Rant 3

Kmart

Living in the country’s largest city has its benefits – many of the smaller (but still so-called capital) cities have stores which close at 1800 and do not open on Sundays, which is probably workable for its citizens, but Western Sydney has two 24hr KMart stores .. I just wouldn’t go to the second one at night … just my personal preference.

But when our microwave died, we agreed that we would need to visit at least the local one to get another. When I eventually found them, there were three models of the home-branded product, and two name-brands. I wanted one of the latter only because the capacity is bigger and the power is higher (our 1991-model Chef microwave, which I picked up for I-can’t-remember-how-much in 1997 is 1100w and at least 30L). Their home-branded stuff was only 900w with max 30L.

So having had experience with not being able to find floor-staff in these stores, I went to the front desk. The girl there (sorry, I didn’t get your name … again with the shame) was super-helpful, and seconded a guy who was at the wrong place at the wrong time (as far as he is concerned) to help me. He took the tickets from the shelf, went out the proverbial back, and came back after a while to let me know that they didn’t have those models in stock.

He then (again with the nameless servants of good) offered to phone the other 24hr store (at Mount Druitt – look it up: the urban myths do it justice) to see if they had any. They didn’t … he then phoned the manager d’ (nameless, faceless, which is more the pity coz he needs to be panned) to find out if he could sell me the floor stock. The response was that they’re “not allowed”. I mean really – that’s the sort of thing a kid would say: “Would you like a cookie?” “We’re not allowed”. 

The pleasant desk girl (the guy had been sent off on a price-check while on hold to said shame-manager) offered to take my details and get the homewares manager to call me on Monday. Thank you but no, not really helpful to a hungry little boy who needs his bottle tonight.

So here’s the question, which I pose to Australian KMart employees [or any Coles Myer employees who might know] – what is the issue with selling floor-stock? I am a customer who wants to buy better-than your home-branded product, and is willing to take the gamble on floor stock provided that I get full factory warranty as well as a bit off the ticketed price. The guy at Dick Smith [a Woolworths company] was happy to sell me a DVD player off the floor for less than the ticketed price, with full warranty! Better still, what is the issue with keeping stock on the floor which is not backed up by stock in storage / out the proverbial back? Yeh things get busy, but at 2030 on a Saturday night surely there are ways of updating your display stock to ensure that it matches with stuff you can move? Couldn’t a “model temporarily out of stock” label be put up, like they do in the supermarkets (again, I cite my Woolworths experience, but I’m sure they do it at Coles as well).

Retail is about service, right? The floor-staff were happy to provide it – maybe Management should come out from behind their ivory desks and work out front in the real world? It works for the Lamborghini drivers of Corporate World …