Friday, June 18, 2004

Reply from Giant Food - Lack of checkers

Reply to a complaint about long checkout lines and few checkers.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us concerning your experience at your Marlow Heights Giant.

I am sorry that you had to wait in line at the checkout and hope you will accept our apologies for any inconvenience or delay you were caused. I want to assure you that we share your concern, as we certainly want to provide our customers with the best service possible, including a speedy checkout.

Our store managers should constantly monitor the number of customers at our registers and make adjustments in their scheduling each week to be sure that they have enough staffers to provide maximum customer service. Of course, it is possible for us to misjudge or to have unexpected demand at the registers. During these times, we should accommodate our customers by opening as many terminals as possible and calling other staffers from within the store to help at the front-end by
bagging, etc. Normally, these adjustments do help to clear up any congestion quickly. We will review the schedule to ensure that they are adequately staffed in the future.

Your store manager, Robert Spencer, was equally concerned and will be calling you to follow-up on your experience. If he is unable to reach you, please call the store at 301-630-7724. Please know that I have also forwarded your comments to the store's district manager for further follow-up with the store.

Thanks, again, for contacting us. We appreciate hearing from you and are confident your future experiences will be more satisfactory.

Sincerely,

Deborah Riley
Consumer Affairs Specialist
Ref: 165071

Posted 6/18/2004 0 comments
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Selected links about Giant Food

Wikipedia's history of Giant Food Includes the following statement about the once successful culture Giant has abandoned:
There were several reasons for Giant's market domination during Danzansky's 13-year tenure as president. First and most important were the principles laid down by founder N.M. Cohen. Companies often have paper principles but Cohen enforced them. The first principle was uncompromising quality. In the upscale Washington Metro Area, this was a competitive advantage Giant's competitors were slow to emulate until the advent of Whole Foods Market many years later. The second principle was value. Cohen believed that shoppers wouldn't mind paying a bit more if they got their money's worth in consistent quality. The third principle was service. Cohen was rarely in his office. He tirelessly spent his days dropping in unannounced at his store and making sure that every customer was treated as a welcome friend. He would be known to bawl out an employee for refusing to give a customer a refund for a spoiled competitor's product.