What makes a good shopping experience?

A good shopping experience is when you come home with whatever you intended to buy and we seem to come home empty-handed far too often.

First you need easy access to parking or park and ride. Then a good choice of goods. There was a time when you could go round a few shops and see a different choice of quality products in each shop. Now they all seem to have the same rubbish.

We want a new loo brush. Doesn’t anyone make one that goes round the bend?

We wanted a new cooker. What a load of rubbish. We accepted the third one delivered.

We wanted a new quilt cover. Not everyone likes white flowery fabric or retro so put up with the old ones a bit longer.

I want a new computer chair that is supportive and comfortable. Don’t manufacturers try out what they produce?

Why are loos small and uncomfortable these days? The hunt goes on for a new one.

All in all, shopping isn’t a great experience these days when you can’t find what you want.

My two main concerns when shopping for important purchases, rather than weekly groceries, are (1) that there are staff visibly on the floor who one can ask for assistance, and (2) that the staff know their products. I regret to say that I find John Lewis are slipping in these key areas. The reason for going into a department store or other major retailer is to buy something physically, as Vinor has said above, where we can examine alternatives and get advice. There is a price for that and I don’t quibble. We frequently have to wait far too long for a member of staff to become available and far too often they cannot answer predictable questions about the performance or characteristics of the products. We had a recent experience of that in the lighting department of a John Lewis store where the response to a question was to look up the product on the website which I had to point out contained unreliable information and was the reason for the visit to the store in the first place. In fact, John Lewis’s website contains so much poor information on certain product specifications these days I get the impression they are merely parroting the manufacturer’s blurb. Particularly in terms of light fittings, the information is often inconsistent across similar products, or is incomplete, or is factually inaccurate. I expect the store staff to know more about the goods they are trying to sell.

I realise that maintaining a reliable website is a huge exercise but it goes with the territory and it will repay itself in better sales figures. Retailers that trade on-line as well as through a physical high street presence must also accept that the two channels are complementary and both should offer a comprehensive shopping experience. Half the time we see something in the store and buy it through the company website, and the other half we do it the other way round.

Two other minor grizzles are (a) that M&S have one till for an acre of trading floor and are locked and hard-wired into a seasonal formula so you can’t buy holiday clothes in the winter and can’t buy a good sweater in April, and (b) that BHS sell some really good products like towels and bed linen but hide them away in the remotest corners of the store. In both cases the companies take no notice of what their customers tell them since they obviously know best [persistence with unwanted music is Exhibit A, M’lud].

The worst shopping experience on the high street these days is WHSmith. Since I won’t go there I shan’t comment. One of the most useful and helpful shops I find is Wilko [formerly known as Wilkinson’s].

I see M&S are to abolish piped music. The claim being they want to bring back the original store customer.

I’d expect it to be more like not having to pay royalties anymore.