Staff Morale at D-Mart
I was talking to a checkout clerk at D-Mart (a chain of large-size supermarkets in Karachi) this afternoon and I asked him why there’s never anyone manning their big and blocked off cigarette counter. He answered with a really dejected look on his face,
Why even have such a big supermarket when you’re not going to hire enough people to run it?
I went on to suggest that they should just remove the counter and make that area self-service, just like the rest of the place, to which he replied,
These people are only interested in making money, so they sell off everything (meaning that the area is sponsored). We can’t remove the counter because it’s got a big logo on it (Marlboro’s logo, incidentally).
He went on to add that their isn’t even any point in forwarding customer complaints to management, because they’ve never done anything about it in the past, so why would they start now.
This guy’s pretty pissed off with his employer!
I’m a pretty regular customer there and I know that not a lot gets done there to improve the customer experience. Sure, it’s a lot more like foreign markets, with it’s wide aisles, air conditioning and bright lighting, but it really stops there. You can’t do your monthly groceries there because they won’t have everything you want. There are always a few things that one needs which are always going to be missing. For example; ziploc-type sandwich bags, aluminum foil, mortein refills, etc.
And to top it off, you’ve got staff so disgruntled that they’ve decide to let customers in on the problems. It feels very much like a “Don’t tell me, I just work here.” vibe. Someone in management has to figure out that their staff are the people shoppers interact with and if they’re not going to be taken seriously, then that indifference is going to be passed on in the staff’s interaction with people like me.
To be honest, I’ll still go there because I’m a supermarket whore — I love the places — and D-Mart’s fun for my kids to roam about in, but I’ve got it in the back of my mind now that this place isn’t well run and its staff aren’t really happy campers.
The chain’s not been around long enough and hasn’t launched any activities build up any real consumer loyalty either, so this really isn’t the best time to have things go astray.
