Something unusual happened to me the other night. A customer asked for a product and I had no idea where he could get the item at. I realize that statement makes me sound conceited, or as My Lady charmingly phrases it, a sexual intellect,(an f'n know it all), but I have worked retail long enough that I know where you can find almost anything. If it is in Wal-Mart I can at least send you to the right department, or if they don't carry it I can tell you where to go get it at. The product the gentleman was looking for was powdered eggs. He had a recipe that he needed it for. I have never seen it in any stores that I have been in but I will be looking closer in the future. It is available on-line, but you should be able to walk in a store and get it. Probably the best place would be a store that sells camping supplies, or a bakery supply store. That is something I'm going to check on while I'm on vacation next week.
I enjoy walking through stores, seeing what merchandise they have and how it is displayed. There is a psychology to selling. When I worked for Woolco I was the shoe department manager. One trick I was taught was to put the flashiest shoes on the first five feet of sales space. The object was to catch the customers eye and hopefully get them to walk down and check out the rest of the aisle. A good display can make or break a product. A lot of thought goes into product placement. One example of that is canned soup. It is very rare to see chicken noodle or tomato an any shelf other than the bottom one. The reason for that is people don't need any real incentive to buy those. They will seek them out. What you find at eye level are the varieties that are more impulse buys. You really didn't come in looking for it, but it sounds interesting and you give it a try. It really does work.
Today's smile comes from a case of Barber's Chicken Cordon Blue that I stocked last night. Barber's motto is "Dinner, Rescued." On their cases they have a definition; Refrigerator Coma n(2008) Condition brought on by a lack of interesting dinner options.
3 comments:
I sometimes stare into the refrigerator in a coma state - I totally get that!!
My problem comes from working with food all night long. I keep changing my mind on what I want to eat.
I get that, too! The longer I think of food, the harder it is to make up my mind.
My mom tells me that if I can't decide, then I must not be very hungry. I go with that a lot.
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