Loss of 24 hour stores. It used to be profitable enough to leave places open all night for people to come in all night. Both Target and Walmart (poor people stores) have pretty much dumped it and don’t even do stocking overnight anymore. This leads to the same stores being a mess and feeling difficult to navigate (especially when its actively being stocked and you’re just trying to get past them), pushing more people to order online and pickup because its easier than trying to find it yourself and in the store the price is often wrong or just not listed.
Suddenly its not profitable to give a shit about things like customer service. It just feels like it portends that a certain number of customers now can be considered “acceptable losses.”
There’s lots of little signs.
Loss of 24 hour stores. It used to be profitable enough to leave places open all night for people to come in all night. Both Target and Walmart (poor people stores) have pretty much dumped it and don’t even do stocking overnight anymore. This leads to the same stores being a mess and feeling difficult to navigate (especially when its actively being stocked and you’re just trying to get past them), pushing more people to order online and pickup because its easier than trying to find it yourself and in the store the price is often wrong or just not listed.
Suddenly its not profitable to give a shit about things like customer service. It just feels like it portends that a certain number of customers now can be considered “acceptable losses.”