Retail Incompentence Astounds me

Yesterday Yvonne and myself headed to Downtown Toronto for a little lunch with my sister, a tour of Yorkville (Yvonne had never been) and to purchase a new winter jacket at Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC).

Lunch was decent at Made in China on Yonge Street just south of Gerrard. We did a quick walking tour of Yorkville and visited Indigo so my sister could purchase a book. Following this we headed to Valu mart where my sister did a little grocery shopping. So far so good.

Yvonne and I headed down to King Street to MEC to investigate men's winter jackets for me. We looked through the two or three racks of jackets until I settled on the "Frostbreaker Parka". I wanted one in black and sorted through the rack twice by myself and at least once by Yvonne. This was to no avail. I tried on a brown one in my size and it fit perfectly. However, the brown I wasn't keen on.

So we tried asking one of the associates. The female associate was talking to another one right near the rack I was so I enquired about the size I wanted. She quickley went over and looked it up on the computer and we saw there was seven in stock. She dissapeared to the backroom for three minutes and returned empty handed saying they didn't have any.

I dejectly thanked her for her time and effort and slowly walked away with Yvonne. Yvonne wouldn't have any of it. She said we should ask someone else. Yvonne wouldn't take no for an answer from me and we wandered around the top of the store once more. Eventually I gave into her persistance and we approached a male associate at the back of the store. We told him what we wanted and again looked it up and saw seven were in stock. He dissappeared into the back again for three minutes and came back out WITH A JACKET!

I tried on the jacket and it fit perfectly. We walked downstairs and browsed the bag section for Yvonne before heading the cash.

One of my all time pet peeves in the retail environment is the poor back room organization and stocking practices. Working in the retail sector I know back rooms can be messy with a lot of stock coming in at one time. However, during down times the stock room should be organized to so that stock can be quickly found and moved onto the floor when required.

In my case MEC failed to have an organized backroom as the first associate couldn't find the jacket I was looking for even though there were seven of them. The other theory is the first retail associate I ran into simply "didn't care".

I prefer the original idea that their backroom is not organized. When I saw the male associate enter the backroom they had clothing up hanging from on high on racks and below also on racks. I presume these racks ensure the clothing is hung and is ready for the sales floor. However, I'm not quite sure in the brief glimpse how one tells what type of clothing is on the top rack or how it is retrieved from the top rack at all. So this may been a problem for the female associate who failed to find my jacket as she was looking on the racks and not for the boxes.

However, the male associate brought one out in a plastic bag with the jacket folded in it. This would suggest that the jacket came from a box of these and hadn't been hung up on the racks in the back ready to be moved to the sales floor. But then again, the fact the store didn't have any of my size on the floor in that colour and the next size down shows the store hasn't stocked the racks on the sales floor for quite some time. Perhaps if the staff on the sales floor weren't talking to one another and instead took greater interest in stocking the racks this problem wouldn't occur and more sales would be made.

This leads us back to stocking the racks in the first place (the first issue of my visit for my jacket). The backroom in theory should be where the items are brought into the store off the trucks and prepared (e.g. hung, price tagged, etc.) for the sales floor. Once this is complete the coats and other items should be brought out and put on display. If there is not enough room on the salesfloor, the existing stock on the salesfloor should be checked for sizes so that all sizes are on the sales floor and others held on the racks in the backroom waiting to go out as stocks were depleted. Obviously in my case my new jacked skipped the backroom prepping (first mistake) and never made it to the salesfloor when my size no longer had any there (second mistake). Follow this up with the female sales associate who couldn't find any despite there supposedly being seven in the store's inventory (third mistake).

What does all this amount too? A possible lost sale of over $100 for Mountain Equipment Co-op if not for the persistance of a wife of mine.

Little Petey got Married!

This past weekend my little (or not so little) brother Peter got Married to Alice Xu at the McMichael Art Gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario.

It was a wonderful wedding at an interesting place. The wedding took place after the McMichael Art Gallery closed for the day. The ceremony itself took place in the lobby of the art gallery and following the ceremony cocktails were service and attendees were allowed to wonder the art gallery at will. Following that dinner and dancing occurred.

The only downfall is the lighting in the lobby and in the gallery's multi purpose rooms is not that great for pictures. So I only have a few found here.

CONGRATS LITTLE PETEY & ALICE!

A new day at Aurora United Church

This morning Aurora United Church opened it's new Sanctuary. There still is some work to be done, but it was ready for it's first Sunday Service. Since May, a great transformation has occurred which was documented by Bob Kyriakides here.

Fast forward to today and the only things left are to finish adding a few lights here and there, hook up a few speakers and microphones, install the pews in the balcony, a sliding glass door and a few touch ups and it will all be done.

Below are the pictures I took today of the the outcome of the renovations:

The Chancel Area

 

The Congregation in the new Sanctuary

 

A look from the balcony of the new Sanctuary.

 

A look from the chancel area to the rear of the new Sanctuary.

 

A look at the cross over the chancel area.

I can't wait until Aurora United Church's Sanctuary is fully completed. To see how the Sanctuary looked before the renovations check out Bob's website or my Aurora Photos.

Sometimes they just refuse to answer the question...until the Second Time!

Earlier this past week I read a blog post at the VIVAnext blog about how great level boarding would be for VIVA buses in the next phase of the VIVA process to bring rapid transit to York Region would be. (For more on the next phase for VIVA, visit the VIVAnext website).

I was a little puzzled about this new "level boarding" concept as I thought the current VIVA stops and buses were designed for "level boarding". I would later find out I was incorrect that the current set up is basically the same as a low floor bus pulling up to a regular sidewalk next a curb. Thus this is not level boarding. Apparently when YRT and York Region built the current stops they didn't measure the height of the new VIVA vehicles to what they were building. That was probably way to much forthought and engineering work.

