When we changed from customers to "consumers" who are given what they are supposed to have by "providers"...

I on the other hand went to Macy's two weeks ago looking for shoes. I found a pair that I liked, the service was good and the salesperson couldn't have been more pleasant and helpful.

I have noticed for the past 10 years or so, the mall stores DON'T HAVE ENOUGH SALES CLERKS! And try to find one to ask a question - fuggedaboudit. They now have service desks where you pay for your merchandise and there's always a line. Plus, you have to wander all over the store to find one that is open.

I remember fondly the department stores downtown They always hired lots of extra people for the holidays and always had sales clerks available for questions in every department. Sigh...

About ten years ago, I went to the Pro service desk at one of the major box appliance and hardware stores, because they had a large multi-appliance order hopelessly messed up and I figured the manager would sort it out......but the manager ended up screaming at me. I did the same thing you did. I always carry pruners and a pair of scissors in my tool belt and cut up their credit card on his desk too. A group of people gathered around us like wagons fending off the war party to watch. I gave them a good show, and didn't use one blue word......just words like monkey and clowns. LOL.

Went to a craft store today to pick up an item I needed to get a project done a friend requested I take care of. Since I was there already, and needed some red quilting material, I tried to buy a yard of their overpriced fabric. There was not one clerk to be found in an acre of isles. I had to leave and couldn't wait, so I told the cashier that I would have bought some fabric, but nobody seemed to be tending that department. She didn't offer to ring a clerk up, she didn't apologise, she just looked at me blankly like ............well? I drove home thinking about how nobody trains retail clerks anymore about customer courtesy. They don't have to, buy it here or like Andie says......"Have fun".

There is finally a solution for that kind of rudeness, and I am using it with increasing frequency. It's called internet purchases. I just ordered a year's worth of undergarments for my DH, and it'll be delivered to my back door and at half the price of one of the mall outlets, directly from the manufacturer's warehouse.

phftttt

Suzy, I know what you mean about "training." Actually, in their attempt to keep their costs down, I really don't think stores do anything other than to make sure the help can ring up sales on the register.

The other place I went yesterday was to Dillard's where, besides the g-pa sweater, I wanted to get some coffee mugs in the Spode Christmas tree pattern. These were on sale for $8.00 each, which is a pretty good deal & I wanted to get four to use for our morning coffee this Christmas season.

I went to the China department & asked where, among the sea of Christmas china the Spode was. All I got was a blank look! Now how can anyone with half a brain work in a china department & not know about the Spode Christmas tree pattern?

Upon reflection, I guess we only have ourselves to blame. Looking for lower & lower prices, retail outlets have slashed their costs & I well know that besides wages, when costs are slashed training is the first to go.

And just as an aside, when I got home & started taking off the price tag stickers so I could was the mugs before using them, I noticed that they were made in China!! WHAT?!?!?

I think the days when rank-and-file employees of large companies gave a hoot about losing individual customers are long gone. I think most of them just roll their eyes, utter "Whatever!" under their breath and curse their near-minimum wages. I think at this point it goes beyond lack of training.

I'm sorry you lost your May's. I think I was in one a couple of years ago on a trip, and I thought it was a nice store.

Macy's isn't getting much love in Chicago, either. They're trying to keep some of the trappings of Field's--the Walnut Room, the Frangos, sort of--but it's not the same. I don't like their house brands and I don't think the sales are as good. I don't hate Macy's as vehemently as some Chicagoans, but I'm not finding a lot of reasons to frequent it, either.

Now here's something I really miss--the days of asking for something to be gift-boxed and being able to count on actually getting it folded into and arranged in a box rather than having a deconstructed flat box (often of the wrong size) and a few sheets of tissue paper crammed into a bag with your purchase. I do a lousy enough job wrapping gifts--now they look bad when the box gets opened, too!

On the other hand, I went into Bloomingdales a couple of weeks ago to buy a small kitchen appliance--the service was fabulous and the salesperson personable.

PS--I guess your Spode china being made cheaply in China hasn't been enough to keep the company out of bankruptcy.

Yeah....sopme china maker bought the Spode and Franciscan Ware and Mason's and others as well and standardized the shapes and moved the manufacturing to....you know where!
In my town of 16,000 which is the retail center for about that many smaller towns, in the past 10 years WalMart has forced out, Pennys-K mart, Spurgeons, Sears and 3 smaller dress shops, a children's shop 3 shoe stores, 2 fabric stores, 3 hardware stores and 2 men's stores.
There is now no where in town to buy a man's dress shirt....not fancy with French cuffs, but just a shirt suitable to wearing with a tie.
There is no where to buy mens' ware nor childrens' wear nor underwear nor linens but the purveyor of all things made in China!
Linda C

I had to laugh at the irony of it, however. Do you notice that we resent buying "China" actually made in China? LOL.

I did a stint in retail about three years ago. We spent months in paid training to become the best X box store in the world, but the reality was as soon as the acres of floor space were cleaned, and stocked and inventories set up, and their grand opening was over, they systematically cut the staff's hours down to as little as a half day a week, and expected the clerks to get their continuing education on store hours, yet left them as the only human in their (and sometimes another) department, so that they couldn't actually do it because of the workload. Then when their training wasn't kept up to date, it was an excuse to reduce their hours, limit their promotions or give grounds for suspension of employment. LOLOL.

SPODE outsourced to CHINA and MALAYSIA! Yes, it finally happened, every piece of Spode Christmas Tree patterned dish I picked up this year to buy was made in either China or Malaysia. Well...needless to say and because I am an avid collector for years...I decided to search through all the boxes and found 1 piece left in the store that was stamped,
"Made in England!" You bet I snagged it right up, and even better yet, I paid only 2.24 for it at Macy's after Christmas sale. It was the Daisy Bowl. Some people might not care about where it is made but I will never pay Spode's MSRP price now if it is stamped China or Malaysia and I have let all my family know that I don't want any of it as gifts either unless it says made in England (the dishes that is).

Gosh! I didn't even know that Spode china was now being made in China. I went and looked at the cups and saucers I just bought this year. (A bargain at $9.99/set). They didn't have their place of manufacture on the bottom. Hmmm.. wonder what that means. OTOH, the plates I've had for years do have "made in England" on the bottom.

I don't know how the discount stores can afford to sell the the dishes at that price when the department stores charge an arm and a leg for the pattern.

It is is China after all :)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if I'm going to be paying Spode prices, I want my stuff made in Stoke-on-Trent, UK.

I'm lucky, I bought all my china and casual dishes
when they were still made in England.
I won't buy any more China or dishes for the rest of my life.

I have enough to give the children and grand children a set.

My son wanted the first set I ever bought, each piece hand
made. He already has it, I gave it to him when we moved
back to the city. It was Denby and absolutely wonderful.

The very idea of having those beautiful Spode pieces made
any where but in the UK makes me sick.