RANT BEGINNIGOriginally Posted by Hursticon
Well, I'm guessing that I'm not average then?
IMO it's not Rocket-Science to figure that most day-to-day retail staff wouldn't know scrap about TFs and hence asking them:
"Is Tracks in?"
"Have you got RTS Jazz yet?"
"Where's the toy that has just been released that is based on the original 1980's Transformer Grapple, he's a crane that is is a simple retool of a figure released a couple of years ago of a fire truck who is also based on a 1980s figure..."
-Would receive a Durp answer.
What is annoying is the fact that one has to hold a staff members hand all the way through a question that really should be easily understood, rendering asking the question in the first place completely redundant.
IMO, asking a question like:
"Have you got Transformers Reveal The Shield Turbo Tracks in stock?"
-Is completely within reason and the simple reason why is by taking the question and purely breaking it down (And this should be done for anything, not just toys!):
Transformer - A Boy's/Male's Robot Toy.
Reveal The Shield - Assortment Type.
Turbo Tracks - Specific Character/Toy.
The fact that a vast number of Australian Retail floor staff can't figure out how to simply hear a question like:
"Do you have Transformers Reveal The Shield Turbo Tracks in stock?"
-And discern from that to mean:
"Do we have A Boy's/Male's Robot Toy by the name of Transformers, of the Assortment Type named Reveal The Shield and with a Specific Character/Toy name of Turbo Tracks in stock?"
-Is the exact reason why major Australian Brick and Mortar Stores/Chains are in their arse these days and losing out to Online Retail.
The pitiful level of service and incompetence in favour for Low Staff Costs and Stockholder Profit in this country is ridiculous and is why I love dealing with Independent Toy Stores like Uncle Pete's Toys, because at least their staff are trained to know what the hell they have on the shelf or in the stock room.
Don't give me the crap excuses of 'Smaller stores can do that because they have less staff, etc.' or 'Staff from bigger stores deal with more people, etc.' because if you're hired and placed in a specific section you should be bloody well trained properly for that section and rarely do I ever see any staff in their respective sections at all in bigger stores unless a sale is on.
(At least Kmart Stores have Section Managers, but their usefulness is purely individual dependant)
*Rant Over*
see now the discussion is starting to slant towards, "People are idiots".
I don't mean to offend anyone but it's the truth. True, if you call up someone who doesn't know the details of transformers and say, do you have any Reveal the Shield Wreck Gar's? they probably aren't going to know what you are talking about.
If you call up the same person and lead them through the trail of looking for a toy, it's a Transformer, it's about this big, it look like a bike, it has red packaging it says Wreck Gar on the front, you might get right answer but also possibly not.
People are generally idiots, mainly because they are not observant. They do not pay attention to their surroundings. And by no means am I picking out department store employees, I'm talking about most people. If you took an average person stood them in front of a wall of transformers merchandise and asked them to pick you a Reveal the shield WreckGar, if it was on the front, they might take a few seconds to find it. or maybe longer.
If it was on the second or third row back from the front peg, some people would only take a little while to look deeper for it. A lot of people though would shrug their shoulders and say it's not there.
They would not be inclined to look past the first row.
I'm not saying that all people are like this, but a large majority are, and part of the reason is imperative, actually caring about their environment. All toy stores have fairly meager wage, so this often leads to staff not caring. which leads to people not looking carefully or even making up an answer to a cutomer enquiry because the really don't care. they clock in they clock off and as long as the pay keeps coming what does it matter to them.
On the other hand though there are people in the world who do care, and regardless of the pay or incentive to do something, they pay attention. These are the people who will be able to tell you if something is in stock, and if they don't know they will do their best to find out, they may even go so far as to proactively ask you for details about a product. These are the people who make the world go round, whether they are working at maccas, big W, Westpac, Boeing or a Law firm (nothing comes straight to mind). as you talk about section managers at Kmart and their usefulness being individual dependant, this is exactly what I'm talking about. An idividual who cares about their role in a job, or life in general will go out of their way to be knowledgable about it.
I guess in the end it boils down to passion, if you're not passionate about it and you can't get passionite about it, it's time to try something different.
Like Agent K said:
Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
RANT ENDED (Phew)
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