Results: I hope this survey finds you in a good mood and it doesn't put you in a bad mood. It is about companies that seem to have a sales prevention department whose job it is to tick customers off. Some are so obvious we can only laugh at their ineptness.
Recently I have had several interactions with the retail sales industry that make me think that today's high prices are not because of inflation but simply to cover the loss of business caused by customers going elsewhere or not buying at all. Here are some examples of business decisions that can drive business away. I hope you don't have too many examples of your own and can spare a grin at the challenges of being a modern consumer.
1.
1.
I don't like spam, and I'm not talking about the tasty mystery meat product that helped us (slightly) win the war. I am taking about the email, and other communications we get from corporate America and its Canadian kid brother. Which of the following tick you off as a consumer?
Getting more than one spam email in the same day from the same company. (Walmart, Canadian Tire, Clinique to name a few)
39%
•
859 votes
Getting spam emails even after several efforts to "Unsubscribe" via the email and online. (Walmart)
51%
•
1119 votes
Spam emails the day after buying something that tell you about sales on the products you just bought.
36%
•
782 votes
Other (please specify)
1%
•
30 votes
Not Applicable
30%
•
649 votes
- This survey is spam!
- The casino emails I never subscribed to and cannot unsubscribe from
- NONE
| Other Answers | Percentage | Votes |
| 0.47% | 13 | |
| All of the above | 0.07% | 2 |
| Spam emails from groups and businesses that I have nothing to do with. | 0.04% | 1 |
| Gotta love it. | 0.04% | 1 |
| Respond to emails with offer s date of two days then offer expires; ie WestJet flights and Carnival cruises | 0.04% | 1 |
| getting advertisements for something I just bought. | 0.04% | 1 |
| phone fishing emails | 0.04% | 1 |
| Blocking a company only to have their customers or subsiteries email me. | 0.04% | 1 |
| Phone calls | 0.04% | 1 |
| Getting spam mail period. | 0.04% | 1 |
| I am tired of eMails sent to my 'wife' (I have never wed), my brother Bobby and my Mama and Papa (All deceased). OK, I don't open the obvious junk eMails and they go to the SPAM files or/and the delete files. BTW SPAM (Both the meat in a can and the | 0.04% | 1 |
| telemarketers | 0.04% | 1 |
| useless junk emails | 0.04% | 1 |
| Since the author's picturing it, I've opened at last one can of actial Spam and refrigerated what I did't use; it having gone bad well tiked me off./ | 0.04% | 1 |
| Phishing | 0.04% | 1 |
| Visiting a website then somehow receiving an email from them when never signing up, or telling me they saw me "looking" at something on their site. | 0.04% | 1 |
| I don t buy it | 0.04% | 1 |
2.
2.
I no longer get the weekly flyers from local businesses. I get the digital version instead. These usually arrive with their weekly deals beginning on a Thursday. Recent developments on the digital side don't make good business sense to me. Which ones make you feel the same way.
Quite often the digital version only arrives in the afternoon meaning, if I want to take advantage "while stocks last" I have to shop when the masses shop instead of Thursday morning they way I used to when there was a paper version delivered on Wednesday. Digital should arrive sooner not later.
22%
•
474 votes
The prices and deals in the flyer are not always reflected in the prices in the store and this requires a visit to (and sometimes heated discussion) at "customer service" to get the lower price. Arguing with customers is never good for business.
29%
•
636 votes
Some deals are only available if you use "The App." Why does the type of technology you use entitle you to a special deal? You are buying the same product and paying with the same money. There are many people who do not have the appropriate type of phone. Why would you alienate these customers?
43%
•
940 votes
Other (please specify)
1%
•
17 votes
Not Applicable
36%
•
789 votes
- Rarely
- no
- no
| Other Answers | Percentage | Votes |
| 0.34% | 7 | |
| Why does everyone assume that each person in the world has a cell phone? | 0.05% | 1 |
| The flyer is too small to read on my phone. Offers aren't valid unless activated. Offers appear the week after a product was purchased. | 0.05% | 1 |
| all of the above | 0.05% | 1 |
| I do all of my shopping online except for groceries. Why not? I like to choose my own groceries and stores are famous for moving the fresh stuff behind the older stuff and online 'shoppers' always grab the front stuff! | 0.05% | 1 |
| I get both in the mail and really could not care less! | 0.05% | 1 |
| Rain Checks-Senior Discounts Day forgotten credit- only the partial product on the shelf, no "Fat Free" for example so no rain check either | 0.05% | 1 |
| I forget about the deals when I get to the store | 0.05% | 1 |
| The 3 issues are good and valid. I agree customers are being alienated. | 0.05% | 1 |
| I really like my paper version but it is no longer available | 0.05% | 1 |
| No time | 0.05% | 1 |
3.
