The sad reality of the grocery shrink ray

Last night, I went to Dominion on Stavanger to pick up a few items, one of them being orange juice. They had 2.63L plastic bottles of Tropicana on special, but I try not to buy plastic bottles if I can avoid it. The next available size was a Minute Maid concentrated juice in a 1.75L carton, priced at $3.99 -- a per-100ml price of $0.28. Right next to it was the PC-branded orange juice in the same size container, also priced at $3.99. All things being equal, I generally go for the 'not from concentrate' option, and while picking up my carton of PC juice, I noticed that the per-100ml price on the shelf label for this product was listed as $0.21.

Math and I are not the best of friends, but I quickly figured out that one of the prices had to be wrong. Turns out I was wrong. The PC juice per-unit price was correct indeed, based on the shelf label information, which listed the carton as being 1.83L. Looks like the grocery shrink ray has struck again! There was no one available at customer service to speak with, but it really made me think about how important it is to read labels, compare prices and generally be aware that shelf prices may not always be what they seem.

I want everybody to tell everything. But do you think it's okay to name names when commenting on your customer service experience in a public forum?

Review sites like Trip Advisor allow names, but they say that personal insults are not tolerated. I generally feel the same and won't retweet or otherwise promote comments of a personal nature.

In fact, it's no secret that I hope to highlight positive customer experiences as often as or more frequently than bad ones. I encourage people to name names and tell bosses and talk about the fact that friendly, polite, professional, genuine, customer-oriented folks do indeed exist in the customer service industry. And I pass it on. Why should the opposite message be censored?

If you think it's out of line to comment in detail (including names) on bad customer service, feel free to leave a comment here or continue the conversation on twitter.

@ishopandtell on CBC Crosstalk with Ramona Dearing

If you're here, you've probably already heard this, but just in case:

@ishopandtell on CBC Crosstalk with Ramona Dearing

Enjoy,

Janet

#goodservice - Riddle Fence

I just had a lovely experience with Riddle Fence. I tried to purchase a subscription online the other day, but I had to stop halfway through the payment process because I hadn't updated the banking info associated with my PayPal account. By the time the prenote cleared, I had all but forgotten about my intention to subscribe.

But Riddle Fence did not forget me! The Executive Director, Sarah Smellie, emailed me this morning asking me whether anything had gone wrong with the site and offered to personally add me to their list so that I'd receive their next issue.

When was the last time Martha Stewart or Wired or even the beloved Walrus reached out with such prompt and personal customer service?

Incidentally, if you have $40 and a reader/writer type in your life, I don't think you could go wrong with a few issues of homegrown essays and poems and art. Apparently, they offer exclusive online content when you subscribe (which must be really cool, because their website is already more comprehensive than I would have expected).

IF (and we all know that's a BIG if) I can get my act together in the coming weeks, I'm going to try to write a little about local businesses and why you should (or shouldn't) include them in your holiday consumption.


Feel free to share your experiences with me, because, let's face it - I won't do any real shopping until, like, December 21. That's just how I roll.

Take care,

Janet

How can you do e'r t'ing when you got n'er t'ing to do e'r t'ing with?

As usual, this morning on my way into work, I listened to the St. John's Morning Show on 640AM. I caught a story about how retailers in NL are experiencing a shortage in staff, especially since many students are currently in "back to school" mode. This is no secret; all over town, you can see "help wanted" and "now hiring" signs. Apparently, this year is even worse than normal, because the number of people entering the workforce is significantly lower than the number of people leaving the workforce. The guy on the radio (I forget his name, but I'm sure you can find the podcast here) speculated that in the coming years, we are going to start seeing more and more automated customer service, similar to what you see now in self-checkouts at Dominion and the self-checkin kiosks at the airport.

I thought about this for a little while, and although I don't like the idea of having all human interaction replaced by machine interaction, if no one else wants to work in these jobs, the solution probably lies within some measure of artificial intelligence.

Then, a Facebook friend posted this job ad that she found, and I wondered if part of the reason behind recruitment difficulties here might be the attitude of some employers. While I'm sure that the hiring manager had a good reason for specifying such requirements, most likely based on his or her experiences with previous, less than motivated employees, is this really the way to address the situation? In my opinion, if you are looking for an employee with a higher level of professionalism, you (as the employer) need to exemplify that same level of professionalism. You also likely have to bust out a little more than 2 bucks above minimum wage.

Otherwise, bring on the robots.

Is it better late at night, maybe?

Oh, Folly, how I'd hoped your food would be delicious! All the hipsters talked about you. I never in a million years thought that I would choose from a menu full of pizza and burgers exclusively and end up disappointed.

I will just ever so briefly comment on my likes and dislikes, as follows:

Dislikes

- burger patty had no flavour. I guess they rely on the toppings to make them taste good, but that doesn't work for my partner, who likes just plain ol' ketchup and cheese.
- asked for shredded mozza on the burger instead of swiss. Got no cheese atall. Asked for some cheese, got a sad-looking, dried up piece of swiss on a teeny plate.
- pizza also had little flavour. Had the April O'Neill, which described tandoori chicken. It tasted like a little curry powder dusted on there.
- for the price, the fries should not have been by McCain.
- I would complain that the music was too loud, but I'm not someone's nan.

Likes

- fantastic drink specials. It was Wednesday, so Rickard's White was $5 a pint. Can't beat it.
- great-looking menus and nice atmosphere
- nice upcycling of wine bottles for serving water, and they suggest going styrofoam-free for takeout
- the server greeted and seated us immediately. And brought the sad-looking cheese immediately.


All over, the customer service there was totally fine, so I will probably give them another try sometime, because everything still sounds SO tasty. I will go with someone who will eat a more adventurous burger, I think, and I will order a pizza that involves tomatoes. Hopefully, that will make the difference.

Alright,

Janet

Not 'lowed to walk through the Drive-Thru

What's up with the "restaurant" part of Tim Hortons on Harvey Road being closed after midnight? I haven't asked anyone in there, so I assume it has to be either due to poor business, staff shortages or robberies. Not saying that any one of these is true, just that I can't think of what else it could be. Most people I've mentioned it to say that it has to be because of crime, whether it be because of actual crime or the perception that there is more crime. I worked there between university and the call centre, 7 or 8 years ago, and it was a pretty sketchy spot in the night time back then. For example, they found a naked man in women's bathroom stall one evening. Whatever the reason, it's too bad that there'll be no place between downtown and the top of Long's Hill to get an everything bagel to eat while walkin home in the middle of the night anymore.