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Fergus Falls retailers are providing less services
Published Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Fergus Falls is a small community whose stores are providing less service and are less personable.
I have shopped at one of these stores about once a week in the past month. There are only two clerks that check out groceries.
Carts have been lined up four to five deep at each till that has a clerk. As you move toward the cash registers you feel as if you are in a cattle shoot.
You can be the sixth or seven person in line at a till with a clerk, or choose to move farther down the shoot and use one of the four self-checkout registers.
The store management will not send extra clerks to help you. Store management knows you will become frustrated and move your cart down the shoot to check yourself out.
At the self-checkout register the shopper uses a credit card. The credit card company makes a profit of four cents for each dollar spent at the store.
I doubt if all the clerks and stock people are paid in income and benefits as much as the four cents for each dollar spent for the credit card use at the self-checkout.
I notice a lumber store is also turning into a big-box store. They are providing less service and more self-checkouts.
High school and college students at Fergus Falls are given fewer opportunities to earn money in a college town as fewer jobs are being provided.
The Fergus Falls Chamber of Commerce could encourage store owners to give a four-cent discount for each dollar spent using cash.
The Chamber could encourage stores to provide more service.
Marvin Gunderson - Elbow Lake
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Witty is great. Abusive is not. If you think a post violates these standards, don't escalate the situation. Instead, flag the comment to alert us. We'll take action if necessary. It's not hard. This should be a place where people want to read and contribute -- a place for spirited exchanges of opinion. So those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post at all.Posted by Hennepin (anonymous) on April 15, 2008 at 11:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr. Gunderson,
First of all if the store is not locally owned, don't blame store management. If you are refering to Sun-mart which I suspect, Nash Finch has ruined that store and all the rest that they purchased from Ericksons back in 1999. 8 out of 18 have closed at last count. Almost all the previous Ericksom management team has left the stores because they could not function under a corporate dictatorship. There are still good people there trying to do the best they can in spite of corporate BS. Operations are NOT their fault and they ARE great people. The Chamber has NO influence on retail. Welcome to retail 21st century style coming to more stores near you soon. By the way, grocery stores pay about 1.7% for credit card use. That is how they got sucked into taking them in the first place was low rates.
Posted by thethinker (anonymous) on April 16, 2008 at 11:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If you wish to complain about how business is done in America, perhaps one should look at where the goods purchased come from. I took the time to look over all the toys my daughter has ranging from dolls to legos to stuffed animals...basically a little bit of every type of toy. Not 1 toy was made in the USA. Every one was made in China. Why? Oh yeah, because it costs much, much less to produce these goods in China. Lets transcend that into what the writer is lamenting about in this article. Big business will pinch every penny they can including reducing their workforce. If people are willing to use the self checkout lanes (and I admit, I do), then there is one less job needed to be done by a human - i.e. a US worker. And more $$ is saved by the big corporation (and it appears this $$ goes directly to the severance packages of the CEO's and other top level mucky-mucks within the company...ahhh, but I digress). So Capitalism and it's God, the almighty $$$$, has caused this reduction of service within areas stores. I am for Capitalism but not all aspects of it are good.
Posted by Venti (anonymous) on April 16, 2008 at 2:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I use the self-checkout line because I find most checkout clerks are incompetent morons. That or else 99% of the checkout lines are filled with people (probably much like the guy who wrote this letter) who sit and wait for the clerk to ring all their items up, then pull out their purse/wallet and dig around for 5 minutes only to pull out 2 coupons for 2 of the items the clerk just rang up, then spend 5 more minutes complaining about how they can't use their 3rd coupon because it expired last week, then eventually proceed to spend the next 10 minutes looking for their checkbook, writing the check, but before tearing it out and handing it to the clerk, they have to flip to the back of the book in order to balance their checkbook and make sure everything looks to be in order.
Ahhhhh! Hi. I'm the 21st century. Have we met? Here take my 4 cents on the dollar (which I don't believe they do) and I'll check myself out with my credit card. Just get me out of this place!!!
Posted by andtongs (anonymous) on April 16, 2008 at 3:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Just as bad is the yuppie who pays for a 85 cent cup of coffee with his credit card.
Posted by wornout (anonymous) on April 16, 2008 at 9:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Venti said:
"I use the self-checkout line because I find most checkout clerks are incompetent morons."
Ladies and gentlemen of Fergus Falls, this is why we pay more for groceries and get less service. It's because of people like this that can't wait a mere 5 minutes. I have seen these "morons" running loose like livestock around Fergus Falls for about 7 years and really am sick of these type of people. They get in their SUV's and don't watch the road because they're talking on the cell phones. Now you tell me who the "incompetent moron" is?
Posted by Venti (anonymous) on April 17, 2008 at 9:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Yes, wornout. If I were to wait for 20 minutes in a line and be checked out by a store clerk instead of immediately checking myself out in the self-check out isle, the price of groceries would definitely decline precipitously. It couldn't possibly be more likely a result of the ever-climing price of a gallon of gasoline (which directly effects how much it costs to bring your food to the store) or perhaps the outlook of our over-all economy that gets bleaker every day. Could it?
By the way, I don't own an SUV. The car I do own, I drive about once every other week. Usually to and from the grocery store or the laundromat. My cell phone, I have the cheapest calling plan available and never even come close to using all my minutes. Needless to say, I can count the number of times I've attempted both at the same time on one hand.
Would you like to pose your question again? Or perhaps you've figured it out already.
Posted by freda (anonymous) on April 17, 2008 at 6:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Shop Service Food!
Posted by chipmunk (anonymous) on April 17, 2008 at 7:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Freda, hell just froze over, I agree with you.
Posted by MyFurryFriend56537 (anonymous) on April 18, 2008 at 9:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I disagree with Venti:
I find that it's the typical customer who's the moron and drives me to the self-checkout.
Posted by neon_freak (anonymous) on May 5, 2008 at 11:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
well i think the self checkout is somewhat a good thing because i don't know if its just me but some stores that i have been to in our area have cashiers that don't have the best hygiene and or attitude.. i won't mention any store names but one is a popular store right on the edge of town that most people frequent at least once a week! i mean come on if your gonna be crabby or something go do telemarketing or something where your not in direct contact with the customer.... my opinion really don't matter much but here is my 2 cents!!!!!!!!!!!
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