Employee attitude means everything

We've scored a few truly sour, customer-hating cashiers at Wal-Mart recently. It's not the store's goal nor its norm; it's either bad timing, bad luck, or bad management.

Coincidentally, we were that same week treated as genuine guests at Meijers. The effect was memorable and it will make a difference, however small, in the respective balance sheets of Meijers and Wal-Mart. We are now more apt to shop at the former than had been the case.

My wife and I had inquired at the Meijers front desk (the station immediately back of the cashiers) about the location of two items we wanted to buy but had no idea in which department to look. The desk person summoned a clerk who went back to the stock room and brought two models of one of the items for us to choose between. The other item was brought to the front of the store for us by the desk person herself.

That they would go to this trouble for two small items was totally unexpected. Maybe this was just happenstance - the clerks were in an unusually good mood, they were not very busy, the moon was right, whatever. Or maybe Meijers had hired better people and they were treated better by their employer and they had been better-trained in customer service.

In this serve-yourself shopping world, where stores offer pretty much the same merchandise in about the same atmosphere, we come into contact with precious few store employees. A bit of kindness and concern from each one goes a long way.