Holidays Come to Early

Today is the first day of Autumn yet already decorations for Halloween and Thanksgiving have been out in stores for weeks. I think stores put these decorations out earlier and earlier every year. It was just the beginning of September when I started seeing Halloween costumes. Why would people even buy things that early when by the time it is actually Halloween they will all be on sale.

This will be my daughter's first Halloween and she definetly needs a costume but I am not going to spend $25 on an infant Halloween costume. I just keep waiting it out, watching as the price gets lower and lower. Who knows if I buy a costume now it might not even fit her by the time its Halloween, we still have another month and a half practically!

I was in Hallmark over the weekend and noticed that they already have a lot of their Christmas decorations out. As if Halloween and Thanksgiving aren't enough, now they have Christmas stuff out too. I guess its just the stores' way of stretching out the holidays but they could at least wait until after Thanksgiving to put out the Christmas things. One holiday at a time please!

Auto Parts Experience

Recently my car needed an oil change and being a college student the last thing I want to do is go to a quick change place and pay $50 to get my oil changed. So I decided to just have my boyfriend do it for me, except I had to go and buy all the stuff. I know nothing about cars and when I walked into the Advanced Auto Parts I must have looked completely clueless. The man at the counter was so helpful! I walked over to him and told him I needed oil and a filter, but I had no idea what kind or how much. He looked up my vehicle on his handy computer and led me right over to where everything was. He even picked out everything for me and he didn't even pick the most expensive oil or filters. He was almost like a personalized shopper. All I had to do was go in tell him what I needed and paid.

I must say of all places I have ever been, the best service has always been at an auto parts store. Everytime I go in for something they look my vehicle right up and show me exactly what I need. When you buy windshield washer fluid the employee comes right out and puts it in your car. You can't ask for better service than that.

American Eagle Return Policy

Now a days there are so many stores that are so alike it is hard to decide which one to shop at. You can shop at Meijers, Target, or Wal-Mart or if your apparel shopping you have American Eagle, Abercrombie, Hollister, or Aeropostale, just to name a few. Yes, they all have some unique thing about them be it the "Everyday low prices" of Wal-Mart or the distinct look of an Abercrombie outfit. Consumers go out knowing what they want and what store they are going to shop at.

I think we need to start focusing on a new section of the stores when deciding where to shop and that is the store's return policy. Of all stores I think Target has the worst return policy, that is strictly enforced. They will practically do nothing for you unless you have a receipt, which 75% of the time I never have mine. Which means make SURE you really want that item and its the right kind, shape, and size because they will give you a hard time if you want to return it.

The most liberal return policy I have ever seen was when I was working at American Eagle. They will take back anything, tags or no tags, receipt or no receipt, worn or not. I had had customers return something that was 2 or 3 years old. Can you imagine how many times they had worn it? But we still had to take it back. Although this may be a benefit for the customer I think it really hurts the company.

Once while I was working I had a customer come to me with a pile of clothes that he wanted to return, with no receipt, and then another pile of clothes that he wanted to buy. Well none of the clothes he was returning were his size and I could tell he had a brought a bag in with him and stuffed it so he looked like he had came into the store with them and then just returned them to get money. I pulled my manager aside and told him about it but there was nothing we could do. So the customer got away with walking into the store, stuffing a bag full of clothing and then returning these clothes for clothes that he had picked out.

Who knows how many people have actually done this but I know the store got ripped out a few hundred dollars that day. It pays to have a return policy that people respect but a company is not wise to have one as loose as American Eagles.

Surprising Wal-Mart Experience

Today I visited Wal-Mart to do my grocery shopping. Normally the only employee you come into contact with there is the greeter and the cashier, but today I was pleasantly surprised. Tired after shopping for forty-five minutes, while carrying my infant daughter, I was upset to find a frozen bag of food was unsealed. While I was debating whether or not it was worth it to travel back to the frozen foods section a nearby employee came to assit me and actually went back and got a new package for me! I was so happy with my service, it made my day and long wait at the cash register a little more pleasant.

I have tried to search online for other people that have had good customer service at Wal-Mart but have come up empty-handed. It seems most people have never had good customer service there or if they have, have never thought to write about it.

Most of the press that Wal-Mart does receive is all negative when concerning their customer service. Consumeraffairs.com(http://www.consumeraffairs.com/retail/walmart_customer_service.html) gives a list of many customers that have experienced bad service from Wal-Mart. Yet, the underlying theme in most of these complaints is that the consumer normally returns to do business with Wal-Mart.