But back to my puzzlement. I originally thought that the current VIVA stations provided "level boarding" already as much as possible. Thus I posted this Comment as a question at the VIVAnext blog post:

Quick question: How will the level boarding at the new VIVA Stations differ from what is currently in place at the current VIVA stations in place?

I thought it was a simple enough question that the blog poster, "Dale A" could provide a simple answer or update the original blog post of how the proposed new VIVA Stations would differ on the concept of "level boarding."

But apparently that was to easy and "Dale A" chose the "I'll give the answer in a bureaucratic runaround by not actually answering the question" type style:

DaleA: Thanks for the comments above and sharing your concerns! We’re looking into various options with the possibility of new fare machines being in place on the vivastations when the rapidways are complete. We’re still exploring the options, but I can tell you that every new vivastation will have a new fare machine with many more options for paying, including Presto and credit/debit cards. Adding solar panels to stations has been something that we have also been discussing and we hope that new technology with the panels in the future will allow us to add some that form to the top of the canopy. We’re looking forward to level boarding because it makes it easier and faster for people to get on and off Viva. People with buggies, strollers, canes, wheelchairs and so forth can simply enter or exit the vehicle without delay or extra effort.

So I was obiously perplexed that "Dale A" couldn't answer the question. Didn't he ride the current VIVA system? If you are marketing improving something shouldn't you know what the current system in place works? So just for my own amusement, and others blog readers, posted the following:

Dalea:
How about answering my question about level boarding as the bove doesn’t really work. I wasn’t asking about fare machines and solar panels. I asked a simple question:
“How will the level boarding at the new VIVA Stations differ from what is currently in place at the current VIVA stations in place?”

Please answer the question of how the new VIVA Stations LEVEL BOARDING will be different from the current VIVA Stations. The answer to my original question just doesn’t answer it.

And finally, "Dale A" actually comes through with an answer to my original question asked!:

DaleA: Currently, when a Viva vehicle pulls up to a stop, the floor of the bus is higher than the sidewalk/platform you’re standing on. Therefore, riders must step up to get on the vehicle. This not only increases the time to board and get off, but it is even more time consuming for riders with buggies, strollers, canes and wheelchairs. Level boarding will be significantly different from what is currently in place because the platform will be raised to be at the same level as the floor of the bus. Riders will then be able to walk straight across to board or exit the vehicle – even with buggies, strollers, wheelchairs and so forth. Hope that clarifies it.

Now I, and others, have a better understanding of what the VIVAnext team are aiming at. However what is most noticeable is it took two attempts for the marketing team to answer a a very straightforward question without avoiding the issue. It seems to me either politicians are starting to have an influence on the VIVAnext team (read: avoid answering the question at all costs) or the VIVAnext team has been learning customer service methods from Rogers or Bell (read: totally dumbfound or impress the customer with all sorts of non relevant stuff brick a brack that they will leave satisfied and forget the original question). All in all not a great day for the team at VIVA and VIVAnext.

So I haven't written in a while

So I haven't blogged in while or posted more photos to my pictures gallery of the Las Vegas Honeymoon or of the Wedding. No I haven't fallen off of the face of earth...

I've just got Tendonitis in my right wrist and am resting it at night and on weekends. A full week after visiting the doctor it is somewhat better but is sore at times. As of today (Sunday) it feels better with the odd stiffness here and there.

So I will rest it one more day and then resume posting pictures.... Stay tuned!

What happens in Vegas...

...is sometimes videod!

On our Honeymoon after the Wedding, I did some videotaping of the interesting sights and sounds that I came accross and uploaded them to YouTube.

So without further ado here we go (for a full description of the video, click on the video and read from the Youtube page):


















For photos of our Honeymoon in Las Vegas, Nevada please visit here.

What has happenned to T.K.'s Food?

On Friday night my Wife and I headed over to T.K.'s Restuarant and Pub (located at 265 Edward Street, Aurora, ON) for dinner.

Order: Pad Thai and Italian Sausage Penny with Sprite and Water to drink

Review: My wife and I have been to T.K.'s before and knew the service wasn't that good but at least the food was good.

On this visit the service was up to expecations of before (Read: poor!). We ate on the "bar side" of the restaurant in a booth. The bartender came down to the booth (we were the only ones in the booth area at the time with only four other people at the bar) and we ordered our drinks. When she returned with our drinks and we were about to order our food she said "your waitress will be with you in a moment".

In about 8 minutes (15 minutes since we sat down at the restaurant) the same person returned to take our food order! At this point if we had waited another 2 minutes my wife and I would have left $2.00 on the table for and left for another restaurant. But I digress... So we ordered.
The food took the usual twenty minutes to come.My Italian Sausage Penny was T.K's usual goodness with decent sauce, good sausage and noodles while decently but not steaming burn your mouth off hot in temperature.

My wife's Pad Thai was a different manner. Another reviewer put it perfectly:

"The Pad Thai is an over-spiced mess on Italian pasta" - Worst restuarant food ever post on Restrauntica.ca

But at least we had a coupon from the Auroran newspaper for a buy one entree for over $10.00 and a drink and get the second one free.

The bartender had the nerve when we didn't even come close to eating the Pad Thai if we "wanted it rapped up." Obviously we said "NO THANKS!"

We're sorry to say we left a tip. But only because we didn't have the correct change to pay the bill to the penny and leave. We didn't want to hang around the usual 10 minutes for the service to scrape together the change. But believe me the food and the service weren't worth tipping for.

Return again?: Maybe in six months to a year to see if this place has improved.