed, not closed at that particular time. If the store has shortened hours, they need to put a message on their phone line stating their hours so potential customers know when they can visit. And PLEASE put up your location with an address - the tea shop I found has a website, but no address is listed on it or in the yellow pages. All they say is they are inside "Mandy's" - no address for Mandy's, no indication of what Mandy's IS, no phone number for Mandy's.

Sorry about the rant - I am frustrated that I want to buy locally but cannot without spending a lot of extra money (in gas) and more time than I am willing to spare - because the local shops are not doing their job of getting information to potential customers!