This is a story about pricing at one of the world’s largest retailers. I decided to purchase an item and started checking prices as all retired people on a fixed income should do. I thought that my past employer might have the item at a lower price so I check their website. Their price was higher than I wanted to pay so I checked a couple retailers in Waco. I found a price of $54.00 for the item at Wal-Mart. Evidently people are willing to pay a lot of money for these items because no one had one priced for a senior citizen on a fixed income.
I even took the time to read a couple reviews of the item and I took the advice of one of the reviewers who stated, “go to the store and check the prices they are sometimes cheaper at the store than on line”.
Arriving at the store I discovered the item with an $80.00 price tag. I immediately decided to go back home and purchase the item on line since there appeared to be a $26.00 difference.
When ordering on line I had the choice of having it delivered to my house (no shipping charge) or picking it up at the store. I elected to pick the item up at the store and later wished I had allowed them to ship it to me.
I placed the order about 10:00am and waited on the email advising me to come and pick up the item. I checked the email several times expecting to have a message to, “come and get it”.
About 4:00 pm I received the message and it was about 6:00pm when I was able to get away from the house to get my new item.
The area where one picks up items is in the center back of the store. This is an obvious attempt to get one to shop when picking up an item. I drove to the car service area and entered the building there, as it is a much closer entrance than going through the front door.
I quickly walked to the pickup area and I did not shop as I walked.
I pushed the doorbell button for help. When no help arrive I touched the screen that indicated "for help touch the screen”. A few minutes passed and no help arrived.
A young woman came through the doors that lead to the back room and she asked if I had been helped. I replied no and she picked up the phone and asked for a page to have an employee come to the service desk. She reentered the back room.
Time passed and I took a seat on their counter. The same young woman came out of the back again and asked if I had been helped and again I replied no, she again picked up the phone and asked for a page to have an employee come to the service desk. This time she remained in the area.
Another female (who was pushing a dust mop with one hand while holding her cell phone to her ear with the other hand) walked by.
I asked the first young lady if the person with the dust mop was a store employee. She responded, “Yes she is”.
I then asked, “Are employees allowed to talk on cell phones while they were working? To which she replied, “no, but everyone does it”.
I then stated, “hire me as manager for two weeks and I will fix some of the problems here! The young lady stated that the management team are just as bad as the employees.
Finally, a person came from the retail floor to assist me. This person brought my item to the counter and explained that they had reduced the price from the online price to the in store price of $52.00. I explained that when I was in the store earlier the price of the item was $80.00 and that is why I ordered it on line. She responded, really?
I took the item and left.
I wasted about 20 minutes trying to pick up the item at the service desk.
They emailed me a survey which I eagerly completed.
Now you see why I wished I had ordered the item for home delivery.
Enough of my commenting…
I hope your day is wonderful.
Don Ford
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