Drive Thru's

     So what is with drive thru's these days?

     Drive Thru's were originally used for expiated service for customers! however this day and age people claim that they are there for the same reason and nothing has changed.

     This could not be further from the truth. the next time you go to a location that has a drive thru available take a look at the last vehicle in line before you go in to the store and check again when you leave for the same vehicle, 9 times out of 10 that same vehicle is still in line and awaiting to pull up to the window to get their product.

     In most situations there are a couple things that make the drive thru slower than being served in store in no particular order.

     (Normally most businesses have more people working the drive thru than any other station in the store to try and make it more efficient but in most cases it makes it very inefficient instead).

1. Customers not knowing what they want to get.
2. Customers not having their payment method ready when they have to pay.
3. Being allowed to place large orders.
4. Employee's taking their time.
1. Employee's spending time talking to the customers after the transaction is finalized.

     So why is it that the drive thru is now slower than being served inside majority of the time?.

     Prime example is now most subways I have been to lately either have a sign up or will tell their customers not to be using their wireless devices while placing their order, if the customer does not abide by that they will skip that customer and go to the next one till that person is done using the wireless device.

     By doing that they are not holding up their other customers and wasting time, it is also placing ownership of the customers back on to them for the time spent their and not on the employee's for being frustrated by the customers by not co-operating with the employee that is simply trying to do their job.

     Now we have Tim Horton's drive thru, they will sell anything that they have in the store through their drive thru and in any amount. There have been numerous times I have been in the store and seen the employee's making numerous sandwiches or a couple trays of coffee's and taking it to the drive through window to give to a customer.

     What is the point of going through the drive through to order something that size. That type of transaction should be done in the store instead.

     The thing most people do not realize is that most if not all companies have a time limit for each transaction being conducted at the drive through and that in turn goes towards their appraisals when they are done.

     In summary, people need to get up off of their arses and stop being so lazy and go inside and leave the drive thru alone for the people that are getting 1 or 2 quick serve items in the drive through.

Gift cards

So what is the point of a gift card?

The point is to try and grow your business. This is done in 2 ways.

1. Have a customer base that will spend money in your store and only your store.
2. Have a cash balance sitting in a holding account accumulating a interest revenue very month/year that the money is there and unused.

     This is ideally a great idea to do. For not all gift cards will be used entirely up (Thus a small percentage of money is unused) thus the interest on the unused balance is a automatic profit for the company after a period of time as well as the interest accrued on that balance.

     Also for a percentage of people that do use the card('s) to get the benefit of the discount program albeit knowingly or unknowingly would and or are more likely to refill the card knowing that there is a balance of some sort on the card, thus getting the person to come to the place of business at least 1 more time if not more than that, thus a better chance of increasing customer loyalty and repeat business from someone that may of been a 1 time transaction.

In other terms

These become a long term repeat customer that is a guaranteed income over and over again.

This is the best type of customer no matter the business or the dollar value that is spent there.

     Then you have the people that will continuously refill the card for convenience instead of always using a debit/credit card and also better tracks the expense that is done there (Budgeting people).

But now the question posed is this.

     What is the increased benefit of a gift card that also has the benefit of a companies discount program attached to it!!!!

     Better advertisement of the company by the cheapest for of advertisement "Word of mouth".

     Now it is true a implementation of such a program is not easy to do if this was not done from the start of the discount program, however it can be phased in over a period of 1 year or less (depending on the size and regionalism of the company).

     Now there are people out there that work for these companies that say this would require too much extra work to have done.

     That simply is not true, most discount cards if not all can be swiped even if any of the items being purchased are not part of the discount program and no extra benefit is applied to the purchase.

     All that is required is for the gift card to be programmed with the generic code of all 0's or the like, thus when the card('s) are scanned the system sees the code and applies it as it would normally do for the normal discount card, if a discount is applicable the system would apply it if no discount is applicable then it does nothing as it already would do other than showing that the card was scanned and the balance does not change.

