Dear Leander HEB,
I worked in the grocery business for 15 years (Safeway, Kansas City) and so can critique the Leander HEB based on experience as a grocery employee as well as a customer. Overall, our HEB is a well-run store which is easy to shop in. The produce is very good, The meat dept. is good. The overall store is good.
There is, however, one nagging issue which my wife and I encounter almost every time we shop there. It is so irritating that we would gladly shop elsewhere if we had a rival store in our town. The closest alternative is 20-minutes further away on a congested thoroughfare.
The issue is the way that the checkers and sackers handle our groceries. They are so interested in maintaining speed that they short-change us on quality service. It does absolutely no good to provide great products at great prices if your customers can't get home with them in great condition!
We have spoken to indivdual checkers, to the front-end manager numerous times, and to an assistant manager at least once. Yet the hasty, careless checkouts continue.
The checkers are so afraid of not meeting their speed "quota" that everything else seem unimportant to them. This is simply bad management!
There is, however, one nagging issue which my wife and I encounter almost every time we shop there. It is so irritating that we would gladly shop elsewhere if we had a rival store in our town. The closest alternative is 20-minutes further away on a congested thoroughfare.
The issue is the way that the checkers and sackers handle our groceries. They are so interested in maintaining speed that they short-change us on quality service. It does absolutely no good to provide great products at great prices if your customers can't get home with them in great condition!
We have spoken to indivdual checkers, to the front-end manager numerous times, and to an assistant manager at least once. Yet the hasty, careless checkouts continue.
The checkers are so afraid of not meeting their speed "quota" that everything else seem unimportant to them. This is simply bad management!
The checker training obviously doesn't stress the importance of handling produce, bread, eggs, and certain other fragile products carefully. Either that, or they are made to feel so terrified of not having enough throughput, that they make speed their number one goal.
We have trained ourselves to try and place the most perishable or crushable items on the conveyor last, because if those items go first, they end up under a pile of canned goods, or other heavy items. But this doesn't always help. And, really, should your customers have to do this? Or should your checkers do their job with care?
The fact that we have called attention to this problem to store management numerous times and it still continues tells us that we customers are thought of as a necessary evil, not as a valued customer deserving respect.
We have trained ourselves to try and place the most perishable or crushable items on the conveyor last, because if those items go first, they end up under a pile of canned goods, or other heavy items. But this doesn't always help. And, really, should your customers have to do this? Or should your checkers do their job with care?
The fact that we have called attention to this problem to store management numerous times and it still continues tells us that we customers are thought of as a necessary evil, not as a valued customer deserving respect.
Yours truly,
Annoyed in Leander
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1 comment:
Funny, I do the conveyor trick too!
Not to give them any outs, because you're right, but I think it's primarily that most of their sackers are kids. The more "mature" employees tend to do a much better job as far as I've seen.
Also, it might be that they don't accept tips. In Kroger, tips were common, and there was an incentive to do the job right.
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