Hey @StopandShop let me tell you why you just lost $350 of business from me. 1/
As I’ve written to you several times before (https://blog.kamens.us/2020/07/11/why-stop-shop-just-lost-500-of-my-business/, https://blog.kamens.us/2017/09/10/please-stop-shop-stop-treating-me-like-a-thief/), it’s bad enough when your Scan-It loss prevention system treats loyal, long-term customers like me as thieves. 2/
It’s even worse when it doesn’t work well. It’s even worse when it does it during a pandemic, at a time when the it’s people use it to avoid having to come into contact with store employees and vice versa. And it’s even worse when those employees don’t know how to work it. 3/
So, let’s talk about what happened to me tonight. None of this is new, but as I’ve told you before, I’m going to complain to you about it — and you’re going to lose business from me — every time it happens, because you deserve to be shamed about this. So here’s the story…. 4/
I used the Scan-It app to scan $50 worth of groceries in Allston, MA, bagging as I went. I got to the checkout aisle, and boom! I can’t check out without an employee doing a “quick scan” of my bags. Boom! You’ve lost $100 of my business, because this is already unacceptable. 5/
The employee didn’t know how to cope with the fact that I was using my phone instead of a Scan-It gun and I didn’t have my Stop & Shop card with me. It’s *possible* for this to be dealt with, but he didn’t know how. So there’s another $100 of lost business from me for that. 6/
He then informed me that I had to unb ag and rescan all my items. I replied, “Nope, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to leave these groceries here for you to restock and go shop somewhere else, because this is unacceptable.” And that’s exactly what I did. 7/
I left $50 behind worth of groceries, so now we’re up to $250 in lost business from me. Why did I say $350 above? Because one of the electronic scales in your produce aisle was broken (again), so I’m dinging you another $100 poor-service penalty for that. 8/
I headed over to @Star_Mrkt and bought $50 worth of groceries there instead. I’ll be buying my next $300 worth of groceries from them as well, even though it’s nominally less convenient, because being treated like a thief and helped by poorly trained people is even less so. 9/
Please:
1) don’t require quick scans for loyal customers who have a long track record of spending lots of money and not stealing anything;
2) train your employees in what to do when app users are tagged for a quick scan; &
3) keep your equipment in working order.
Thank you. 10/10
Originally tweeted by (((Jonathan Kamens))) (@jikamens) on February 23, 2021.
