A Market Like No Other

Really unusual experience today.
For the first time I went to Fairway Market in Stamford. I’d seen the signs for it by the entrance to 95 and someone at work has mentioned it a couple times so I thought I’d take a drive and see what I see. Well, I saw a lot.

First of all, I’m not sure I can write a description that will do it justice. The place is HUGE. The produce section is unreal and I truly appreciate a good produce section. They had an olive oil tasting table where you could literally try 20 different olive oil. It was the largest selection of hummus I have ever encountered in my life. Wegmans has always had a special place in my heart (mostly because of Ithaca) and I appreciate Whole Foods, but this was something else. If you’re thinking of trying it, prepare mentally beforehand.

But what I want to share is that when I was checking out, I noticed that the cashier has charged me wrongly for my tomatoes. It was a ‘by weight’ order and I’d only bought one so it should be less than $1 and it rang out to $3.50 or so. So I told her something wasn’t right and she looked at me pretty confused and just said, well, you are buying tomatoes. …yes, I am, but the price…it isn’t right. Suddenly the man in line behind me sternly told her to ‘take it off her bill!’. She got flustered, naturally. ‘Give it to her for free! I work here and I want her to have a good experience!’ Silence and the exec quickly started motioning for a manager, but the bagger came around to help her take it off my bill. They were successful and I was granted 1 free tomato – thank you much.

Being a store executive in line, sure, it made sense for him to get involved, but his approach wasn’t right at all. He treated the cashier like she was incompetent and frankly he scared the hell out of me. I would be gushing if he had been kind to her and more graciously said he wanted to ensure my experience at the Fairway was a positive one. He had been so demanding; tension rose immediately the moment he said a word. I can think of 15 ways he could have improved my experience, but that wasn’t one of them. There is so much theory on service and no doubt, he has strong ‘textbook’ opinions on it, but I think he’s had very few customer interactions because this one didn’t go well.

Yes, I’ll be coming back, but I’m certain it wasn’t because of the wonderful service recovery exec-in-line provided. I wish him well though; I hope he figures that out soon because he’s working at a great store and they deserve to find loyal customers, maybe even me.