Subscribe to RSS @
My last two items have touched on how things used to be and, what a coincidence, so does this one. And this is because I am bloody angry with John Lewis. For those outside of the UK, John Lewis is a department store. They started in London many years ago and now have stores all over the place. They are, actually, one of the better department stores and they are also pretty unique in that they are owned by the people who work there. It is a ‘partnership’.
Anyway – let’s dwell on the past for a few moments. Stores like John Lewis – the better stores – used to carry certain items that were always in stock and always available. You might get given the gift of a complete dinner service on the day of your marriage and you could rely on being able to replace the broken or lost pieces on your silver wedding anniversary. That’s the way it was.
Within the last two years we have, in fact, purchased a complete dinner service and also a large collection of glassware. We were informed on both occasions that yes – these were standard lines and should we need to replace broken pieces they would be there waiting for us. Our mistake, I suppose, was believing this.
The glassware disappeared from the shelves within six months. Gone. No sign of it anywhere. The dinner service has proven a little more resilient than the glasses but we are, indeed, short of a bowl. So there I was, in John Lewis today and figured I’d collect a replacement. I do not need to state the obvious.
So yes. I’m angry. I’m also not daft. I completely understand the marketing strategy – I know why they do this. But it’s also because I’m not daft that I wont make a repeat purchase.
While I am on the subject of my local John Lewis store there is something I have never understood. They have three floors. They are called ‘lower ground’ (which is at street level), ‘upper ground, and ‘first floor’. Lower and upper ground?
Andy…after years I can still not figure out what to press in an American lift.As For john Lewis…since they renamed their Liverpool landmark store from G.H.Lee I have not shopped their.
thuds last blog post..Get Thee gone.
@fractiverse: very good
I bet the original John Lewis store sold wingnuts as well!
@thud: They have moved an enormous amount of their own manufacturing to China as well over the last 5 years…
John Lewis was the rich mans Co-Op (anyone remember the BIG co-op department stores). The one in Milton Keynes is no better.
My grandmother still has a share number for the co-op!!!
Darrens last blog post..Unoriginal Marketing Drones: Updated
The days of any kind of customer service in retail are long gone…hence my early departure from a lifetime in the hell that has become retail management. JL are little better, their headway is only maintained in peoples memory, the reality is a different matter.
Bitter? Who me? ;o)
gemmaks last blog post..Saturday sojourn
That picture brings back memories. There was a JL lorry depot in our street in Brixton in the fifties and these lorries would come and go all day long. I think they were ‘GUY’ lorries and the radiator cap had a head of a Native American Indian chief on it.
Never knowingly undersold.
mike powers last blog post..What a card
@gemmak: I do have a policy of trying to support the ever dwindling independent retailers wherever possible and will continue to do that. It’s actually one of the things I really do like about the USA – small town – independents and family businesses seem to thrive.