Never take the blame

So why is it that society this day and age does not take responsibility for their own errors?

     If you are having issues and an employee of the establishment gives you help by verbally informing on what to do and how to do it and you confirm you heard it all and understand what you are told.

Why it's it then when you do not follow the instructions that you were given and confirmed That you understood.

     What makes it worse is that there are also instruction on a card right in front of you with good size font so that it can be read where you were standing.

     After your transaction is done you proceed to then complain that you did not get your store discount and continue to push the issue after that employee that helped you reconfirmed to you again politely after the information that was given to you and then proceeds to point out the information that was readily available to be read where you were and where the information was available to you as well.

     With that being said how is it anyone's fault other than your own that you did not do what you were suppose to do with the information verbally given and available in written text in front of where you did the transaction.

     People in my opinion really need to start taking responsibility for their own errors and or mistakes and Stop blaming other people for their mistakes. We are not children but people of and or above the age maturity.

 

*These pictures were only used due to being handy and available at the time and are not specific to the situation posted above.

Sobeys Wyse Rd

     So today I finally broke down and went to the new Sobeys location that is at 210 Wyse Rd in Dartmouth; which surprisingly enough is open until 9pm on a Sunday, per their website but the front door decal at the store location states until 5pm. I think they need to get together and straighten the operational times out so there is no possible confusion.

     They have a large parking lot with ample parking of vehicles with a couple cart corrals as well. From the outside of the building the place looks quite large, however once inside it is larger than it appears to be.

     As for the layout of the store it is very well layed out with ample space to move around even if someone is stopped in the middle of an aisle which is a definite plus.

     They also have a ample amount of windows near the top of the walls near the ceiling in which to let plenty of light in (Which I would hope means that the lights that were installed inside the building are either on sensors to control how bright they are or they are all on dimmers so as to reduce energy use).

     Now it does appear that most of the employee's if not all the employees of the Sobeys from the old location on Primrose St have been moved to the new location. However one of the employee's I had to try and interact with today at the Salad/Sandwich counter was either having a bad day or she is like this all the time, completely ignored me as well as another customer that were trying to get her attention. When we finally got her attention she resisted on interacting with us but she served the other customer that was there. Then came my turn, I had asked if she had any more salads or if 1 could be made (keep in mind this is almost 4 hours before closing time), she walked away then came back and said she only had what was on the shelf then promptly went back to what she was doing before we interrupted her. Definitely not the pinnacle of customer service to say the least from this employee.

     Now during my time in the store I walked around it a couple times to check everything out; and every time I walked past the cashiers they were always smiling and and greeting the customers. I even saw the security guard walking around the store and he even helped a customer locate a item that he was searching for in the store as well, This is definitely a plus because that normally does not happen very often if at all these days.

     So my over all experience in this new Sobeys location is quite excellent and will be going back there again and not because it is the closest grocery store to me.

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Cash Tendered

     So what is it with people and them paying for what they get in full, can you really go to a grocery store and get stuff there and not have all the money to pay for it in full or at all and still take it all home with you?

     Or would you have to put back stuff till you reach the monetary balance that you had enough to pay for before you can leave the store with the stuff you picked up.

     So why is it that people think that gas stations are any different? I mean come on you go there knowing you need to get gas (or possibly something else) and yet get upset when asked for the full amount for the gas that you just put in to your vehicle. Have we as human beings taken the definition of entitlement to a whole New level? I mean we are lucky here in Nova Scotia employers are not permitted to actually collect on shortages; however that does not mean that they can not take other action that can and does lead up to termination of your employment.

     People have to remember that these people at gas stations and such are generally at minimum wage or just above if they are lucky.

     So the next time you go to a gas station remember you are dealing with a minimum wage employee and if you short them on what you owe you can be the cause or them losing their job then you have to choice but to quite possibly pay for then to be on assistance if they can't get employment insurance.