Yesterday I went to Dollar General to get one item (M-30 for grease stains). I could not find it in the automotive section so I went to the checkout and asked a girl who did not seem to be busy. She went to the back to get it, not sending me because she wasn’t sure where it was. This particular DG had 2 registers. I was standing at a register that was closed. When the girl came back and handed me the M-30, I thanked her and pushed the stroller around by the door to get to the other register. So far, I was impressed with her customer service skills.
As soon as I got to the register, the girl who had helped me said to the person in front of me, “Come around to the other register. That one is about to close.” Then she told me the same thing. So I began to make my way to the other register, this time going around through the store rather than by the door because a customer was coming in the door at that moment. The problem was that the first aisle I could have cut through had a big cart sitting there (full of stuff left there by an employee). The next cut through aisle had the same thing. This was a problem because I was pushing a double stroller with 2 kids tagging along, too. From here, I noticed a woman with a cart loaded down getting in line, along with 2 or 3 people getting in line behind her. So I went back to the other register, thinking surely they can ring up one item, especially since I was in this line before they closed it. I must admit that I was slightly irritated at the whole situation.
When I got to the register, the girl asked if she should ring me up. The woman who had been so helpful before very rudely said, “No, go clock out. Never mind you don’t clock out, do you?” So the girl left the register without a word to me. I put the M-30 on the counter and began to leave the store, determined to find M-30 elsewhere. As I was walking out of the store, I got a little burst of boldness. I approached the woman, with her line of customers, and told her that her aisles from one register to the other were blocked and that I had been sent on a wild goose chase because I left a closed register only to end up at a register that was closing. She offered to ring me up immediately, but I refused because I wanted her to realize that good customer service is important, and the lack of it can cost you business.
And the really neat thing about this is that I went to another store and found a similar product for a cheaper price!
I was not confident that I had made the right move in leaving the store. I was afraid I would not find M-30 anywhere else, and I needed it because P had gotten motor oil all over a new shirt. I wondered if I had hurt myself more than anything until I found a similar product at a better price. I wonder, though, what you think? Was I just was wasting my time by leaving?
