We used to live right behind SV Road in Bombay. I remember when malls were still a novelty, the first Shoppers Stop opened near our house. We used to visit this almost like a tourist itinerary to lech at the bright merchandise and conspicuous displays of affluence. Over time, special occassions meant a new shirt from SS or a Sizzling Brownie at their cafe(a tiny version of Bombay Blues). Many years later, malls and megastores are everywhere. What started as a novelty is now a mere necessity*.
Along the way, SS has grown, rebranded itself and started resembling "Big Bazar" with its crowded aisles and gaudy goods. They also made some friends in the right places, winning them rights to Duty Free shops in airports under questionable arrangements. The result is that despite their first mover advantage, today the Indian shopper prefers "Westside" for reliable, efficient service or "Lifestyle" for the premium experience. In Bangalore, again SS happens to be closest to home and a destination of choice for "quick and dirty" shopping(read: emergency gifting)
The billing counter at Banergatta Road branch has about 3-4 billing desks across the store. Each desk has multiple counters- 1 exclusive Golden Glow, 2 Express Counters and 4-5 normal counters. Last Saturday, only the Golden Glow and Express counter were manned, in addition to a solitary and slow nomal counter. Being "Sale" time, the queue was long and the biller was taking average 12 minutes per customer. It took us 45 minutes to reach the counter.
I asked the biller why the other counters were empty despite the rush, he replied its lunchtime. Wow!
Already basking in a golden glow(of annoyance), we happened to notice he billed a shirt at full price. When reminded about the sale, he enlightened us that the shirt is actually NOT on sale. Eventhough it was on the sale rack. You see, customers were expected to attend a course on secret codes at SS before shopping. Instead of a bold labels or color coding, they had usual full-price tags on all goods with a scrawny F5, F7, F15 scribbled by pen in a corner of the tag. One of ours said F7, which is good. The other said F15, means NO SALE. Wow, again!
So now they expect us to trudge back to the section with a hungry, wailing infant and a terribly bored me to pick a new shirt. While our little game is on, no one bothers to attend the queue growing behind us. Thankfully, the Indian consumer is also all-accepting. No one really complained. They just stood there making tch-tch and off-oho noises, probably blaming us instead of the shop.
At our patience end, we requested to meet a manager, and someone polite appeared. With one phone call, all 7-8 billing counters were manned immediately. Our loss became boon for those behind us.
In multiple recent visits to SS, we saw lack of interest in their billing services. Staffers keep loitering but no one steps up to the job, they think 40-45 minutes is acceptable wait-time for billing.
Before this Shopper Stopped visiting Mr.Shrikhande’s outfit(a CEO who calls himself a Customer Care Associate, by the way. Snicker snicker), he sent them a feedback. I must allow their reply to speak for itself. Shows the international standards of their "customer care";-)
"We have received your valuable feedback, we apologies for the inconvenience and we regret what has happened. We will ensure the prior visit of yours would be happy visit. I thank you for your precious time taken to pass you sincere concern."