Originally Posted by
riverdrifter
I'll preface this by saying... yes there are bike shops with very knowledgable staff.
That said, it's retail sales. I can't really even remember the last time I bought something at retail where the sales staff knew more than me. I've already researched a specific product that I'm interested in, that sales staff probably has 1000s of products to learn, well, at least hundreds. They are getting paid minimum wage and probably being asked to do the work of 2-3 people. I worked retail management for many years and watched the gradual trend of hire fewer, work them harder, and watch your turn over rate skyrocket.
Yeah, the kind of people who tend to know a lot about "stuff" tend to be able to sell better-paying skills elsewhere. The last time I worked retail I had a pretty good handle on things but that was only because we had a very limited focus (shipping / packing related goods and services).
Originally Posted by
riverdrifter
The last year or so I have been unable to find anyone to answer any type of home improvement question at any of the big box places. Have you noticed an eerie lack of employees at Wal-Mart lately? Those places are are nearly devoid of staff these days. I trired to get some paint mixed at Wal-Mart a couple weeks ago. Could not find anyone to do it. Finally got a manager to attempt it, and he kept trying to call for help. He finally got someone to come and they complained the whole time that it wasn't their department (they were from automotive, which is usually well removed from the rest of Wal-Mart). The manager told them to get used to it because all employees would be covering all departments from now on. It's the way retail is going as business moves to an all online model.
I don't go into my local Wal-mart much, but I had noticed over the years that there were fewer and fewer compared to how I remember it being as a kid. Back then, there were department specialists - my mother even had a friendship with one who ran the crafts supply section. That doesn't seem to be the case, now, as I've definitely seen the same lady pushing carts of petfood to one section as I've seen handling the groceries and baby supplies. Probably not really any time to oggle the goods and develop any working knowledge of them.
I also noticed this at Lowes, too - a decade ago, my Lowes had some dedicated lumber guys who did cuts and other stuff like that. Now I just kinda have to find a guy, and the last time I was in there I went through two people who weren't confident in using their saw enough to do cuts for me. I knew a guy who worked there - for about three months of the year he was lawn and garden - the rest of the time he was in the loading docks (and this year he was only in lawn for a couple of weeks before having to cover some other section). Can't say I'd bother to learn much either.