3.
The next point of irritation is "Notifications" from businesses. Which of these business practices irritate you.
You order something such as groceries online for pick up curbside at a particular time slot (PC Express) and it is up to an hour after the allotted time and they still haven't sent you the email to tell you your order is ready. The missing email provides the link to your order so it is a hassle if you don't have it.
13%
•
290 votes
The email that tells you they are preparing your order arrives right on midnight so you have to put your phone on "Do Not Disturb" to avoid being woken up. Why send this notification at that time when there is no need for it until hours later?
16%
•
355 votes
When you order groceries online and they are low in supply of your usual brand of (for example) orange juice and you are prepared to accept a substitute, the products offered are of different types of juice (apple, cranberry etc.) and not other brands of orange juice. As a result we say "no substitutes" and shop elsewhere for the missing items. This does not make good business sense.
20%
•
431 votes
Other (please specify)
1%
•
12 votes
Not Applicable
62%
•
1368 votes
- Great
- Don t trust them
- I dont order any groceries online for any delivery or pick up option
| Other Answers | Percentage | Votes |
| 0.55% | 6 | |
| I don't order perishable products online, such as yogurt, because I'm afraid I'll get items that have gone past the expiration date. | 0.09% | 1 |
| Some of what that is only mentioned. | 0.09% | 1 |
| istacart shoppers shuld learn algebra and realize that medium eggs and large eggs are quite different | 0.09% | 1 |
| It works pretty well for us. Saves us time. | 0.09% | 1 |
| For the above issues, I do not have someone/ employee do shopping in the stores for me, then deliver at a different time | 0.09% | 1 |
| Ordered online (No Frills), told a product wasn't available, given a substitute. Then I've had to go in the store to pick up my packages and I can literally see the product on the shelves that they told me they were 'out of'. | 0.09% | 1 |
4.
4.
Some shopping can be enjoyable and some can be a chore you want to be done with as soon as possible. I think a happy shopper is more liable to linger and spend more. So why do businesses seem to go out of their way to make the shopping experience a stressful one. Here are some stress inducers for me (or anger). Which of them do you share?
There are no shopping carts in the store or near the store. They are scattered throughout the parking lot (the ones that do not require a coin) or crammed into the cart corral (if they need a coin) and you have to push the cart through the snow filled parking lot into the store in winter or in the rain at other times.
30%
•
654 votes
If you don't have the required coin you have to walk into the store to get one, then walk back into the parking lot to get the cart.
21%
•
463 votes
Some stores have one way entrances and exits. If you plan on buying just a few small items and then decide to buy more (spend more) you have to walk through the store, out the exit then back in to get a shopping cart. Or you can leave and not buy anything in that store.
21%
•
456 votes
Other (please specify)
1%
•
23 votes
Not Applicable
48%
•
1048 votes
- I only shop once a week and carts are always in the store
- All thing like
- like---online shopping with item shipped to my home. Not like---in store shopping.
| Other Answers | Percentage | Votes |
| 0.75% | 12 | |
| Plan ahead. | 0.06% | 1 |
| Items not in stock so you have to go to another store | 0.06% | 1 |
| Long lines and one cashier | 0.06% | 1 |
| Stores have free parking but no equivalent benefit for those arriving by public trqnsit or walking-WRONG | 0.06% | 1 |
| Mangled carts crammed together in cart corral are stuck and you can't pull one out or if you can, it has a wonky wheel or some other damage that makes wheeling it through the aisles a nightmare! | 0.06% | 1 |
| Locked gates you can't get out of without a receipt. | 0.06% | 1 |
| The sales are so confusing. One is that you may buy up to 5 of the listed products at the sale price, while another is you MUST buy 5 in order to get the discount. And if they are out of stock on some of your choices, you can see where I get confused | 0.06% | 1 |
| at some stores they have these high posts so you can not take out of store ,itravel 70 miles both ways so this is very upsetting | 0.06% | 1 |
| I dislike it when other shoppers who have taken a cart from the store and then do not return it after putting their items in their vehicle. | 0.06% | 1 |
| Putting monies/ coins in carts are a nuisance; its more difficult for me to push the large carts; | 0.06% | 1 |
| if disabled can never get a riding cart. | 0.06% | 1 |
Comments