I visited Aubuchon Hardware yesterday, Sunday. There are two register islands. Only one island was open. In that island, there were two young men. One was named Justin, and he was handling the register. The man next to him had his hair cut close to his skin on the sides of his head. The hair on top had had strands of hair bleached, and his hair had been pulled in to a pony tail. He was standing next to Justin with his hands in his sweatshirt pockets, with an ear plug in his ear.
A woman went up to the register. She was holding up a shower caddy. She asked Justin where she would be able to find a suction cup to hold the caddy. Justin said that the suction cups were a seasonal item, and that he would not know where to begin to look to find them. I waited for follow up. nope. That was it. The woman asked again. He replied that some had come in, but he would not know where he would have put them, and he did not have anyone who could look for them. I said to the woman that perhaps the employee with his hands in his pockets could look. It appears that ponytail man heard me, because he went an opened one drawer within the register island. As he did so, Justin said to him, "I really wouldn't spend any time on that." Ponytail man took his lead and stopped looking. The woman and I looked at each other in astonishment. No one went outside of the register island to look. No suggestions were made as to where else she could find one, nothing. Ponytail man did not move his feet again. He settled back in his resting position.
The woman asked Justin what his manager's name was. He said it was "Bill". She asked when Bill might be in. Justin asked a co-worker (there were four young men working there that day that I saw), and the co-worker directed him to look at the schedule in the back room. Justin walked out back and told the woman that "The schedule has not been finished. I don't know when he'll be in."
I own a business in the town of Barnstable. Reputation and customer service are so important. How and why do hardware stores stay in business when there are stores like Lowes and Home Depot nearby? Quality merchandise and great customer service. I go to Anderson Hardware in Centerville and Bradford's Hardware in Hyannis fairly regularly. The people who work there always go out of their way to help you find what you need. If they don't have the item, they always suggest where else I could look. That day, we had just come from Mahoney's Garden Center. We had had no less than three employees approach us to offer assistance. Of the two employees we interacted with in this store, one would not move his feet and take his hands out of his pockets to assist a customer, and the other dismissed the customer and also advised his co-worker not to try to help her. Management should implement changes. read more
