<p>I had a Target “meltdown”. I bought an item there. I specifically ASKED the clerk how I could get a cash refund…not a store gift card. She told me to write a check…which I did. Now keep in mind that I HAD my debit card with me.</p>
<p>When I went to return the item, I was told Target does not electronically process checks and I would have to wait 7-8 days for the check to clear THEIR system in order to get cash back. Basically…they held my money hostage for that long. The check cleared MY bank the day I wrote it. Now…where WAS that money???</p>
<p>I pitched a fit at the return counter. The manager told me I could either take a gift card (NOPE) or come back in a week or so. I had her write it down and sign it…their posted policy doesn’t say a PEEP about this.</p>
<p>Oh…I had the REAL receipt…not a gift receipt.</p>
<p>I swear…my shopping there will be limited and will be cash only transactions.</p>
<p>That’s interesting! I so do NOT miss Marshall Field’s, and here’s why.</p>
<p>As someone not from Chicago, when I came up here, all I heard was Marshall Field’s this and Marshall Field’s that. I expected it to be grand. When in actuality, it never seemed any different from the “nice” department store that any city had – like the old Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia, the old Famous-Barr in St. Louis, etc.</p>
<p>There was a Marshall Field’s literally a block south of the Northwestern campus (and the sorority quads). You would THINK that they would be smart enough to have “young” brands of makeup, clothing, and accessories so that all the sorority girls with money coming out of their pockets would buy there. You would THINK that they’d throw a couple of cute purple and white outfits into the display windows to entice all of us. You would THINK that they might have even had career-clothing for the college seniors who were heading into the workforce, esp in the Dress for Success 1980’s. But no – it had old lady makeup, old lady clothing, and a layer of dust over it all. It was like a time warp. It was astounding how poorly that store was managed. </p>
<p>Then, I got into the young-bride stage and lived / worked near the Marshall Field’s in Skokie and Oak Park, respectively. Again, same thing. Invisible and incompetent sales help, dumpy merchandising, nothing that couldn’t be found at twenty other stores. Their Frango mints? Oh please - they’re Peppermint Patties! </p>
<p>Yes, the State Street store was nice. But they mismanaged the other stores terribly. By the time Nordstrom came to Chicago, I was glad. They (Nordstrom) ate Marshall Field’s lunch, and good for them. They offered service, unique merchandising and kept their stores up nicely. I don’t miss Marshall Field’s at all.</p>
<p>The State Street store was the one I meant. The rest were pretty much just regular stores, yes. I guess the whole Christmas lights/city streets/ice skating/Marshall Field’s to-do really did it for me. Well, and I also liked the little eatery in the basement of the Old Orchard store.</p>
<p>My memories of the Old Orchard store were mostly of trying to wave down store clerks whom I mistakenly thought might want to actually help me figure out which pattern was Wedgwood Rosedale so I could buy place sets for engaged couples! But, that was a real imposition on their time, and they had fingernails that needed filing, and, well, service it was not. Did you live near Old Orchard? I worked in that vicinity.</p>
<p>My MIL and her contemporaries talk fondly of the days when going to Marshall Field’s was a real event, you’d dress up, have tea there, etc. I think it really rested on those laurels for a long, long time. </p>
<p>One of their major missteps (IMO) was when they were part of Dayton Hudson. And some buyer must have decided that if they stuck “Fields, Dayton, Hudson” on their tags, they could easily cross-ship merchandise from one store to the other if it didn’t sell, without the expense of retagging. Well, the one thing Fields had going for it, if nothing else, was that it was this uniquely Chicago institution. Once you saw those tags, it really reinforced that this was just the same ol’ merchandise available anywhere. </p>
<p>It’d be interesting to know how well Macy’s has done since it’s taken over Fields’ here.</p>
<p>Yeah, I lived within walking distance of Old Orchard for ten years. Neat area, I thought. It has one of the best combinations of nice but not prohibitively expensive houses and apartments, relatively low taxes, food, and shopping in Chicagoland. It’s North Shore for the Poor, you know? (Poor being a relative term, of course. Still pretty expensive.)</p>
<p>I remember the Marshall Fields in Evanston very well, but from the late 1960s. It did have some panache, as I recall. </p>
<p>I haven’t been in a department store in ages. There’s no reason to – anything I need I can get on-line or in a specialty store in my town.</p>
<p>An interesting Macy’s story: Years ago, I was in the store and asked if they carried a particular pair of shoes in my size. The sales clerk went off to check. When she came back, she told me “No, but we have them in This Size, That Size, and Another Size.”</p>
<p>What conceivable good does that do me?! :eek:</p>
