Re: Ticked at Rocklear

Charlie, I spoke with the corporate office and they mentioned the "store manager" so I don't know if it's a franchise, but I'm thinking it isn't. The times I've been there it seems like a company store in that the SA that quit referred to some manager over the stores who made these decisions to take stuff out and that customers were complaining and he wasn't listening. Also, in talking with corporate, they didn't make a reference to it being a franchise and thus things being "out of their hands" so-to-speak.

Reply to
Jim Polaski
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Sometimes franchisees hire store managers--have to. IIRC, all the Woodcraft stores in Texas (5?) are owned by one guy. Ain't no way he's going to manage those properly.

You're probably right, though. It does seem that Rockler would ditch the manager if he's screwing the store up, but a chain that is small but national may have difficulty in keeping good local control and hiring replacements. Fire the guy now, for example, and can't hire a replacement for 2-3 months (unlikely in today's economy, but stranger things have happened) and the store might go completely belly up, especially if hes already annoyed a large enough group of customers.

I'm not sure any franchise seller is going to admit that control is out of their hands if there is a problem with the store. Probably an individual decision by the corporate person. But I did state that I wasn't absolutely certain Rockler was francising stores. They may all be corporate owned, as the Lee Valley stores are, which could account for their slower expansion into markets than Woodcraft's.

You ALWAYS get something in return, if nothing more than the satisfaction of knowing you've done good.

Charlie Self "It is not strange... to mistake change for progress." Millard Fillmore

Reply to
Charlie Self

Just FYI - All Rockler stores are company-owned.

And here's some more Rockler secrets:

  1. The retail stores stock less products than the catalog because of the limited space they have within the four walls.
  2. The catalog lists less products than the Internet site because of the cost of printing and postage.
  3. The internet displays the most items (over 10,000 and growing).

So if you're looking for that hard-to-find thingy you just have to have to finish your project, check Rockler.com first. Then, call the store to make sure it's in stock before making the drive. Or, skip the drive, order online, and spend more quality time in the shop ;-)

Scott Ekman Rockler Internet Director

Reply to
Scott Ekman

Great info. I finally got a chance to visit your new store in Houston today. I was a little disappointed at the lack of power tools (especially table saws - 1 only) but impressed with the selection of other goodies). I was especially impressed with the service - greeted warmly and promptly with an offer to provide any info I needed (wish I had gotten the guy's name). This is the exact opposite of your competitor on Hwy. 290 - spent 45 minutes looking around without a Howdy-Do. 3 guesses where I'll do my shopping???

Reply to
Tom

Scott, this all got started because of someone trying to buy an item that was previously bought in one of the stores, under cabinet lighting. More over, there wasn't even replacement bulbs for those who already owned the product. The space was still in the store filled with this and that when the item apparently could still be there AND other customers had been complaining at that store about this kind of stuff. It's hard to think that ALL the books, knobs, and other little do-dads sell so much better than lighting things so that lighting and replacement parts are not in the store in any form of representation. Sure one can go to the catalog or online, that's obvious but with a store this size, and having bought the stuff there before...well you get the idea.

Reply to
Kirby

Yes, we get the idea. The idea that it is their store and they can run it the way they want.

Reply to
CW

Yo're totally right and correct!

However, that doesn't mean that what they're doing is good management either. I hope you don't think that just because it's their choice, whatever they do, it is always good management. In this case, didn't the original poster say other customers had been complaining too?

Seems to me that so many,many places have thrown out the notion that the "customer is always right" and favored a "we'll do what we want and you'll like it" approach. Maybe that's why a place like Lee Valley is so liked since they seem to be so customer oriented.

Reply to
Kirby

What the OP related about other customers was rather suspect. It may or may not have been the case. There are plenty of cases of poor management but, ultimately, that is the store's problem as the customer can always go somewhere else.

That they have and, as shopping is now considered a sport, people put up with it.

Maybe that's why a place like Lee Valley is so

Yep. Rare these days.

Reply to
CW

I was relating what the SA said about other customers having problems of a similar nature. He was also complaining about the new guy in management (who also was the one who got rid of the lighting he said) having made other similar decisions and that is what customers were complaining about and it was inhibiting him(he felt) in doing his job so he was quitting.

You can call the SA,"suspect" and perhaps he embellished a bit, but I doubt it's a fabrication either. Which is to say, the truth is in the middle, with the SA being more right than wrong.

And that's where the problem begins. When customers are too lilly-livered to stand up and be counted, then they deserve to have their shopping be a sport rather than a "service to the customer"

That's also why so much in this wonderful country is going downhill. No one wants to stand and be counted. I suppose that's because they're afraid.

And it's rare because of the customers lack of feedback. If these folks realized that customers were upset, things might change. I told Rockler to take me off the mailing list. I will go there if there is no other source, but I will try my darndest to shop elsewhere.

Reply to
Bob Brogan

BULL!

Problem is everyone is standing, demanding to be counted and _served_ in place.

When it goes from shopping, where they refuse to vote with their feet or fingers, to the job, where they do only what's in the contract language, then it's really economic disaster.

The right not to be inconvenienced must be something the Supreme Court could invent.

Reply to
George

Well George, I've run several businesses and owned one. I adheared to one philosophy...THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.

When you're a service business, you have a responsibility to those customers. Rockler appears to be abdicating that according to the SA to some point.

Like many you haven't heard Rockler's pov, and you automagically make them right. How rich.

Reply to
Bob Brogan

They are. It's their store.

Reply to
CW

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