Over the past several months, readers have asked me where I get the material for writing this weekly blog. Many assume I simply make it up. They couldn’t be more wrong. No one could make this stuff up! Visit any retail store, on any given day, and the material is prime for the pickin’.
Last week, a reader recounted her disappointing c-store experience She regularly goes to a c-store store during her lunch break to purchase, of all things, a pre-packaged turkey and cheese sandwich (she claims they are delicious… who am I to argue?). On this particular day, stomach growling and mouth watering with anticipation, she goes into the store for her lunchtime favorite, but, alas, the sandwich of her morning dreams was missing!
Frantic, she approached the store clerk to inquire about “her” sandwich. The clerk, knowing this was one of her “regulars”, did what any store clerk would do when approached by an upset customer…she immediately threw her manager under the bus. The clerk explains to our hungry protagonist that “Darlene forgot to check our inventory and place the order with the sandwich guy. She forgot the mustard and mayonnaise condiments, too, so your sandwich would have been dry anyway.”
Are you relying on “Darlene” to place your orders or are you ordering based on triggers from your Recommended Purchase Order report in your software? This report can be run from your corporate home office for each store so YOU control YOUR purchases.
The store owner invested over $2 million dollars in that location, but he has not invested the less than quarter of 1% per store to get an accounting system which would insure that investment.
Has this store lost a customer? Probably not (if this is the first time!), but in today’s competitive marketplace can they afford to take a chance? Can anyone?
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