Diary of a Sales Agent


By Peers Clarke


Regular features in the press, radio and television news concern the rise of internet trading and its adverse effect on the traditional retail stores.


Increasing numbers of my retail and merchant


customers have internet trading sections with varying success reported and this is fortunate for me as a supplier to them, for those who have fully embraced this form of trading are seeing ever more growth in purchases via their websites. Even Mrs Clarke, who, like me, is something of a technophobe, is spending more of my money buying online rather than in High Street shops and I questioned her about this.


“You are such a pain when we go out shopping,


“she complained.”You are never there behind me when I want your opinion about a dress. Last Saturday, where did you disappear to when I was in queue to pay? You disappeared off to the Pub! You have no patience and grab any old item of clothing when you don’t immediately see the style or colour you want. And then you refuse to queue at the checkout.”


Well it had to be my fault didn’t it? But she has a


very valid point. I really do object to having to hunt around, without help from assistants, to find the shirt or sweater that I have previously decided that I want and, when I have finally given up and selected a compromise product, why should I wait at a checkout for 10 minutes when there are tills unstaffed but numerous store assistants standing around holding private conversations?


I find that the multiples are the worse


offenders for this and they could all benefit by the return of the old style Floor Walkers who would immediately ensure that all tills were opened to reduce the queues to a minimum. Why aren’t the store managers aware of this problem? They are probably too busy in their upstairs Office. It surprises me that neither the Managers nor Head Office are aware of the volume of business they lose when offices doing combat with the reams of paperwork and financial returns that see potential customers walk away empty handed rather than join a long queue. It’s


8 MAA Agents News www.themaa.co.uk


not uncommon to see shopping baskets with intended purchases abandoned on the store floor. Even more galling to me is when my intended purchase has a low value such as a magazine, greetings card or some confectionary but there are insufficient tills open to cope with the volume of demand.


If Eric, landlord of the Mucky Duck, was not


constantly present behind his bar and did not employ enough bar staff to ensure speedy service he would soon find himself lacking in customers.


A well known High Street chain has recently


announced their last quarter results which were not too bright and I remain convinced that this is mainly because of lost customers like me for they are notorious for their long queues of customers. If the store Chairman were to take an anonymous tour of his stores to see for himself what is happening on the shop floor rather than rely upon his spreadsheet then he could soon be making positive quarterly reports including increased employee recruitment and new store openings. Recently I knew precisely what I would buy Mrs Clarke for her birthday so visited our nearest town to buy it in the large department store only to find that they had no stock. Staff insisted that they had the product in another branch some ten miles away so off I drove only to find that they had also sold out. Not only had I wasted most of a morning of my time I had


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