“There will no doubt be future discussion about Covid’s role in the (continuing) demise of traditional retail so I’ll get in early with my belief that the rot is internal and from the top down. Here’s an example from last week when I was in a large Launceston department store.

You enter downstairs and pass the fragrance area, the one where all the classy old birds are there ready to spray and rub on whatever takes your fancy.

I was en route to the men’s department, two floors up where I can generally find a bargain for me or one of our 3 boys. Lo and behold, there was young Fred Hipster probably selling menswear, I’ll never know – and neither will he because he had his head buried in his phone.

Meanwhile, up in the men’s, I did grab a bargain and as I waited behind a lady in the line, the young man serving her excused himself, looked at me and said, “Sorry sir, I won’t keep you long.” I only spent about 25 bucks but his service was spot on in every respect.

The long and short is half of the staff get the idea of customer service and half don’t. You’d like to think that the staff work under some direction that, unless it’s life or death, you leave your phone in your purse or pocket and try to remember who’s actually paying your wages.

Someone else once said in answer to a question about staff training, “What if I train them and they leave?” To which the answer was “What if you don’t and they stay?”