And this is why I walk down the aisles reading the lil sign thingies and guessing. If after the second aisle I’m still fuckin lost then I go up like “I’m sorry, first time in this store and also have the brain the size of a pea…”
what’s frustrating is how easy it would be to do better.
every store has coordinate locations for every item in the store. Most companies will even print the coordinates on the tags. However, only lowes and home depot (that I know of) actually make this information accessable to customers through the website.
A lot of major stores tell you what aisle now, at least. I don’t remember any of them doing that before COVID. (Maybe Target did?) The hardware store maps are really nice, though. I almost never had to bother an employee because of those maps.
omg, I’ve literally asked by saying, “I know it’s probably right in front of me, but my brain has decided to stop working. please help, I’m an idiot” Almost every time it’s 6 inches from where I was looking. or behind me.
the other day i was really tired and uh, there’s two stores that start with the letters bil. i found an item i needed online at one of those stores, went to the store, searched for 20ish minutes, and then asked an employee for help. they told me “hey, you’re at the wrong store”
Supermarket I work for recently rolled out AI chatbots to help customers find items without asking us.
I don’t mind helping customers, that’s literally my job. All this has done is it’s changed what questions they ask us. Now instead of asking us where our canned mushrooms are, they ask us where aisle 31 is (I was recently asked this question).
that’s so dumb, one of the chains here has a proper (if extraordinarily well hidden) system where it straight up shows you the area it should be on a map of the store
that, or you go with the hardware store system of “it’s on shelf Home 20, green signs”, and you just go to the area with green signs and look for one with 20 on it.
Every time a customer asks where something is, I tell them it’s down aisle 14, we only have 12 aisles.
And this is why I walk down the aisles reading the lil sign thingies and guessing. If after the second aisle I’m still fuckin lost then I go up like “I’m sorry, first time in this store and also have the brain the size of a pea…”
Sometimes, but rarely when something changes, specific supermarkets will hand out these:
That’s a map.
what’s frustrating is how easy it would be to do better.
every store has coordinate locations for every item in the store. Most companies will even print the coordinates on the tags. However, only lowes and home depot (that I know of) actually make this information accessable to customers through the website.
I wanted to recommend that to an auto parts shop I worked at. They told me they move the parts around too often for that to be feasible.
A lot of major stores tell you what aisle now, at least. I don’t remember any of them doing that before COVID. (Maybe Target did?) The hardware store maps are really nice, though. I almost never had to bother an employee because of those maps.
It’s almost like being nice is the magic ingredient.
Exactly, the ones who ask nice get the somewhat accurate answer, I don’t know where stuff is, just vaguely where it is.
omg, I’ve literally asked by saying, “I know it’s probably right in front of me, but my brain has decided to stop working. please help, I’m an idiot” Almost every time it’s 6 inches from where I was looking. or behind me.
the other day i was really tired and uh, there’s two stores that start with the letters bil. i found an item i needed online at one of those stores, went to the store, searched for 20ish minutes, and then asked an employee for help. they told me “hey, you’re at the wrong store”
Supermarket I work for recently rolled out AI chatbots to help customers find items without asking us.
I don’t mind helping customers, that’s literally my job. All this has done is it’s changed what questions they ask us. Now instead of asking us where our canned mushrooms are, they ask us where aisle 31 is (I was recently asked this question).
And there’s only 14 aisles in our store.
that’s so dumb, one of the chains here has a proper (if extraordinarily well hidden) system where it straight up shows you the area it should be on a map of the store
that, or you go with the hardware store system of “it’s on shelf Home 20, green signs”, and you just go to the area with green signs and look for one with 20 on it.
Wut, aren’t you paid to be there to help the customers, it’s not like they’re asking something ridiculous