Retail stores: Service or Bust?

Wednesday, 21st October 2009 16:03 - by Boredmum

I sometimes wonder what is going on with retail stores. Having a background in retail management, of course I can be quite critical, but things really seem to have taken a turn for the worse. Now we all know because of the world economy and the financial position of last year that many retailers went out of business. Woolworths, Select Clothing, Adams, Stationery Box, Officers Club, Whittards of Chelsea, Ethil Austin...now these are just some from memory and I’m sure there were many more. Some went out of business in their entirety and others had some stores saved through things like management buy-outs (MBOs) or external forces buying some stores. Many didn’t survive; some are surviving - but how long for? Now one share that is foot-printed on quite often is JJB. I know nothing about JJB or their financial position, but I have seen the volatility in its share price. I was in JJB on a busy Saturday afternoon, seeing a pair of trainers that I liked and stood with them in my hand for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for someone to appear that worked there. Now I am not singling out JJB by any means, as this very much seems to be a trend in many stores. Are companies cutting their staffing levels to such extremities that they are in fact losing money as shoppers can’t get any service? It therefore has to be a false economy. As it happened, this particular store didn’t have my size. I went to another JJB, an out-of-town outlet and went through the same thing. After standing about looking for staff for an eternity with a trainer in my hand, I went up to the cash desk. A member of staff said he would be with me ‘soon’, although he wasn’t serving and didn’t exactly look busy so goodness knows what the wait was. Again, he didn’t have my size. I asked when their next delivery was...“Well, we get deliveries every week”. I asked if I could order them...“No, not really”. I guess JJB just didn’t want my money. My boyfriend was a bit more understanding in pointing out that these guys are under-paid, their hours cut and probably quite demoralised. Unfortunately, I tend to think that if they can’t make a bit more effort to serve people, then there will come a time when those hours are cut even more. Definitely a vicious circle.