Earlier today I stopped but TRU and actually found Drift and Thust. I walked my happy ass to the check out area only to find no associates manning any of the registers. Even the videogame register was closed. The only employees I found on the sales floor were this poor girl manning the return/exchange register and some poor shmuck carrying some cardboard box. I asked him if I could purchase the items I was carrying and he mumbled something and quickly walked away. Disappearing into the isles. I walked the entire store and didn't find anybody else. Is that normal? Is that safe? I was a bit angry and a bit weirded out. I went back to the front of the store but it was hopeless. The girl at the return/exchange line offered to help but couldn't cause she was busy attending to the enormous retur/exchange line. I felt like leaving $20 on the counter and telling her to keep the change. But I didn't do that. I just left everything at the register and left. Now, is this normal for TRU? Has anyone experienced anything like this? It kinda worries me because I used to like TRU when I was a kid. I'd hate to seem them share the same fate as KB.
This is the "slow" time of the year for toy outlets. Families plan their vacations, parents are saving up for school supplies, and the recession all play a part. Even on ebay it seems like you can get better deals than during the peak months.
Yea, there are many times when they only have one person at the checkout during the day this time of season, and they are located at the returns register. Sucks when you do hit a busy time, especially if it is people returning stuff. Could also be the time of day. When I worked at Home Depot, the schedule was always jacked up and you were short in certain departments, or at the register.
Sounds like you just caught that particular store while it was vastly understaffed, an issue that the store manager needs to resolve.
This is the situation whenever I go into our local TRU. All of the tills are closed, there are no staff to be seen anywhere, and you pay for your stuff on the Customer Service counter. But from the number of customers I saw, they seemed to be doing okay sales-wise...
Which TRU did you go to? I was at the one at Morena Blvd today and it was adequately staffed. 3 people at the registers and 1 person behind the CS/returns counter. I did have a great haul at the TRU today.
I've been hearing for years that toy sales are down in general. Toys r us certainly wouldn't be the only chain to be taking a beating from online competitors. And it doesn't help that Toy r us has a less than stellar online presence (and after getting screwed over trying to return something I bought from them online I'm even less likely to shop there in the future). I don't know how well/badly they're doing but I wouldn't be surprised if they're having some issues. Like I said in another post, I was shocked that they actually got the new stuff in when Target and Walmart haven't. I barely even bother to shop toys r us, since it seems like their shelves are almost always 3/4ths empty when I'm looking for transformers.
payroll is a huge expense for retail companies. That's why when you go to walmart, which has 22 checkout lanes, only two are open.
I was at the one in Chula Vista. I would have had a haul too if I could have found someone to take my money lol. Next time I guess..
I often get this when I go to my local TRU (must be the same in the US and UK I guess). I just think they are like any other retail outlet in general though. I work in a cinema and being responsible for staff rotas for over 2 years I know how it is not always the site managements fault when stores are understaffed or just simply don't have enough people working on a particular day. As much of an excuse as it sounds, it really is true that the payroll budgets that get sent down from head office are a fucking joke, basically. The maximum budget possible, even for the busiest times in the summer holidays (like now!) don't even scratch the surface of what you actaully need to man all the tills and provide anything like a decent standard of customer service. So you get complaints and lose return business and head office don't really care, because they are making a profit. The money they lose out on from revenue at the tills they recoup - and more - by shafting the staff on things like wages, bonuses and overall weekly hours. In the end, this results in high staff turnover which makes it harder to train employees and provide good customer service and the cycle starts all over again. Sorry to rant, but I hope people will see how it is related to the situation Wyvern had at TRU. Basically companies will pay out the bare minimum (often less) to do just enough to make the profit they're after. If the odd customer gets a bum deal or is pissed off, so what? There will be another one along in 5 minutes to take their place. And if that doesn't happen, then they just cut staff budgets further. It's an old adage, but I really do believe in "you have to spend money to make money". Get better staff in by paying more and looking after them once they're actually employed and the business will improve due to excellent standards of customer service. Also, TRU can pretty much treat everyone however they like as in a lot of cases, they have little competition (brick and mortar anyway). /rant
Possibly my favourite post in quite some time. Everyone has these wild conspiracies and random bullshit but a genuine knowledgable post will always beat all
You know, that didn't seem to me like a rant. Just a very informative post It's crazy how some companies don't value customer service. I don't require too much customer service to begin with. In fact, it sometimes annoys me when employees try to be a little too helpfull. But I do require someone to be there to take my money lol. Maybe answer a question or two. I couldn't even get that this time. It's very annoying. Is this going to stop me from shopping there? No. But it will cause me to rethink a trip to TRU.
Mate, no company values customer service. Well, apart from our friends like BBTS and Kapow of course As long as you keep going back they will continue to do the bare minimum. The problem is that places like TRU have the monopoly on brick and mortar stores and without sufficient competition, we are reduced to either going online or, well, not much else really. You pay peanuts...
Pretty much any retailer I go to lately is short staffed even on the weekends. It's just that Toys R Us doesn't have that many people to begin with but it's still quicker to get out of Toys R Us than some place like Wal-Mart. Once in a while I'll hit Toys R Us because out of all the retailers in the area they have been the only ones attempting to get anything new on the shelves. Go to some place Wal-Mart or Target and it's just the same handful of shelfwarmers that have been there for months across all of the Hasbro lines.
There's enough staff in the TRU stores near me, and they ask if I want to buy batteries every time. I enjoyed the recent Transformers sales, and the the "Rewards Dollars" for me to spend, I just hope these are not "going out of business" clearance. I think TRU probably makes more profit from selling Games and Baby items. The rest of the toys/figures helps to attract traffic though.
The TRU I go to rarlely has more than one person working the registers, but quite a few people wandering the floors stocking and helping people find stuff. If they get overly packed at the registers, they open up another one or two. And I don't mind waiting. I'm not gonna do anything important with that 10 minutes anyways. As far as how they are doing, who knows. I always see a decent amount of people in there with stuff in the carts. One last thought, as far as the staff goes, there may have been a truck in the back being unloaded or something.
all toyrus have almost no cashiers, they are loosing money to the internet sales. they suck, they will loose alot of money and close all stores in a few years.
When the exchange line is all queued up, I go over to the video game counter, since they have to have someone there as well and they have a register, but yes, that's how it is usually during the day at TRU's near me as well. I agree with Auto Morph's assessment as well, they're really high for turnover because of overhead. Also keep in mind, they're just starting to attempt an IPO as well for the company, which is a good sign considering they were almost faced with having to file Chapter 14 bankruptcy restructuring a few years back. Here's what I found about the IPO as well as a few good tidbits about the company. http://blogs.bnet.com/business-news/?p=2375
