Me and King Soopers - 6350 Sheridan, Arvada, CO
So, I stopped in here for two very real reasons: [1] I needed to grab a few things so I could make lunch this week (at work) and [2] I needed to use the restroom. As luck would have it, King Soopers had both and my most pressing need was the lavatory ...
... and that's where the trouble started.
I used the stall for (reasons I won't get in to for the sake of all our stomachs) for it's intended purpose only to discover not one but both rolls of toilet paper were out. I think we can all agree we've been in this situation before whether out and about, in a port-o-potty, or even at home or work.
So, I made my way over to the other stall expecting to find TP only to end up disappointed.
No bueno, to say the least.
Naturally there was no stockpile of TP in the restroom and going into the women's restroom would have resulted in the kind of attention I didn't need and no one wanted.
After tidying up as best I could I decided to find a manager and let them know the men's room was out of an essential feature. At the customer service desk I asked a young woman named Belle for a manager. She turned to the strawberry blonde woman behind her who gave her the okay to call a manager. Belle picked up their in-house communication system and asked for a manager to come to the front desk. She was apparently asked why as she told whomever was on the other line that someone was asking for a manager.
She seemed disappointed when she hung up the phone and turned back to the strawberry blonde woman who then came over and said she was a manager. I looked for a name tag and title anywhere but she wasn't wearing any. When I pointed this out she said she was on her way out of the store when this all happened.
Now, I have no idea if she was a manager, a senior cashier, a shift leader or just some random employee with a take charge attitude, but she told me she was the "store manager" and I had no way to verify her claim.
She asked me what she could help me with and I replied she had a problem in the bathroom. She asked, "is it a stall?" Well, technically, yes, it was a stall issue and I told her so.
The woman who identified herself as a manager then said it was a "facilities issue" and picked up the in-house communications handset and called for someone in facilities to clean the men's room.
The problem was, the men's room wasn't particularly messy, it was just out of toilet paper. I turned to Belle and said, "take note, this is bad management. She," I indicated the manager, "didn't ask me what was the problem. She didn't ask me to explain, she jumped to a conclusion without all the facts."
That's when the manager chimed in, "I did ask and you said it was in the stall."
"No," I said. "You asked if the problem was in a stall and it is, but it's not that the stall is dirty."
"The what is it?" she asked, as though there were no other options.
"There's no TP,"" I said. "Not in either stall, actually."
She then said, "It's still a facilities issue."
Which may be true, however she never asked me to explain, clarify or otherwise expand on my need to complain. She made an assumption and acted on it even though that assumption was incorrect and the employee acting on it may or may not have resolved the issue.
The simple fact of the matter is, this store manager was about to leave the store for the day with at least one restroom having a serious issue, no other 'managers' wanted to come to the front and speak to me and so this woman, manager or not, had to stay longer than she wanted to address a customer.
Multiple points-of-failure which could have easily been taken care of if the store manager had been a decent one. There's no way the bathroom should have been allowed to get so low on TP in the course of a day. Sorry, but if people had been doing their jobs (known what their jobs were and were empowered to make proactive decisions), if the manager or other designee had been doing periodic inspections and if she had listened to me and asked the proper questions as opposed to jumping to a conclusion then things may have turned out differently. And the fact that no other on-duty manager wanted to speak with me was disappointing.
I now had to wonder what else was being ignored or dismissed by the management here at this particular King Soopers and since most of my shopping was to have happened in the deli, I decided not to purchase food there and will more than likely never return unless the gods have lost favor with me. Who knows what else is being ignored there? What other simple solutions were not being employed? When was the last time a manager made an inspection of the deli area?
The simple fact of the matter is there is bad management, good management and leadership. Here, at this store they are obviously practicing bad management.
... and that's where the trouble started.
I used the stall for (reasons I won't get in to for the sake of all our stomachs) for it's intended purpose only to discover not one but both rolls of toilet paper were out. I think we can all agree we've been in this situation before whether out and about, in a port-o-potty, or even at home or work.
So, I made my way over to the other stall expecting to find TP only to end up disappointed.
No bueno, to say the least.
Naturally there was no stockpile of TP in the restroom and going into the women's restroom would have resulted in the kind of attention I didn't need and no one wanted.
After tidying up as best I could I decided to find a manager and let them know the men's room was out of an essential feature. At the customer service desk I asked a young woman named Belle for a manager. She turned to the strawberry blonde woman behind her who gave her the okay to call a manager. Belle picked up their in-house communication system and asked for a manager to come to the front desk. She was apparently asked why as she told whomever was on the other line that someone was asking for a manager.
She seemed disappointed when she hung up the phone and turned back to the strawberry blonde woman who then came over and said she was a manager. I looked for a name tag and title anywhere but she wasn't wearing any. When I pointed this out she said she was on her way out of the store when this all happened.
Now, I have no idea if she was a manager, a senior cashier, a shift leader or just some random employee with a take charge attitude, but she told me she was the "store manager" and I had no way to verify her claim.
She asked me what she could help me with and I replied she had a problem in the bathroom. She asked, "is it a stall?" Well, technically, yes, it was a stall issue and I told her so.
The woman who identified herself as a manager then said it was a "facilities issue" and picked up the in-house communications handset and called for someone in facilities to clean the men's room.
The problem was, the men's room wasn't particularly messy, it was just out of toilet paper. I turned to Belle and said, "take note, this is bad management. She," I indicated the manager, "didn't ask me what was the problem. She didn't ask me to explain, she jumped to a conclusion without all the facts."
That's when the manager chimed in, "I did ask and you said it was in the stall."
"No," I said. "You asked if the problem was in a stall and it is, but it's not that the stall is dirty."
"The what is it?" she asked, as though there were no other options.
"There's no TP,"" I said. "Not in either stall, actually."
She then said, "It's still a facilities issue."
Which may be true, however she never asked me to explain, clarify or otherwise expand on my need to complain. She made an assumption and acted on it even though that assumption was incorrect and the employee acting on it may or may not have resolved the issue.
The simple fact of the matter is, this store manager was about to leave the store for the day with at least one restroom having a serious issue, no other 'managers' wanted to come to the front and speak to me and so this woman, manager or not, had to stay longer than she wanted to address a customer.
Multiple points-of-failure which could have easily been taken care of if the store manager had been a decent one. There's no way the bathroom should have been allowed to get so low on TP in the course of a day. Sorry, but if people had been doing their jobs (known what their jobs were and were empowered to make proactive decisions), if the manager or other designee had been doing periodic inspections and if she had listened to me and asked the proper questions as opposed to jumping to a conclusion then things may have turned out differently. And the fact that no other on-duty manager wanted to speak with me was disappointing.
I now had to wonder what else was being ignored or dismissed by the management here at this particular King Soopers and since most of my shopping was to have happened in the deli, I decided not to purchase food there and will more than likely never return unless the gods have lost favor with me. Who knows what else is being ignored there? What other simple solutions were not being employed? When was the last time a manager made an inspection of the deli area?
The simple fact of the matter is there is bad management, good management and leadership. Here, at this store they are obviously practicing bad management.
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