Service with a smile, is it too much to ask these days?

A Sunday morning in October that isn’t so nice, my bestie and I head down to our local mall for a spot of window shopping. I was also after a pair of new flats as the pair I have been shamelessly living in for the past 3 months took a turn for the worst the other day and sliced on me (by sliced I mean totally let me down, but that’s a whole other blog).
We wound our way round the various shops, Wittner, Target, Cue, Diva, Equip and Sportsgirl. Having previously worked at Sportsgirl I feel a certain love for many things there – a closeness to the product that gets me into a bit of trouble with my savings card. Sportsgirl’s latest offering ‘FROCKTOBER’ is a collection that speaks for itself and definitely sells itself without a second glance. The only thing I think needs a bit of a kick-up-the-butt (so to speak) is their current staff quota.



My bestie and I did a loop of the store, ‘cute’, ‘nah’, ‘whatever’, ‘yep’ and ‘I am obsessed’ are the phrases we use to assess each item. After pretty much ‘whatever-ing’ through most of the store (mostly coz of the price, one dress was $299 – hello, no one told me that money grows on trees these days, and let’s face it, Sportsgirl is not Bettina Liano!) we got to the accessories wall. A gorgeous pair of flats caught my eye; sliver with some major bling on the toes. I was in love! ‘OMG I have to try these on I am obsessed!!’ I look around to ask someone for a size, looking, looking – I catch a girl’s eye who I assume is working there (as she is standing in the change rooms taking clothes from the two exiting people – the only two people in the change rooms). ‘Umm excuse me’, I ask ‘can I grab these in a 7’. ‘Sure’ she replies minus the fake smile, actually minus any personality at all.

The girl comes back over with a shoebox in her hand and drops it at my feet.
I open the box to get the shoes out and by this time I am astonished at the lack of help this girl has given me. The shoes are all wrapped up in white tissue paper and haven’t been touched before…OK last time I checked, it’s your job when working in retail to take the shoes out of the box for the customer and unwrap them, then give to them to the customer to try on.
After trying on the flats and deciding they were the wrong size I looked up again to see if I could catch someone else’s eye to get another size, (the original girl was no where to be seen). Do you think there was anyone around at all? No. Apart from one girl at the register who clearly was not serving anyone. ‘Where is everyone who works here?’ I asked my bestie with extra loudness to make sure the girl at the register heard me. Finally, the original girl who was in the change rooms flutters out of nowhere and I have to ask her for another size. That’s right she didn’t even ask ‘How did the 7’s go’ or anything!

Not to bitch about Sportsgirl coz I love the place. Seriously. I am obsessed! But when they have girls like this working there on the weekend (which is the most busy and crucial time for chicks with their plastic cards) it really puts the product down in a bad way. Let’s just say I won’t be running back to that Sportsgirl store any time soon. Call me old-fashioned but when I’m shopping I want service with a smile as much as I want to purchase the item, coz for me it comes hand in hand. What about you? Does service affect what you buy? I’d love to know if it’s all just me.

Girl Next Door xx