{"id":3801,"date":"2011-06-01T16:15:22","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T21:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=3801"},"modified":"2011-06-01T16:15:22","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T21:15:22","slug":"if-youre-struggling-dont-make-it-hard-for-people-to-buy-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=3801","title":{"rendered":"If You're Struggling... Don't Make It Hard for People to Buy Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Retail 101<\/b>, you might think.<\/p>\n

I need a gift for this weekend, and thought a pair of binoculars might be nice. As I was eating lunch at Ruby Tuesday<\/i>, I decided I might as well check out K-Mart<\/i> since it was right across the street, and on my way home. I didn't really expect a good result, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.<\/p>\n

The place was like an uninhabited cavern, with seemingly about 5 employees in the whole store. The binoculars, as it turned out, were in Sporting Goods<\/i> rather than cameras and electronics, and the section was completely unstaffed. Of course the half-way decent looking ones were all in a locked case, and totally unmarked as to price. (And all, even the best looking ones, were blister-packed -- Not the \"classy\" effect I wanted, or as easy to wrap as a boxed item, but I was willing to live with it).<\/p>\n

I stood for about 10 minutes with no employees in the area and no bell or buzzer for the counter. When I looked further, there didn't seem to be any employees in that entire quadrant of the store. Finally I gave up and started walking out. As I passed Electronics<\/i> the guy there asked me if I needed help finding anything, at which point I complained I needed someone to sell<\/i> me something. He called on the PA for an associate to Sporting Goods<\/i>, so I went back there and waited another 10 minutes, then left. That's a purchase going to Target<\/i>, Wal-Mart<\/i> or at any rate someone else<\/i>..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retail 101, you might think. I need a gift for this weekend, and thought a pair of binoculars might be nice. As I was eating lunch at Ruby Tuesday, I decided I might as well check out K-Mart since it was right across the street, and on my way home. I didn't really expect a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[7,111,141],"class_list":["post-3801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-commentary","tag-devine-street","tag-fort-jackson-boulevard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}