Retail Musings: The Great Disconnect
I have worked in retail for 17 years, across different fields, and for companies both big and small. There is something I regard as consistent across the larger companies, and it’s a tendency for the powers that be at head offices to be come thoroughly disconnected from the stores and showrooms.
Now, it would be unfair of me to drop that charge at the feet of everyone who works in a head office. Indeed, I know people within the ranks of upper management and head offices who do understand the plights and problems faced at store level. Unfortunately, they are not usually the ones pulling the strings, and they are expected to follow instructions, just as much as everyone else. The result of all this is that staff in stores can feel somewhat isolated and ignored.
One of the biggest problems I had was at Staples. It was coming up to Christmas, and the store would close for Christmas Day, however on Christmas Eve, head office sent instructions down about dressing the stores up for Boxing Day, complete with loads of poster changes, endcap updates, and a whole load of other stuff. No one gave a single thought to how much work this would entail, nor the little detail that Christmas Eve is traditionally an opportunity for families to prepare for the big day. The powers who issued these instructions would not be the ones doing the work, and would get to clock off at a reasonable hour. No thought was taken in regards to the time of store staff.
This is sadly quite normal. Whilst the staff in showrooms and shops are effectively on the front-lines, serving customers, making the company money, and often the first port of call for complaints and issues, we can often feel among the most under-valued parts of the team (some companies also tend to look down upon their delivery teams, despite all of their hard work too). People who either haven’t worked in showrooms for years, or have never worked in showrooms, make decisions about displays and point of sale without ever pausing to think about individual store circumstances. It can be an uphill struggle to have our voices heard.
To an extent, it is what it is. The system isn’t going to willingly change, and those who sit at the top will rarely take the time to truly, properly think about what it’s like lower down the ladder. What would be ideal is for the people from head offices – especially those who occupy the roles of directors – to do a month in a showroom, dealing with all the things that make up the regular tasks we have to do, as well as tackling the numerous directions they push onto us. Then, and only then, might the powers that be realise precisely how disconnected they are.
