Goodbye Paignton shops.
I have just returned from a rare shopping trip to Paignton. What an eye-opener. You would think, would you not, that with the problems of parking, the threat to business from out of town superstores, and also from internet shopping, that shopkeepers and their staff would be offering you a warm and hearty welcome to their shop, looking after you whilst you were there, and sending you on your way feeling that your custom was important, and, should you return another day, that same service would be afforded you again. Not a bit of it. What a miserable and surly lot. Now, before I start, allow me to describe myself. I am average height, average build, clean-shaven, with short and tidy hair, and pride myself on dressing smartly, even for a simple shopping trip. You will understand my reasons for this self-description as you read on. I can only imagine how much worse a shopping trip would be for someone with a more threatening disposition. Ok. Shopkeepers. Firstly, many of them observe you as you enter, as one might observe a stranger standing in ones' garden. You are then free to browse of course, as long as you don't mind the shopkeeper following you around, pretending to be tidying the very shelves you are attempting to look at, with the shop phone in hand, safety catch off, thumb hovering over the speed-dial to the local constabulary. So what do you do? You leave the shop, having purchased nothing. Well done shopkeeper. Sometimes of course, your very presence in the shop, seems to be an utter hinderance to them. How the heck can they stack/tidy shelves if there are customers standing in front of them? Oh well done! Yeah, you go ahead and buy those items that I've JUST tidied up! Now I've got to go all the way back to the stockroom and re-stock what you've so selfishly bought. I went into a shop in Victoria Street today, with the intention of buying a 2012 diary. As I stood perusing them, the shopkeeper actually wheeled a trolley full of stock between me and the shelf, and left it there! Unbelievable. I left the shop, having purchased nothing. I also visited Paignton Library by the way, I needed to print something out via one of their computers. To the left of me sat a chap with the tinny sound of music loudly escaping from his earphones, to the right sat a chap with self inflicted health problems loudly and expressively belching for a solid ten minutes. As far as I know he's sat there belching still, ten minutes is all I could stand of this stereo disturbance. And this is in a library! I left, having printed nothing.
Paignton is the town of my birth. I am sorry to see it this way. I just don't get it. With all the aforementioned odds stacked against it, the only thing a town like Paignton can fight with is customer service. Having people getting home after a visit, putting the kettle on, and saying "that was a nice few hours in Paignton. Lovely people. Couldn't do enough for us. Must go back sometime." Not, as I feel, "never again! I'll do my shopping online from now on. No hassle, no ignorant or rude staff, no suspicious looks, no trolleys."
Goodbye Paignton shops.
9 Comments
by MorrisOwner
Tuesday, January 03 2012, 11:56PM
“The trouble with fences is people end up on either side.
Your feelings were obviously enough to prompt your comments, and to criticise or belittle would be unfair. Is there a balancing view though? Maybe. Having spent nearly 35 years in retail, these days I try to listen but don't judge.
The customer has always been central and to fail here is total failure. And you've been failed by the shops you visited.
There are no excuses, but there are reasons, and these are of huge importance to the way we live nowadays and how things are likely to change in the coming months and years.
A culture where customers demand the lowest possible price, free parking, or desktop buying does create a demand level for traditional service led retail shops which is below the threshold they need to work well, or even survive.
The people working in those shops are individuals. They may be employees on minimum wage with no guarantee of career progression, or else could be the owners with rising overheads and falling turnover, working long hours for well under the money they are paying their staff.
A few seconds in a shop tells whether it's buzzing or not. It's childs' play to run a shop where demand is healthy, but I suggest it's almost impossible to maintain the brave face and the 100% commitment when times are bad.
Your views are 100% valid, but where should we look to find the culprit?
Maybe a couple of hundred miles slightly north of east?”
by pfs1981
Tuesday, January 03 2012, 10:59PM
“i know how u feel went to the next sale the other day with my partner, and as i walked in to the shop there alarm system went off and one of the staff asked if she could search my bag (ie boots bag with lynx in it) and i said yeah no problem i just stole a shirt and now im returning it cause it dosnt fit, she looked confused, searched my bag and let me be on my way, by this point my partner had walked off more red than a tomato, on the way out after spending £100 on two items alarm went off again, but she didnt search my next bag just the boots bag again, but the worse thing about it was the alarm went off twice while she was checking my boots bag on the way out,
shops in torbay dont seem to care, internet shoping is the way to go”
by nicold
Tuesday, January 03 2012, 10:28PM
“LloydRW
Have you heard of paragraphs? Very difficult to read, so didn't bother!”
by Baldymen
Tuesday, January 03 2012, 8:33PM
“Paignton died years ago and not soon enough IMO. Goodbye and good ridens.”
by LloydRW
Tuesday, January 03 2012, 7:05PM
“Oh "Indigoe", I'm so sorry. I've had a look at your comment history, and the truth is there for all to see. How very brave of you to wear your heart on your sleeve as you do. I wish I could. But I'm a bloke, and you know how emotionally stunted we are. Also I haven't had the disadvantaged life you've clearly had to suffer. Not enough love from your parents, I'm guessing you are probably the middle child, with your younger sibling no more than two years your junior. Were you overlooked as child? Resentment you still carry with you to this day. It must be hard. I feel for you. That, plus your problems sustaining a relationship, your weight situation, and your general lack of self-worth. You are quite right. My complaints about a bad day in town are nothing compared to what you've had to go through, and continue to suffer with. My sincere apologies if what I have written seems insignificant in comparison. You are clearly a very bitter and miserable young lady, and perhaps with some justification. Those people who have reported you don't understand you like I do, I would never do that. I realise that it simply reminds you of all the rejection you've had to endure. It doesn't have to be this way, but that's up to you. You may well come back on here and deny that this isn't the case, but you know it's true, I know it's true, and the only catalyst for change is to face the truth, shed the past, and create a new truth. If you keep coming on here and spouting bile and vitriol on anyone who isn't as desperately unhappy as you, you will only dig yourself a deeper misery pit. I wish you good luck Indigoe.”
by Karen362
Tuesday, January 03 2012, 6:13PM
“Personally, I quite like Paignton's counter-cultural retail sector... it invariably stops me from spending money I don't have...”
by Isolde
Tuesday, January 03 2012, 6:10PM
“Go to a shop that employs people from the EU (but not English) you will find they have a far better attitude.”
by willfy123
Tuesday, January 03 2012, 5:58PM
“The apathetic attitude is in every shop you go into nowadays. More so in local businesses than national companies.”
by Indigoe
Tuesday, January 03 2012, 4:29PM
“Boring and pointless story. do you feel better now that is off your chest? Your just saying what people have said on here for the past 2 years!! Torbay is dead and you can blame the Kingskerswell Alliance for it. Well done to them i say.”