So, you’re busy. Life has you going in circles. You have work, kids to get to school, ballet lessons, soccer practice, dinner to make, and bills piling up you haven’t had a second to pay. Oh, and the car just reminded you that it needs its oil changed. You feel like you’re out of breath, and meeting yourself around each corner. The last thing you need to do is fight your way through the superstore to shop or even drop by the local grocery store.
Never Fear. A solution is near. Whether it’s that massive superstore or your local grocery store, they have you and your busy life covered. From the convenience of your home, your car, your computer, and your phone you can shop. They even have a place for you to park while you wait for them to bring it out to your car. You’ll love it, no time wasted pushing a cart, bumping into other shoppers and displays. No more crowded aisles to try to weave down through, fighting for bargains, and climbing over carts or pallets of freight.
How can you not scream for joy? What could possibly cause you complaints?
I’ll tell you. For just a few minutes, try being one of those customers who actually plans to walk into the building again. Maybe even your same busy self, but in a hurry to go in and grab something for dinner after work. You pull into the parking lot and you start cruising for a space to park. You’re in a hurry remember? The only place you can find a spot is in the south forty.
Oh, there’s a huge, colorful block of parking spaces placed right at the front of the store which are just sitting there empty, begging for someone to use them, but those aren’t for you, or at least not this you. They are for the other you; the one that did all their shopping online. The you who used their special store pickup app. The you who planned ahead and ordered everything your heart desired, or at least the basic necessities, for pickup. That you, the one that isn’t going into the store, can park right up front, but this you, the one that is in a hurry and actually in need of entering what’s called the brick and mortar store, can’t use them. Yep, that’s right, not you.
Okay, so the pickup stuff is really a great convenience, just like the self-checkout. But also like the self-checkouts, the stores have gone cray-cray. They’re doing their best to convince you that you need to use their online ordering to make your life better. They’re working at it so hard, they want it to be so recognized, that they devoted space up near their building in a massive way to get the point across. They just forgot one little thing…. You don’t have to get out of your car to use the online ordering and pickup benefits, so you don’t give a damn where you park.
They took away all that space at the front of the store, all of that parking close to the building. They took it from the elderly; they took it from those who have difficulty walking, but aren’t actually handicapped. They took it from those who are just in a hurry to get in and out. They gave prime real estate to people who absolutely don’t care. Why should they care? The store is bringing their purchases out to them. They would be happy parking around back, as long as they didn’t have to get out of their cars.
You might forgive a mom and pop for not thinking things out, but a large corporate retailer pays people to think of things like this. Why in the world would they want to aggravate the customers who are still taking the time to enter their building?
Remember, in the past they wanted you in the building. It got you to spend more. The longer you wandered around those shelves of merchandise, the more you purchased. When you just ran in for eggs, and ended up buying a whole cart because you saw all this stuff you just couldn’t live without, you made them more money. So, why not give you the space up front and put the Pickup Parking out in the south forty? After all, their employees are just taking your stuff out on a cart. Why not let them walk a little further to leave space up front for the people who still grace the store with their presence?
I’ll leave you to figure out the why of it. Maybe they just didn’t think it out. Maybe they want to make a statement and those blocks of bright colors get your attention. Maybe they aren’t really interested in saving you time after all. Maybe it’s more about cutting their costs of operation and less about your convenience. Whatever the reason, anyone with a little brain power can conclude that it makes no sense to place people who are sitting in their car waiting to have their merchandise delivered to them as a priority to those who walk in to the building to spend their money.
Online ordering and pickup are definitely convenient, as are self-checkouts when you have small purchases or are in a hurry. But today’s retailers are trying to shape your shopping by making you conform to their ideas, rather than asking what you want. Making their programs work have become more important than making their customers satisfied.