<p>LOL! I wanted to try on a particular shoe at Nordstrom, but did not find what I was looking for on the display shelves. The sales person assured me that they had them in stock and then disappeared in the back room. After waiting for him for 15 minutes, I almost lost my patience but decided to stick around. Imagine my reaction when he emerged with a tower of Pisa-high stack of shoeboxes in his arms and said, “I’m sorry, we do not have that particular style, but I thought you might like these!” Uhm, no. I politely declined to even look at the stuff he brought.</p>
<p>What I’m “hearing” when reading these posts is that “customer service” is at an all time low these days. Now I sound like my mom & grandmother.</p>
<p>Just a few weeks ago I went to Big5 (sporting goods) looking for reflectors or flashing lights that a bike rider could wear when riding at night. I found 1 item near the register and asked the sales clerk if they had others “similar” or if this was the only type they had. She didn’t know and called over the manager who said (really), “If we do they’d be over there” as she waved her arm towards the inside of the cavernous store. So I asked her to take me “where they might be”. She sighed a deep sigh and walked me through the store and said “Maybe here” and before I could respond, she was gone. Lo and behold there was a display of small bike related accessories which included a little kit with a flashing clip on light, reflectors on Velcro to wear on your ankle (doubles to keep your pant leg from getting caught in the chain) and some other thing. AND it was half price! So I grabbed it, went to the register, and told the first sales clerk “you do have others, and they are under the basketball hoop, on the right” she thanked me for letting her know, and just then Ms. Manager-who-couldn’t-care-less floated by, so I shared the same information with her. She looked me straight in the eyes and said, “So.” </p>
<p>Really. </p>
<p>The manager. </p>
<p>(Here come my mom & grandmother again) - What kind of customer service is THAT? Oy.</p>
<p>I’m a little puzzled as to why that’s so surprising. I sold shoes when I was in high school and that’s what I did – if I didn’t have a size, I brought out the person’s size in similar shoes. My D has a part-time job in retail and that’s what she does if she can’t find the exact size / style someone is looking for. I would <em>expect</em> a good salesperson to find / suggest similar styles if the store was out of my size, and proactively bring them out for me to try. That’s what distinguishes shopping at Nordstrom (etc) from shopping at DSW. This type of thing happens all the time; I’m puzzled as to why it’s noteworthy?</p>
<p>Now that would drive me crazy. OTOH, I was at Dominick’s (local food chain, owned by Safeway) yesterday looking for some particular items, and two senior-level employees walked all over the store with me, helping me get them, and calling in the back to check on another item that was out of stock. They got it.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl - I agree, it is the salespeople’s job to suggest other things to a customer, and I always welcome that, but in this case I was not happy because he was gone for 15-20 minutes collecting these boxes and maybe checking his e-mails and doing who knows what when I explicitly told him that I was looking for a very particular shoe. I was very polite and thanked him, of course.</p>
<p>Yes, it is, and after thinking about this subject a lot over the years, I do not believe it’s just our imagination.</p>
<p>The store owners are at fault, and so are we, the shoppers.</p>
<p>The owners are at fault because, in an attempt to increase profits, they hire the bare minimum number of workers required to keep the store functioning, and they pay them as little as possible. In many cases, it would be illegal to pay them any less! And because low-paid workers are unlikely to stick around, the owners don’t bother investing in training, either.</p>
<p>This is the same reason that “cheap Chinese crap” has overrun our store shelves.</p>
<p>But the shoppers are at fault as well, and perhaps more so, because we demand more and more goods at lower and lower prices. I could throw away about 80% of the goods in my home, and my life would barely be affected. So then why do I have those goods? Because we (the buying public, and more specifically my wife) think that we have the right to possess all things material, and that’s impossible unless the stuff is made unsustainably cheap.</p>
<p>So, if you want predictably great service, resolve to pay for it, and seek out smaller chains and independent shops that differentiate themselves through service (since they can’t compete on price). You’ll usually get better merchandise as well.</p>
<p>Yes, it is important to patronize boutiques that HAVE good service if we want them to stay in business. For my D, we have bought all of her formal gowns at the one store in the entire mall that has the one dress in her size. The customer service is good and the prices are only slightly higher than competitors.</p>
<p>When you go to the “Big Box” retailers, there is a tradeoff, but I have actually had pretty good service at aome/most of them. Quality does vary, and you need to know your merchandise.</p>
<p>Small boutique is not problem free either. I went to a camera shop that is not big box retailer type and wanted to see a macro lens that I particularly wanted to buy. They did not have it and said they would have it in store in about 2 weeks. I gave them my phone number to call but they never called. I could have bought the same model from Amazon with 20% discount, but I never did. I lost interest in buy any lens after that.</p>