Bed Bath & Beyond

I try to do everything I can to make sure that my shopping experiences go as smoothly as possible for all parties concerned. I use my spare time to do research in advance, I call ahead to have items held for me so that I can do a speedy pickup, etc. When it came time for me to buy a wafflemaker for a friend’s wedding, I figured that Bed Bath & Beyond was the place to go. As usual, I got on their website, looked around, and found one that looked good. I then called the store to verify that they had the item in stock and to have it held in reserve for me. The person who I dealt with over the phone, Randy, was very friendly, helpful, and was able to find the item and hold it for me. He gets 5 stars! If only things had been as good the next day…
I came in the following day and went to the customer service desk. There were about 3 people in line, so I got behind them. It took over ten minutes to get helped. Once I finally got to the employee, I said that I had an item being held for me and provided my name. She looked like she had no idea what I was talking about, like no one had ever had an item held for them before, so she called someone else over to help. I told this guy the same thing. He, too, seemed confused, but he actually went to the back to try to find the item. Meanwhile, I was left at the desk to make small talk with the first employee who, by the way, had an inappropriately enormous cleavage. I’m not really one to complain about that sort of thing, but it seemed more suited to a place like Hooters than Bed Bath & Beyond. About ten minutes later, the guy finally came back with my item.
I then got in line at the cash register. After a few minutes more of waiting, I had the pleasure of doing business with a zombie. This person had no personality and didn’t seem at all interested in making an effort to give me a good shopping experience. I even tried to open her up a little bit, making some friendly small talk. No dice. A zombie to the bitter end. For paying someone’s salary by not going through Amazon and saving a lot of money, the least I expect is some eye contact, a smile, and maybe a question about how my day was going or if I’d found everything I was looking for. Something.
In the age of smartphones, facebook, and twitter, maybe people are losing touch with humanity. Retail employees are being replaced by disconnected drones with no personality and no people skills. That being the case, maybe I will just save some money next time by going through amazon rather than spending half an hour enduring lackluster service in an attempt to buy one item that was already on hold for me…

I tend to forget about Bed Bath & Beyond. This is probably because it is in an odd location passed the mall. The last couple of times I went, I was able to find some deals on artwork. One piece I had to take back because some genius decided to put the sale sticker directly on the artwork. This isn’t surprising with staff that works there. Anytime I had to ask someone a question, they seemed as if it was paining them to answer. I’ll definitely go back, but I will stick to finding things on my own.