By Jan Chaffin November 27, 2018
SEARS in Capitola closed its doors for the final time this past Sunday. There were no whoops or cheers or pats on the back. Just the last shoppers exiting a barren store through a single unlocked door after waiting in endless lines to buy cheap stuff cheaper one more time.
No media reps covered the event. No announcements acknowledged the 125 years of service and no one offered to host an after party. Everyone clocked out one final time and walked through the employee entrance into the empty parking lot. Some would be returning for several more days of store shutdown and cleanup. They would be meeting with EDD to sign up and they were given severances. But most of the career consultative sales people didn’t have new jobs lined up.
Where will these talented professionals find similar work? Do jobs like theirs even exist any more? Where do customers go to consult with an expert about the best appliance to buy? Odds are a Google search (which takes its commission in terms of user data) substitutes for a conversation with a human being.
Soft shopping will likely replace hard shopping. Even now, most people just do recon in stores- try on the shoes, open the oven door, bounce on mattresses then, often while standing in front of the commissioned salesperson, proceed to order online, saving perhaps as little as five dollars. This is of course after asking every conceivable question and taking an hour of valuable time.
And if their online order goes afoul, they return to request customer assistance.
Brick and mortar stores often cannot compete with their own online presence in terms of prices and promotions. And once a house brand becomes available elsewhere, there is little incentive to buy in-store from real salespeople.
But it’s a raw deal. The commissioned salesperson is highly motivated to help you find a good product as well as deeply knowledgeable of comparative features and benefits. This person can assure your order includes all needed parts and will customize your delivery to suit your location and scheduling needs. He or she can follow up on any issues after the fact and remember what size refrigerator you need for your rental units or talk the manager into a better deal.
The customer might accomplish all that online but eventually will probably still have to contact a human for service.
So that’s what the consumer world sacrifices for progress: a little more humanity and a generation of amazing salespeople.