What happened to my favorite manager? (I now know, as I encountered him at Ross on River Road, but…read morehe was too busy to talk to, so I was left wondering why he changed stores and why the corporate powers at Kohl's did not fight to keep him? He was all about the customers and making everyone's shopping experience wonderful. When things got too busy for cashiers to handle, he would always jump on a register or help fold clothes and put them in a bag, engaging with his staff and his shoppers in a friendly and jovial way.)
I will not mention his name (as, honestly, I can't remember it), but I do remember the many times over the years when he made my shopping experience incredible. He would add a small percentage off my purchase price when I was spending hundreds and there were no advertised deals in the works. He recognized me and always stopped to say hello or to tell me how good it was to see me.
So, as everyone who knows me knows, last year I was having a problem with my 90-year-old mother walking away from my house whenever I was preoccupied. She would leave her phone at home, so there was no way I could locate her. And, my mom's attention span was quickly fading. She intended to do something, but found herself wandering off somewhere else or simply getting lost. There were times when I would have to deny her another Dr. Pepper because her kidney doctor recommended she cut it from her diet completely until her levels were up. I would give her Arrowhead water and she would complain and start spitting it out like IT was poison, then she would grab a few dollars and head off to the gas station up the street when I wasn't looking. But sometimes she lost her way, and it often took police officers to help me find her.
On the day the Kohl's manager phoned me, my mom was lost again. The police had already visited the house of the kind lady who had offered her companionship when she passed by there on her way to and from Wal-Mart on a hot summer day. No one at the barber shop had seen her cross Telegraph Street, and she did not go to the library or stop for a visit at her dog's groomers. I was frantic long before I received the call.
As we now live in the day and age of AI and cellphones, storing numbers in our heads is a practice long disused and forgotten. I had intended to put a tracking device in my mom's shoes, but I had not done it yet.
What if she had fallen in a ditch? What if she had collapsed somewhere from heat exhaustion? All sorts of bad scenarios ran through my mind.
The Kohl's manager said he recognized my mother as my frequent companion and shopping buddy. He had approached her as she seemed exhausted and confused. He took her to the back of the store and sat her in a comfy chair, and he brought her a bottle of water. She tried to give him the $20 she was carrying, but he refused to take it and told her to put it in her pocket until she found something she wanted to buy. Then he asked her where I was. She said she didn't know. He asked if she would tell him my name so I could come get her, but my phone number is unlisted. Then, he figured out an ingenious way to reconnect us. He typed my name into the Kohl's membership database and poof -- there I was! He was so incredibly nice, and he explained that he and his wife had been going through similar problems with some of their aged loved ones. So, whenever he saw us shopping together after that, he would approach my mom and make her feel important and comfortable. There is no better customer relations than that!
So, needless to say, I have been disappointed to not see my favorite manager in Kohl's for a while, and it seems like many of the staff have been replaced by a class of teenagers expecting a good grade just for showing up.
When I asked about a special wallet I typically purchase there, I was told where the wallets were located. I said that I knew where they were, but I was wondering when they might expect their next shipment (as I had purchased the purse and was waiting for the matching wallet to use it). "Well, that's what we've got," I was curtly told.
I could go on and on about the unfriendly and clueless employees that work there now. I used to shop there a lot, but now I only go in when I need something specifically that I can't find elsewhere.
Upon leaving Kohl's on my last visit, I had to realign my senses when I came to the new checkout lanes, as I thought I had been transported over to T.J. Maxx. They also seemed to have kidnapped their unfriendly staff.
