Debbie Sampson, Westridge
On Saturday August 18, I was at Pick * Pay (PnP), Promenade, my favourite store for as long as I can remember.
As a loyal client, I usually do monthly, weekly and the occasional quick drop-in shopping at the store and have always been proud of the fact that Mitchell’s Plain has this wonderful store.
However, my loyalty was tested on this Saturday to the extent that I feel I will have to change my retailer.
It was the second occasion that I only had a few items to buy and after having gone to a couple of the other queues, I realised that all the queues that had the “Baskets Only” sign all had trolleys in the queue.
A few weeks before that I was also a bit irritated that while I had only a few items in my basket – in a queue with the same “Baskets Only” sign, I had a prolonged wait because of the trolleys in the queue in front of me.
When I asked the woman at the till and her packer why they do not ask those customers to leave the queue, as it was done in times past, they said the people refused to listen to them.
I then went to the store manager and asked for some assistance in this regard and he assured me that something can be done, and we agreed that with continual enforcement people will learn the protocol and that it cannot be expected to change “overnight”.
I left happy, because I felt I was heard.
I am always very empathetic when I walk into any store and remain sensitive to the time of day, including where we are in the month as I have six years experience of having worked in the retail industry.
On this Saturday, I went up to the last customer in the fourth “Basket’s Only” queue. She stood with a trolley, and there were two other trolleys in front of hers, and I asked whether this was not only for baskets.
She immediately had an attitude and said that everyone else is standing there with trolleys, so she was not going to move.
I then asked one of the staff who passed at that time, what they could do to get the people with trolleys out of the “Baskets Only” queue, but he pretended that he didn’t even see the sign himself so he does not know, and he then walked off.
At that point the customer in front of me with the trolley wanted to engage in an unfriendly way, saying my attitude was wrong.
I calmly ignored her and sought assistance from any manager in the store to sort out the customers’ ignorance of store protocol, especially if there are clear signs for guidance.
I was delighted when the store manager himself appeared. However, he focused completely on me and ignored my point that I was trying to make when I asked him if they are not going to enforce a guideline which they have put up, to please then remove the signs from all the tills and then the matter would be sorted.
He then told me that they are not going to do that because on days when the store is very busy they would ignore the sign and allow people to stand in any queue.
I could not believe what I heard.
Is it not the initial purpose for “Baskets Only” tills to operate during the busiest times for client’s who only had a few things and who are in a rush?
I tried to recover and say something, but he asked me if I could go find another queue which is shorter and that is when I blew my lid.
I remained calm and still wanted to explain that I have checked a couple of queues before that one, but stopped mid-sentence and just left the store. I just could not communicate with that kind of mentality.
People, please understand it is not even about the “trolley or basket queue” issue anymore, it is about the principle that if I am trying to keep to a rule that you have created, you cannot come down on me and expect me to submit to the one who is breaking the rule.
Everyone in our community speaks of how the kids break rules and do not submit to any discipline, but I am not surprised.
The adults are breaking the rules right in front of them daily and we think that because it is done in a subtle way, it will not have an impact.
Clearly my PnP experience reflects something different.
In Mitchell’s Plain people keep quiet when they see the rules being broken because at some point that same person who recognise the wrong may also want to do so at a later stage.
All of this is about principle and integrity – to do the right thing, to speak out in an unfair and unjust situation and to trust that at some point one other voice will arise to spark and ignite a dwindling flame of respect and dignity among our people.
Janine Caradonna, spokesperson for Pick * Pay, responds: Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention so that we can rectify the situation. We appreciate your support and loyalty and would like to assure you that this will be addressed with the store. We look forward to welcoming you back to our store.