Boots stock on the floor - grrr!

UncleJoe_2

Got back from Boots earlier after another truly stressful shopping experience.

There was cages, boxes and packs of stock in all the aisles, so much so that I couldn't get more than 12 feet into the shop. I had my two children with me - one toddler and one in a pushchair, but even a thin person walking sideways would have had trouble getting through. (My buggy is 20in wide but there was little more than a foot of space)
The pharmacy was completely surrounded by huge cages of stuff so I called out for someone to help me through but I was deliberately ignored by the pharmacy staff because they obviously felt they couldn't leave the counter.
Anyway, I noticed the Store Manager lurking behind the counter so I left the kids (for a few seconds) and fought my way through to nab him.
I was very polite, saying 'I would like to discuss with him the amount of stock on the shop floor'...'difficult to get through'...'fire hazard' etc.
Well, to say he was defensive is an understatement. He spouted all this rubbish about how I'd come at a bad time, they have a delivery at 9:30 and they don't have room to store it so it has to be put on the floor, and 'it's not usually this bad'. He also said, that since he'd been working on the pharmacy all morning, he hadn't noticed it was a problem. Skillful manager then?
He didn't once apologise, or make any move to rectify it, or even offer to help me. He was completely useless, arrogant and wet!

Not such a big deal, except this is the third time I've complained about it in 6months (not to the same manager, but in that same store and one 500m up the road).
I've also written to the area manager after one occasion when I literally couldn't get out of the shop because of cages in all the aisles.

It's like that every time I go in, not just on 'delivery days'. Why do I still go there? It's expensive, messy, the stock is often mispriced or mislabelled

Just had to get that off my chest
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

morveryn

I used to work in a pharmacy (not Boots) that had to have the stock delivered to the front of the shop. This happened twice a week and the stock was in the shop untill we checked it and carried out to the stock room. This was a small but very busy pharmacy and we always made sure the stock delivery was confined to one area and cleared by lunchtime. Surely they could do the same?
Seems like they need to organise their staff better.

The staff might have felt embarrassed by the state of the shop and may not have been allowed to leave the counter, some pharmacies are like this. You must not leave the counter on pain of death! Silly rules by silly managers.:rolleyes:

hollydays

Thought this was one of the things mystery customers would mark a store badly on.

morveryn

hollydays wrote:

Thought this was one of the things mystery customers would mark a store badly on.

No wonder, they'd have a hard time doing their jobs if they couldn't get into the store;)

elisebutt65

My Boots is like that as well in the mornings - Stock everywhere and always in front of what you want!!

Real pain and the staff just seem to vanish and leave the cages just sitting there:mad:

C_Ronaldo

you would have thought they would get a glut of staff in to get the stuff on the shelves,

Mrs_B_12

I used to work at Boots and deliveries could be a nightmare. We had parking issues outside the shop and needed delivery times changed buy head office wouldn't budge about it even with area managers asking. :mad:

Sooler

There's some advice here on blocked fire escapes
http://www.fireservice.co.uk/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t132.html


Aisles are escape routes in case of fire aren't they?

Perhaps you could seek advice from the Fire Brigade regarding the situation.


Article from 2003 about fire risk requirements and blocked isles .... link is to the Google cache, hope it works

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:u9xr0R2J3fIJ:www.southwales-fire.gov.uk/Press_Center/archive/december%252003/Fire%2520Warning%2520to%2520Shops.htm+blocked+aisles+shop+escapes&hl=en&lr=&strip=0

Minky2Slice

a bit off the topic, but when i bought some sandwiches which were reduced in price from Boots last weekend, the SA scanned it and it read:
"Chilled Waste - 70p" as item description on the till!!!

surely put me off my food!! why do they call it "waste"???

hollydays

I think its to do with eventualy writing off the stock.

Astaroth

UncleJoe wrote:

Not such a big deal, except this is the third time I've complained about it in 6months

Ok.... so you have identified it as a routine problem... why do you go back there? There are many different pharmacy companies. If you dont like a companies standard practice then dont go back, much more powerful incentive than a bi monthly complaint about the same problem.