electronics department store
The Department Store
Vocabulary
| copywriter | recently | move |
| want | buy | sell |
| fruit | vegetable | juice |
| juicer | well (2) | well-known |
| appliance | department | department store |
| couple (2) | section | look around |
| browse | model (2) | different |
| same | several | assistance |
| although | sales person | none |
| pay | attention | pay attention |
| help desk | inform | interest (2) |
| purchase | send/sent | send over |
| right (4) | right away | aisle |
| wait | make (2) | make/made |
| once | twice | again |
| march (3) | shirt | uniform |
| stand | around (2) | shoot |
| desk | breeze | shooting the breeze |
| chat | joke | laugh |
| point (3) | at that point | storm |
| storm out | let’s | another |
| place | palace | tomorrow |
| yesterday | today | drive/drove/driven |
| drive away | breakfast | lunch |
| dinner | dinnertime | just (3) |
| area (2) | opposite | experience |
| great | customer | service |
| order | hard (2) | soft |
| shell | crab | neither |
| can/could | open | close (2) |
| waitress | patient (2) | demonstrate (2) |
| fork | spoon | hang/hung |
| hang of it | wait | part |
| illustrate (2) | already | really |
| care | even (2) | successful |
| employee | employer | unemployed |
| rule | thumb | rule of thumb |
| someone | try/tried | give |
| take | never | never ever |
| easy | difficult | always |
| fact | competitive | competition |
| more | less | than ever before |
| choice | product | produce |
| recession | only | not only that |
| tight | loose | yet |
| client | entrepreneur | run for the hills |
| hill | unwittingly | blow/blew/blown |
| spot | on the spot | anti- |
| pro- | attitude | behavior |
| lose | win |
A Fruit and Vegetable Juicer
Bob and his wife had recently moved to a new home. Wanting to buy a new fruit and vegetable juicer, they went to a well-known home appliance and electronics department store.
The couple then went over to the juicer section and browsed at the different makes and models. After several minutes, they looked around for assistance. Although there were many sales persons, none of them paid any attention to them.
The Help Desk
So Bob went over to the help desk. He informed the young woman sitting there of his interest in purchasing a juicer.
“No problem” she said. “I will send someone over right away.”
Bob returned to aisle — and waited. He and his wife were set on buying a $246 model.
Ten minutes later, still no one came.
Once Again
Bob marched back to the young woman sitting at the help desk…
This time he saw three blue-shirt-uniformed salesmen standing around her desk shooting the breeze (chatting, joking, laughing).
At that point Bob and his wife stormed out of the store. “Let’s go to another place tomorrow,” he said as they drove away.
Chinese Restaurant
As it was dinnertime, they stopped at a Chinese restaurant. It was new to them because they had just moved to the area.
Here, a waitress greeted them and brought them to a table. She explained what the various dishes were and made recommendations. Bob’s son had ordered a hard-shell crab. But when it came, neither he or Bob could open it.
The Crab
The waitress demonstrated to the son how to open it with a fork and spoon. She waited until he got the hang of it, and then showed him what parts were okay to eat and which were not. And she always asked what she could do for them.
“Let’s come back next Saturday!” said Bob’s son.
Always and Never
This anecdote illustrate what many people already know: many workers don’t really care about their customers, their businesses, or even their jobs.
A successful businessman once told his employees this rule of thumb: When someone is trying to give you money, NEVER EVER make it difficult for them to do so. ALWAYS make it easy for them to give you money.
Fierce Competition
The fact is business is more competitive than ever. Consumers have more choices for products and services than ever before. Not only that, but the recession has made them tighter with their dollars.
Anti-Service Attitude
And yet when client walk in the door or pick up the phone, so many entrepreneurs send them running for the hills. They are unwittingly blowing the sale on the spot.
With their anti-service attitude and behavior, many business people today are losing out to online shopping.
Questions
1. Who is Bob?
2. Bob and his wife had moved to a new home recently. True or false?
3. What did they decide to do one day?
4. Did they receive attentive service?
5. What did Bob do?
6. Were there many or few sales persons in the department store?
7. What did Bob see the second time he went to the help desk?
8. Bob and his wife bought a juice and vegetable juicer at the store. Is this correct or wrong?
9. Did they go to another department store that day?
10. What happened at the restaurant?
11. What does this anecdote illustrate: this anecdote illustrates that….
12. What was the business rule of thumb? The business rule of thumb is….
13. There is lots of competition — there’s too much competition in everything. Do you agree?
14. What is the future trend?
A. Are you or your friend a sales person? What is it like?
B. What happens when you go to a department store or any store?
C. Describe the average or typical sales person in your city.
D. Do you usually receive good customer service, average, or poor customer service?
E. What kind of sales behavior, method, or technique do you like? Describe great customer service.
F. Have you experienced poor customer service?
G. Customer service influences whether I purchase something from a store. Do you agree?
H. My friends and I prefer to shop online. Yes or no?
I. Will online shopping replace traditional shopping?
