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Dumb Marketting Ideas
May. 9th, 2008 10:55 pmWent to Safeway tonight tonight with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
devoidofthought. We get to the checkout and the cashier takes my shoppers cards and scans them. Then she says "Thank Mr... Cryer?". "Cyr", I say, correcting her, with a resigned sigh to my voice - It's only three letters, but it's unusual for someone to pronounce my name correctly the first time (unless they're French, because it's a French name originally). I've had to deal with this my whole life.
Oh, and if you've only seen my last name written down and have never actually heard it pronounced, it's homophonic with "sear".
I turn todevoidofthought to bitch about this useless policy of Safeway's (and lots of other places). "That", I said, "Is why I don't like the use-the-customer's-name policy".
"You just know that some marketing weasel who's never actually worked retail came up with this plan to address all the customers by name in an effort to make us loyal to Safeway. I'd be shocked if these sorts of wrong-headed ideas ever generated an extra dollars worth of revenue."
The cashier pipes in "Actually, lots of customers get really offended by it".
My point exactly. People don't go to Safeway because of friendly cashiers (unless you're a creepy stalker) - they go because it's convenient for them to go. I used to shop at Safeway all the time and Co-op next to never, because I lived three blocks from a Safeway. Now I go to Co-op mostly and Safeway only occasionally, because now I live three blocks from Co-op.
As luck would have it, there was some kind of shift change just as we were going through (so I had one cashier anddevoidofthought, behind me, got another. This cashier was a little more forthcoming with her opinions. "I really hate the use-the-customer's-name policy" she said with a tone that suggested that she'd been a cashier long enough that it was damaging her soul. "Sadly, you don't make policy" I replied.
Slightly related to this, the Co-op by my house now has self-serve checkouts and I use them unless I have produce or coupons. Partly this is because I'm anti-social, but also because the elderly loath and fear the self-serve checkouts. This means those lines go much faster!
devoidofthought. We get to the checkout and the cashier takes my shoppers cards and scans them. Then she says "Thank Mr... Cryer?". "Cyr", I say, correcting her, with a resigned sigh to my voice - It's only three letters, but it's unusual for someone to pronounce my name correctly the first time (unless they're French, because it's a French name originally). I've had to deal with this my whole life.Oh, and if you've only seen my last name written down and have never actually heard it pronounced, it's homophonic with "sear".
I turn to
devoidofthought to bitch about this useless policy of Safeway's (and lots of other places). "That", I said, "Is why I don't like the use-the-customer's-name policy"."You just know that some marketing weasel who's never actually worked retail came up with this plan to address all the customers by name in an effort to make us loyal to Safeway. I'd be shocked if these sorts of wrong-headed ideas ever generated an extra dollars worth of revenue."
The cashier pipes in "Actually, lots of customers get really offended by it".
My point exactly. People don't go to Safeway because of friendly cashiers (unless you're a creepy stalker) - they go because it's convenient for them to go. I used to shop at Safeway all the time and Co-op next to never, because I lived three blocks from a Safeway. Now I go to Co-op mostly and Safeway only occasionally, because now I live three blocks from Co-op.
As luck would have it, there was some kind of shift change just as we were going through (so I had one cashier and
devoidofthought, behind me, got another. This cashier was a little more forthcoming with her opinions. "I really hate the use-the-customer's-name policy" she said with a tone that suggested that she'd been a cashier long enough that it was damaging her soul. "Sadly, you don't make policy" I replied.Slightly related to this, the Co-op by my house now has self-serve checkouts and I use them unless I have produce or coupons. Partly this is because I'm anti-social, but also because the elderly loath and fear the self-serve checkouts. This means those lines go much faster!
