Happy Memorial Day, Everyone ! First off I’m gonna have to apologize ahead of time as this post isn’t really a CR8TiV one but more a Rant and Rave. So Sorry for the gloomy negativity that may lurk in this blog post. But I really have to get this off my chest and hopefully see some changes being made to this store.
Store ? (o~O) Did that perk up your interest ? 😛 L0L Yes, my rant is about a Craft Store and particularly a well known craft store but in just this location. I have been to other store locations and have had better if not a tad better than this store location experience. So without further ado let’s continue on … Shall we ?
This craft store I am going to be Rant & Raving about is JoAnn’s Fabrics & Craft store in Glendale, CA on 1000 s Central Ave. It was formerly a Albertson’s which I also shopped at often but when it closed down *Boo hoo no more fried chicken* it became JoAnn’s. JoAnn’s was originally on Orange Ave. not too far away from it’s current location.
So when it openly and awhile there after the store was always a positive experience. The workers were friendly, helpful, and positive attitude. One worker in particular by the name of Courtney stood out. She was always smiling, interested in knowing what crafty project you were working on, and very friendly-chatty-positive attitude. She made shopping there a great experience and you left the store with a smile.
After awhile I no longer saw her working there and a few of the familiar faces faded into memory. The store slowly started changing and what once was a cheerful place to shop turned gloomy and dark. When you walked into the JoAnn’s store before it was bright cheerful and you can feel the positive energy. Now it’s dark gloomy and stank ! What changed ? Manager ? Pay Decrease ? Long hours ?
In my experience the job of a Manager is SUPER crucial to how an entire store runs and operates. A Manager is essentially like a Shepherd or Sheep Herder. You keep your sheep in order and a pleasant compassionate Shepherd in turn leads a herd of Happy sheep whereas a mean hateful Shepherd who cracks his whip and yells at the herd will lead a herd of sheep Unhappy and scared of the Shepherd.
Well, in the workplace the way a Manager herds or encourages the workers will determine how the store operates and how the store experiences will be like. I’m guessing the manager changed at this JoAnn’s store and the *new* manager isn’t a pleasant shepherd. From my recent shopping experiences I had encountered that workers are unfriendly, unhelpful, lazy, and easy to argue or start a conflict with you. The current workers seem to not believe in the service with a smile, friendly-positive attitude, helpful-respectful manner, and making customer service a priority.
I have shopped at this JoAnn’s store since the day they opened their doors and I have to say that it’s been great for quite awhile but recently I have dramatically noticed the changes. Below is a list of things I noticed that changed …
#1 Inaccurate Price -The most annoying thing when shopping is price inaccuracies. At this JoAnn’s store the prices marked were often wrong from the price that is scanned at the register and when you question the price to tell them … Wait !! The price marked said $9.99 but you charged me $19.99 ? Instead of saying … Oh really ? Let me call up for a Price Check for you or go check the price themselves. They’d just say … It was probably in the wrong spot or you looked at the price wrong and didn’t see the $1 in front of the $9.99 price. It happens ! You still want it ?
Ok, so before they would quickly go check the price themselves or call up someone to go check it. I have even had one instance where the worker at the register grabbed their smartphone and looked up the price on the website as the prices should be the same. But now they are Lazy, Make Excuses, or Lazily pinning the error on you and disrespectfully hinting that you’re blind and just didn’t look at the price right or whatever.
#2 Price correction or Miscalculations – My Birthday passed a few weeks ago and one gift I received was a JoAnn’s gift card for $40. I was eagerly happy to have $40 *Free bucks* to spend on anything I wanted in the store within that price budget. I generally have to bit my lip and pass up items I can’t currently afford even if it’s just $10-20. So I grabbed a few things that has been sitting on my JoAnn’s wishlist for quite some time. Plus+ I had a Birthday coupon mailer from them for a 20% off entire purchase. Yay !!
So after some purchases that I made at a different JoAnns location. I had $19.03 remaining on my gift card. I had one item I did not like and decided to return. I purchased a magazine that was $12.99 + tax was $14 something and returned at $9.99 item but after the magazine purchase and the return my balance on my card then was $13 something. I’m not so great at Math and I thought something wasn’t right. Also being Learning Disabled didn’t really help that the calculation was correct but I just couldn’t comprehend that they were. Rather than respectfully helping me and my husband understand the Math she argued and was disrespect about it. No friendly-positive attitude !
#3 Store Employee Work Ethics – Since that incident with the store manager I feel like my husband and I have a bad reputation when at the store now as troublemakers for needing assistance with calculations. When I visited the store yesterday to use some coupons one that was expiring soon I was again met with price inaccuracy of an item that on their website said $20.99 but the in store label said $14.99 but the item was ringing up as $39.99. Three(3) different prices !! I first handed them my 40% off coupon but the coupon did not accept. I then handed him the 20% off coupon which expires today but again that coupon did not accept. He asked the fellow worker next to him why this product isn’t accepting the coupons. His fellow worker looked at the product and coupon and said this product is excluded from the coupon. The cashier looks at me with this … You heard the guy look. I said … nevermind then and walked out the store.
While in the car I read the coupons fine print it did not say anything about Cricut products being excluded from the coupon. I felt like they just made up some excuse to avoid having to go do a Price check and research why the coupon wasn’t working. It could of easily been a computer glitch or coupon code could of been manually entered to accept it. They didn’t seem to care to wanna help you or go the extra mile for a customer. They just seem to wanna check out your purchases and move on to the next customer in line. I really didn’t feel the customer service compassion nor the friendly-positive attitude.
#4 Lacking Cashiers – This rant isn’t really an issue but if you go to this store location on a busy day whip out your smartphone while in line bcuz sometimes they are really long and slow. I think that alone puts a lot of pressure on the cashier workers to avoid answering customer questions and just keeping the line moving so that the customers don’t have to wait long to check out.
(¬~¬) There’s like five(5) unmanned cash registers that if they hired more cashiers there would be more customers being able to check out instead of just having Three(3) cashiers. I Love this store *not this location but the company in general* and if they were hiring Cashier I’d apply to be one. But they aren’t hiring cashiers or anyone at the moment.
So overall with this rant unless they make some changes I’m going to have to make a bit of a drive to go to other JoAnn’s locations where I’ve had positive friendly experiences and one location I will name is the JoAnn’s in Covina on 1460 N Azusa Ave. The workers at this location are very friendly, eager to help you and answer questions or find a certain product, prices are accurately labeled, the store is very organized, and you can feel the vibe of the store is positive unlike the JoAnn’s store in Glendale.
There is another JoAnns on Los Angeles on 1250 S. La Cienega Blvd. which I’ve had semi-positive experiences with aside from the fact that the cashier did not greet me or say a word to me but rather busy chatting with the employee standing behind her. She did not tell me the remaining balance on my gift card or say anything just did her thing then shouted next customer without handing me my bag or any Goodbye greeting. But I share this store only bcuz they’re store is organized pretty nicely and prices are accurate with the pricing label and it’s the only 2 story store I know of. Fabrics and such are on the 2nd floor … General craft items on the 1st floor.
So another long blog post by me not really a CR8TiVity related one but more a rant and rave but don’t be afraid to speak out and complain, file an email through the website, and know that you are important to voice out to a company so they can learn, acknowledge, and make some changes that needs to be made to make your shopping experience the best it can be.
Feel free to comment below any of your opinions about a JoAnn’s store experience or share your thoughts on this. *Please, keep it positive or your comment will be deleted*
MYT CR8TiV 