Memo to Mall Retailers

It's no secret that the economy these days is driven largely by the American consumer. Sure, we can debate the macroeconomic impact of the banking industry, or the price of oil, or what Ben Bernake had for breakfast, but the real catalyst is how middle class America burns its disposable income.

So, you'd think that in this time of economic crisis that retail store owners would be doing everything in their power to ensure that their potential customers were at least given a minimal effort of good customer service. After all, the available pool of employable customer service and sales personnel must be the one bright spot in this economy, with unemployment numbers approaching double digits and so many people desperate for decent jobs.

Right?

Apparently not. At least not if my last trip to the mall was any indication. No, I'm sad to report that nearly every store in the mall is still staffed by inept teenagers who can't be bothered to help a paying customer when they need it. The most glaring example was our trip to Famous Footwear, where all I wanted to know was the price of a pair of shoes, and there was nary a sales rep in sight. After wandering the store for ten minutes, I discovered the teenaged girl seated, out of line of sight of the entire store, behind the cash register chatting away on her cellular phone. Sorry, no sale.

In some cases, it's not even their fault. For example: all my wife really wanted to shop for was boots. That's WOMEN'S boots. So, why is it half the stores we stopped at had teenage boys trying to sell her shoes? I won't profess to be an expert in this sort of thing – my shoes all come from Wal-Mart or REI. But my observation is that when a woman shops for shoes, she doesn't want some overbearing young man trying to show them to her. And, let's face it, there's no law that will penalize you for NOT hiring the young white man. Especially in a women's shoe store.

Finally, how about some sales and promotions that actually make sense. I was in a sporting goods store that had a certain section of hats marked 2 for $20 or 3 for $25. Great deal, right? Except, I only wanted one hat from that section. Retail price? $22.

No, they wouldn't let me buy one from another section, and count the sale hat towards the deal (even though the one from the other section was only $18, thus making it so I was really paying more than if I'd taken two $22 hats). No, they wouldn't mark down just one hat.

Again, no sale.

All told, I probably took home close to $100 that I might have spent in that mall had there been actual, knowledgeable, experienced sales staff present. Maybe this is the real reason why our dollars are going overseas to China via big-box stores like Wal-Mart. If we're going to get little or no service, we might as well get low prices for our trouble.