Whether it was spritzing on perfumes in a department store or fantasizing about a more organized home in the seemingly endless aisles of Bed Bath & Beyond, shopping was once a far more pleasurable experience than it is today. It was both a social and languid activity, an opportunity to connect with a friend or explore our materialistic desires in contented solitude. Retail therapy, we called it.
Now going to the store, whether it’s a Macy’s in a suburban mall or the neighborhood CVS — basically, all but the most luxury of retailers — is a battle that leaves consumers feeling defeated.
— Read more in “Going shopping” is dead at Vox.
Depressingly true.
Yes. Hated the mall last time I was there.
But not entirely sure it was all the fault of the stores? I don’t have the same desire to walk around looking at consumer goods…the world outside of retail has changed too, in such a way that retail no longer feels like therapy.
I agree, everything seems like more of a chore since covid.
Yes, that, and also that acquiring more things doesn’t feel the way it used to.
I work in retail, and everything in the article is true and then some. Staff is stripped to the absolute minimum: where once we never had fewer than 6 people on the clock at any one time, now it’s not unusual to have 3, to cover the entire store, which means that shoplifting is rampant — you’d hardly believe how brazen these people are if I told you — and customers are constantly frustrated that they can’t find someone to help them.
A lot of the time the people on the floor are poorly trained: company policy is to give everyone the least possible amount of training — because that takes time, and time is money — and then throw them in the deep end, which means we have constant churn as beleaguered employees, paid minimum wage for a high-stress job, quit.
It’s horrible, and it’s not going to get any better. Upper management doesn’t care: they just need to make the operation as profitable as they can, which means fewer staff, lower-quality merchandise, terrible software to run everything, and burgeoning unhappiness for everyone involved, except those profiting at the very top. And it can’t last: there has to come an inflection point where the whole operation is insupportable and comes crashing down. I genuinely don’t expect the chain I work for to be operating in five years. But as long as a few people make millions of dollars for themselves and damn the plebeians, I guess it’s all good, right?
It will be interesting to see which stores survive…all of the chains I’ve been in over the past few years, from very high end to very low end, seemed in dire shape.
Just seeing this now, while killing some time as I wait for answers at work, and OH MY GOODNESS, YES.
NO shopping is pleasurable any longer, except maybe small, local boutiques. I needed new towels for my new washrooms, and went to the only normal department store that still exists in Canada. I hate that place, because they never have any staff — like 1 or 2 people for an entire floor of an old-school downtown department store. And the selection…it’s all house brands, nothing you’ve ever heard of…with extremely limited colour selections (every line has the same shades of blue and grey that aren’t right for my washroom). I might as well have gone to Amazon.
And Amazon is the worst these days — impossible to find a brand you’ve ever heard of there, either, they’re so flooded with cheap Chinese knockoffs like ABXYC or HERHOE (I didn’t make that last one up). Amazon.ca has 1/3 the selection of the U.S. site, at 300% of the price. I only shop there if I can’t find it elsewhere easily. So the brick & mortar stores can’t really rely on the showrooming argument.
And the empty shelf issue — yes! So many empty shelves at the supermarkets around me, even well past COVID. I used to stop off at Target for staples and reasonably priced, decent household items every time I was in the States. I haven’t bothered on the last couple of trips, because every time I’ve been in one of their stores lately, the shelves have been as empty as those at Target Canada (one of the primary reasons why they failed in Canada).
Speaking as someone who used to manage in-store / partner credit cards and was dependent on training store staff to sell the cards (hard even back then), I can’t imagine what it’s like now, with no staff to sell the cards, no tenured staff who are experienced at the sell, and long lines at the till meaning taking the time to process the application will make everyone angry. And that’s short-sighted on HQ’s part, because they actually do make money off those cards. But the point about the companies being run by execs with no retail experience also rings true — worked with one of those at one of the partners.
I do like shopping at small boutiques. But sometimes you don’t want to spend $135/towel for something your teen is just going to accidentally bleach with acne medication. 🙂
And sometimes you can’t afford the $135 a towel, I hear you.
🙂 Even if I could afford it, it’d just feel too weird to use a towel that cost that much money.
And even at $135/towel, still not the colors I want… 8 shades of grey, but no bright blue or true red…it seems like all the Uber-wealthy colorblind tech millionaires have unexpected impacts on our lives…
Yes! I used a chartreuse towel for years, because it played off some art and an accent wall in my master bath. I started with Lenox, then they discontinued the colour, then Target had it so I bought a bunch of those but they weren’t great quality, and now no one sells that colour. Doesn’t matter now that the washrooms are a different colour, but now I’m looking for a nice terracotta and a blue-green, but those aren’t easy to find, either.
Coyuchi has a color called “praline” that reads terracotta to me. Not cheap. Also they have a “terra” color in one of the organic towel series. Also not cheap.
I bought towels from Target once- the first time I washed them, all the gems started to unravel. So odd.
I get this. I’ve worked my fair share of retail. I see how beleaguered the hapless employees are. As a service person myself, I try not to take out frustrations on them, and respond when they say hi how are you, please/thank you, etc. There’s one gal at my local Target who works on Fridays when I do my shopping, and i always make a point to say hello how you doing joke around etc., and she helps me with my coupons and stuff. It doesn’t take much.
And the crowds. I can’t even. I was just there today and you’d think the 2nd wave of Covid was coming with all the shoppers out today. Back to school, i guess. They are putting up another Target on the other side of town early next year and I can’t wait. Hopefully this will make the one I go to less crowded (one can only hope).
Interesting, mine never looks crowded, but I mostly do order pick up now since it’s free (and it saves me money since I don’t end up buying things just because I saw them).
So depressingly true. I avoid CVS because I avoid self-checkout, and I resent the push of every chain to order online instead–Walgreen’s senior discount, which I use for staples, lasts several days for online orders but only 1 day for in-person shopping. I feel sorry for their employees, and can’t see it ever getting better.
Huh, I did not even know CVS had self checkout….suspect my local one does not.
I am trying to embrace minimalism, as an antidote to shopping…but it’s sort of a switch and bait where I could get rid of 5 pairs of sandles and just buy the one perfect pair instead, which cost more than the five pair I have now. Ugh.