FROM THE SHOPFRONT
Detail:
22 January 2010: by Newshound
December was good. Sales up, profits up. Not a lot, but better than expected.
Recent highlights from the shopfront include:
A customer insisted on squeaking every toy until she found just the right one with the right pitch and tone that her dog liked. It is so irritating when children play with the squeakies…but when adults do it!
I had a home delivery to one customer who would not be in to pay me. As she was a regular I said just send a cheque in the post. “Oh no,” she said, “the house key is under the front doormat. Let yourself in and I will leave the money in an envelope in the hall. Just leave the food in the hall and lock up after you. Just do not forget to put the key back under the mat.” Luckily I was not a burglar in a former life.
Like many retailers I buy from a variety of manufacturers and wholesalers. And, like many retailers, I buy an economy dog food by the pallet. To be honest, I absolutely dread when this is delivered as the company is what I term a drop and run carrier. That is, all they are interested in is dropping the pallet on the road and driving off. Any slight problem and the driver doesn’t want to know. I thought I had heard all the excuses under the sun but the last deliverer really took the biscuit. He could not deliver because he could not let the tailgate down because the road was too uneven! Yes that’s right, the road outside my shop is not flat enough to drop a tailgate! The driver actually drove around the village until he found a suitable flat bit of road, dropped the tailgate and then drove back to the shop. And you wonder why I dread these deliveries.
A gentleman came into the shop to pay an account. “Whose name is on the invoice?” I asked. “My wife’s,” came the reply.
A lady asked if we sold bird feeders. “Yes,” I replied, “what sort had you in mind, we have quite a range?” “For birds,” came the reply.
It always amazes me how customers blame the food for every problem their dog or cat has. It cannot be anything else but the food. One lady came in and said that she normally fed her dog on a premium brand of dry puppy food but had decided to change it on to the adult version. The dog was just over a year old so this was the right thing to do. However she stated that this had given her dog an epileptic fit and she was taking it to the vet for advice. Well, I am not a medical person but I am pretty sure food does not induce epilepsy. But no, she was adamant the food was to blame. After talking this through for a few minutes she said that in fact this was the third fit the dog had had. Apparently they were happening virtually every two months. So not the food then, I said, but she was not convinced.
December was good. Sales up, profits up. Not a lot, but better than expected.
Recent highlights from the shopfront include:
A customer insisted on squeaking every toy until she found just the right one with the right pitch and tone that her dog liked. It is so irritating when children play with the squeakies…but when adults do it!
I had a home delivery to one customer who would not be in to pay me. As she was a regular I said just send a cheque in the post. “Oh no,” she said, “the house key is under the front doormat. Let yourself in and I will leave the money in an envelope in the hall. Just leave the food in the hall and lock up after you. Just do not forget to put the key back under the mat.” Luckily I was not a burglar in a former life.
Like many retailers I buy from a variety of manufacturers and wholesalers. And, like many retailers, I buy an economy dog food by the pallet. To be honest, I absolutely dread when this is delivered as the company is what I term a drop and run carrier. That is, all they are interested in is dropping the pallet on the road and driving off. Any slight problem and the driver doesn’t want to know. I thought I had heard all the excuses under the sun but the last deliverer really took the biscuit. He could not deliver because he could not let the tailgate down because the road was too uneven! Yes that’s right, the road outside my shop is not flat enough to drop a tailgate! The driver actually drove around the village until he found a suitable flat bit of road, dropped the tailgate and then drove back to the shop. And you wonder why I dread these deliveries.
A gentleman came into the shop to pay an account. “Whose name is on the invoice?” I asked. “My wife’s,” came the reply.
A lady asked if we sold bird feeders. “Yes,” I replied, “what sort had you in mind, we have quite a range?” “For birds,” came the reply.
It always amazes me how customers blame the food for every problem their dog or cat has. It cannot be anything else but the food. One lady came in and said that she normally fed her dog on a premium brand of dry puppy food but had decided to change it on to the adult version. The dog was just over a year old so this was the right thing to do. However she stated that this had given her dog an epileptic fit and she was taking it to the vet for advice. Well, I am not a medical person but I am pretty sure food does not induce epilepsy. But no, she was adamant the food was to blame. After talking this through for a few minutes she said that in fact this was the third fit the dog had had. Apparently they were happening virtually every two months. So not the food then, I said, but she was not convinced.
By:
blog dog
Date/time :
11/02/2010
Replies to this topic...
By:
anon__
Date/time :
17/02/2010 17:38:53
Detail:
I work in a small pet shop and as part of my customer service I ask customers would they like a bag? Well the reply I get from some customers is, “What do you mean” and they look gone out at me. Is that hard to understand?
