I came into Exeter this morning to with the express intention of getting some new brake blocks for my bike. I could have stayed home in the warm and got them online of course but I thought I would give local business an opportunity to prove to me why they deserve not to fail. Guess what? They failed. Specifically, the Exeter branch of The Bike Shed failed. Okay, so it was early Saturday morning but that's no excuse surely? Certainly no excuse for leaving a customer standing at an unattended till for several minutes without so much as an acknowledgement. At least two members of staff had the opportunity to make the sale. One wandered past apparently in a daze, perhaps moving stock from one end of the store to the other. Another spent time on the phone beside the workshop, clearly aware of my presence. I even made eye contact. But when his call was finished did he come and serve me? Nope, he just busied himself unpacking a bike from a box. I guess making a sale just doesn't seem that important in these recessionary times, huh?
In the big scheme of things of course losing a twenty quid sale won't ruin The Bike Shed. But how expensive is bad feeling? How much does a bad vibe cost a business? In contrast, I have just sat down in the Boston Tea Party, logged onto the Wiggle site and bought what I wanted. Cheaper. And with a far greater sense of engagement. Man, it's really not good when a website gives you a better feeling of personal attention that a physical shop.
So you know, when physical stores whine about losing out to online retailers maybe they should ask themselves why that is. And they damn well better not come looking to me for sympathy.
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