Checkers Staff and Promotion Nightmare

If you run a promotion, you need to firstly........educate your staff on customer service and secondly either make sure you have enough promotional items or educate staff to remove the adverts when items have run out. Seems the "Little Shopper" promotion has made more people think twice before supporting any of the Checkers stores. The promotion is supposed to end on the 4th September yet Little Shoppers ran out weeks before. The last Little Shopper promotion saw many stores giving away extra's once the promotion ended. I don’t think the Checkers management ever considered how disappointed many children are feeling. They use these promotions to lure children and parents to spend money. When I walked into Checkers Kyalami on Saturday, 27th August, I had my daughter with me. She was super excited as we were buying groceries for both our home and my office so had two trolleys full. The Little Shopper adverts were all over. Exiting stuff. When we finally finished shopping, my Mom looked up above one of the aisles and saw one sign mentioning there was no more Little Shoppers available. Quite disappointing. So I asked the till controller who laughed and pointed to the Manager on duty who seemed to busy or not in the mood for work. She confirmed that there was no stock. I asked her why the signs promoting the items were still up with a small sign way up high stating no stock. Nothing even at the door. She shrugged her shoulders, rolled her eyes and said “no stock” and “promotion is over tomorrow” being Sunday 28th. Both my Mom and I corrected her by telling her the adverts state 4th September, which did not go down well with her. Her attitude sucked. So I asked if it would be better for her if we left the two full trolleys and walked out. Her reply “no problem you can do that”. With an entitled attitude like that, we decided to rather leave the trolleys and walk out. Not only is some of the management and staff a problem, but the 60 Minute shoppers are a huge issue. Pushing and shoving customers and riding a trolley over my foot. You say something, and you get a click of the tongue and “Sorry”. They may be sorry but seriously is an issue when there are pregnant women, elderly people or small children walking around. After walking out, I then tried calling other branches. Well, that was quite an experience. When employing staff, they need to be able to communicate in a civil manner. But no, you get “What?”, “Hey?”, “I don’t know what you say”, “Eish I don’t know”, “Wait” etc etc. Took a chance and went to Mall of Africa but the cars were queuing for miles outside the mall so went to Waterfall. The Checkers there had all the advertising up and even had the ad on the PA System as we walked in. Anyway, filled the two trolleys and got to the till. Lone behold, no Little Shoppers. Funny enough, this store also argued that the promotion ends the 28th August. And again, staff acted as if working on a weekend is eating into their social life. They laugh at the elderly and mock them. Apparently there were signs all over. Only saw a small sign at the door which was missed until I walked outside and searched for it. Not a pleasure buying groceries at Checkers anymore. Some of the staff are clueless and rude. One rotten apple spoils the rest. All those Little Shoppers that my daughter would have gotten, lost. Petrol wasted. Time wasted. Blood pressure at boiling point. You get treated like a trash. Little do the staff realise is that its thanks to customers they get paid a salary. Maybe those begging on the streets would appreciate getting this salary and would give the best customer service. They know what its like to battle. I had to pop into the Mall of Africa on Sunday and guess what…….they had the intelligence to remove all their Little Shopper promotional signage. The Little Shopper advert is still running on TV and social media yet the items are out of stock. I would rather spend the R5-6K a month at Spar. Their Masterchef promotion is over yet they still have items over should their customers want to purchase until stocks last. And I don’t waste petrol driving out of my way.