Babble of Tower
I never like to see anyone lose their job. I think each of us, no matter how successful we might be in our jobs, is also secretly insecure about whether we'll still be here a week or a year from now. So, I hate to hear about anyone being out of work.
That said, it was with some mixed emotion that I learned that Tower Records is going to close. Tower is an icon in big city record and music sales. They've been around forever. Tower closing seems like the Colonel closing up shop or Ronald turning off the arches. Why mixed emotions?
Because I hate every S.O.B. that works in those stores.
The ones that aren't rude and nasty are just plain disconnected and too busy doing their nails to assist anybody. The customer is never right in that store, and nothing can ever be found.
Tower will blame many of its problems on competition from the Internet. They will say cut rate online competitors and music downloads spelled the end of their traditional brick and mortar music business.
Certainly point and click shopping made life difficult for Tower, and certainly the ability to buy one favorite song for 99 cents instead of an entire mediocre album for $16 didn't help. But as a consumer, I can tell you Tower made several critical errors. The biggest is they failed to understand and appreciate the challenge, then failed to find a way to fight it. They did absolutely nothing to keep shoppers coming into their stores. They found nothing to offer that would make it worth my while to spend my time and money there. And I don't even have to go out of my way. I walk past a huge Tower Records store every day of the week. The problem for them is, I keep walking. I'm an Amazon and ITunes customer.
On top of that, they continued to employ an arrogant, rude, often clueless staff, that had no interest in satisfying customers or encouraging any type of loyalty.
Think this is an isolated case of consumers abandoning an uncaring retailer? Don't be so sure. Have you been in a supermarket lately that has installed self-checkouts? The stores might look at it as a way of speeding up check-outs without hiring additional people. I see it as getting through the checkout much faster, without dealing with a slow moving cashier who wipes her runny nose on her store apron in front of me, then handles my lettuce. True story. I can get through the self checkout in the same speedy time I can use the ATM at the bank or the self shipping machine at the post office.
Shoppers can't get enough of them. They're faster. They're more convenient, and they aren't rude. They even say "thank you", which is more than any cashier in the local supermarket has said in a very long time.
So... the bottom line is this... The rest of the world be warned. As shoppers, we are even more tired of crappy attitudes than we are of crappy merchandise and high prices. We've been paying that price for a long time. Now, it's someone else's turn.
That said, it was with some mixed emotion that I learned that Tower Records is going to close. Tower is an icon in big city record and music sales. They've been around forever. Tower closing seems like the Colonel closing up shop or Ronald turning off the arches. Why mixed emotions?
Because I hate every S.O.B. that works in those stores.
The ones that aren't rude and nasty are just plain disconnected and too busy doing their nails to assist anybody. The customer is never right in that store, and nothing can ever be found.
Tower will blame many of its problems on competition from the Internet. They will say cut rate online competitors and music downloads spelled the end of their traditional brick and mortar music business.
Certainly point and click shopping made life difficult for Tower, and certainly the ability to buy one favorite song for 99 cents instead of an entire mediocre album for $16 didn't help. But as a consumer, I can tell you Tower made several critical errors. The biggest is they failed to understand and appreciate the challenge, then failed to find a way to fight it. They did absolutely nothing to keep shoppers coming into their stores. They found nothing to offer that would make it worth my while to spend my time and money there. And I don't even have to go out of my way. I walk past a huge Tower Records store every day of the week. The problem for them is, I keep walking. I'm an Amazon and ITunes customer.
On top of that, they continued to employ an arrogant, rude, often clueless staff, that had no interest in satisfying customers or encouraging any type of loyalty.
Think this is an isolated case of consumers abandoning an uncaring retailer? Don't be so sure. Have you been in a supermarket lately that has installed self-checkouts? The stores might look at it as a way of speeding up check-outs without hiring additional people. I see it as getting through the checkout much faster, without dealing with a slow moving cashier who wipes her runny nose on her store apron in front of me, then handles my lettuce. True story. I can get through the self checkout in the same speedy time I can use the ATM at the bank or the self shipping machine at the post office.
Shoppers can't get enough of them. They're faster. They're more convenient, and they aren't rude. They even say "thank you", which is more than any cashier in the local supermarket has said in a very long time.
So... the bottom line is this... The rest of the world be warned. As shoppers, we are even more tired of crappy attitudes than we are of crappy merchandise and high prices. We've been paying that price for a long time. Now, it's someone else's turn.
posted by Bill at
1:42 PM
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