Does anyone care anymore?
I don't know why it annoys me that very often when I walk into another adult store, I find myself considerably under whelmed. Why should it really matter? As long as my store is in good order and moving in the direction I feel it should be, all is functionally right with my world. I have no great power or influence at another's place of business. But it does annoy me. It pricks my sense of how it should be, of what professionalism is to me.
Most of the time, it isn't even the state of the store in question. The signs, fixtures, and lighting can be immaculate. The store can be laid out cleanly, making it a simple matter to find what one is shopping for. And yet, it will lack any imagination or life. There's a sense that items are stocked more out of profit margin and uniformity than to address the desires of their customer base. In a sadly real sense, if you've been in an adult store in the States, you've been in them all. I've heard there are exceptions, however, I have not yet seen one and thus cannot testify as to the veracity of the rumors. I can say that outside the bounds of the
It gets to me, this cookie-cutter approach to stores. It feels counter-intuitive to me to standardize to the point of consumer boredom and apathy. Sure they know they can always get a bottle of kiwi-strawberry lube, but why reduce it to the amount of attention one would devote to grabbing a can of tuna in a supermarket? If the customer is on auto-pilot, they're probably not paying attention to what's around them and that kills impulse buys, erodes the sense of excitement that I feel should be present at a store such as this.
But even with such a catholic approach to adult store set-up, it astounds me that owners and management place so low a priority on who they hire as staff. Much of the time, whoever is on shift when you walk in is completely disengaged from the customers. Yes, this is a line of retail that tends to place one a bit more hands-off than others. However, no one likes to shop where they feel ignored by the staff. An aloof clerk is not approachable and does not convey that they want your patronage. On the other side of the coin, are those guys who seem to get hired because they want so badly to work at a porn store. Obviously, whoever interviewed them, if they even went through such a thing, did not see this as the glaring warning sign it was. So you get those leering gargoyle clerks who raptly watch a customer's every move and/or damn near stalk people browsing the shelves, most often women. Again, that's as disquieting as getting groped in a restroom.
It's not advanced physics. It isn't mapping out chaos theory through a cipher. It's fucking common sense! This job has enough awkward moments and opportunities for embarrassment already; bad customer service should not be as prevalent as it is.
2 Comments:
Amen! This is so what happened to me tonight. All I wanted was a little help, a little guidance. I didn't even get acknowledged. The selection was poor. It made me wish I had shopped online, aside from the immediacy of my need.
Note to self: Quit buying my "goodies" online and stop in actual porn shop once....
Lanius, can I come to yours?
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