That's hilarious!

Do you... try that regularly?

Stores are so understaffed, you're lucky to get them to pick up the phone at all, and if they do you often won't get accurate information. They'll never walk to an aisle to see if something is physically there, they'll tell you if it's "in the system", but frequently "the system" will show 3 in stock while the reality is zero on the shelf. Or 48 in stock but they're all on a pallet in the back they can't get to.

And good luck finding a sales associate in the store itself. Quite frequently there simply aren't any -- only cashiers, a security guard, and people restocking who don't have the knowledge to help you at all.

You sound like you're describing a Walmart or Target. I thought we were talking about local small businesses. All the niche small businesses around me, the store owner is often the one who takes the call and they know their inventory inside and out

Yes. Just tell the guy to get off his butt and go and see if the item is in stock. This has worked every time for me. I call walmart on a reg to see if an item is in stock before having to drive all the way there.

So my choice is to harass/insult a minimum wage employee and distract them from their already-overloaded and already-minmaxed job so that I can spend more, get in my vehicle and spew carbon into the atmosphere to......give money to a family of ultra-billionaires instead of one ultrabillionaire? And that's helping my local economy?

Why are you harassing and insulting them in the first place? Nobody taught you how to speak politely?

The GP said to tell the employee to get off his butt, which is usually interpreted as rude.

They didn't mean you should literally say those exact words. You could say something like "Would you mind checking it for me yourself? I'd really appreciate it."

Not sure I’d consider Walmart the kind of local business being discussed here...

Walmart is not a local shop. They have a pretty large software dept i house and you could probably check availability online yourself.

Actually my wife does this all the time and it works, especially for small businesses. Larger companies have websites, and small businesses care enough to do things like check the stock for you.

So I guess my anecdote cancels yours out?

The previous posters experience resonates much more with me than your experience.

Even when you do go to a shop you are often redirected online. That item isn't in stock on the computer. No attempt to upsell you or suggest an alternative which they might have in stock. It's no wonder high street stores are dying out.

To be fair, small specialist stores are usually much better. I even got a call back from a company the last time I was trying to buy a specific BBQ. Sadly they didn't have it in stock and a day or two later I found it online.

The underlying problem with these anecdotes is that All of these experiences depend on who is working that day.

It may even be influenced by who is working that week or that month or who runs the place this year.

Ecommerce is imperfect in many ways, but it is far more consistent in its imperfection than local retail.

W.C. Winks Hardware Inc. in Portland, Oregon has been around since 1909 and is amazing.

You can go in there with some odd piece of hardware and someone will personally wait on you, assess your request and find the exact item or closest likeness.

The staff is patient and friendly, in my experience it is ideal local retail. But Winks doesn’t do ecommerce at all, so I often must relegate it to unusual hard to figure HW needs, because not every project needs this level of service.

I’m in agreement that retail has some pretty serious work to do to stay in the running. It might not be fair or “right” but it has to happen nonetheless.

I live in a fairly small town. Almost every store is minimally staffed, often by a single person. Phones regularly go to voicemail. Calling up the local shoe store to ask whether they have something in my size will get an interesting response. I’m also thinner than average here, so entire pants racks at the local clothing stores just don’t carry a single piece in my size.

One store I frequented was owner operated with probably their daughter as an employee. They would walk around with a cordless phone on their hip so as to not miss a call. If there's enough interest, people find a way.

A phone without a cord? What is this magic?

This goes for San Francisco retail shops but also I'm sure other places: Some of the stores don't open till noon. Some are only open 3 days a week. Some stores are open the days the other stores are closed. I'm talking about some of the most popular retail storefronts in SF.

There are no good options. I went through this recently where I had to call different stores on 3 separate days, waiting till 10am, 11am, or 12pm. And you still don't know the product you are asking about is really the one you are after. There are so many versions of products and specific use cases nowadays.

I love going into my local Ace Hardware stores. I have found that these are usually staffed by older/retired guys that have been there, done that, and they are eager to assist. In fact, one guy would recognize me and ask what "crazy" thing I'm trying to do now. This is all because the first time we interacted I was attempting to build a "portable" 25' long suspension cable system for a camera rig. We probably spent 2 hours looking at all of the doodads they had available (of course he'd help other customers when needed). However, we did spend a lot of time just chatting about random projects. At the end, he asked if I'd show him the result of it when finished. It was sad day when I learned he had passed away. Kind of like losing a distant relative.

Show me where Amazon or whatever online shop can emulate that.

A service which you find useful that eventually disappears? I think you may find some Google products to fill this niche :)

haha, nice and true to a point with a few caveats - you may search for what you think you need which is a "whatsit" which can be fixed by a "whoseit", which may be in fact be best solved by a "thingamajig".

At my local hardware store this saved me $40 and a whole bunch of plumbing and a trip back to the store when the seasoned veteran simply asked what i was trying to do. The money, meh, saving the time and frustration priceless.

The best help is when someone asks you what you are trying to accomplish instead of what isle something is in. It's why you go back to that store and learn when certain employees are working. To the young workers, i totally get that your underpaid and not your career path or one at all. Perhaps for some of the older/retired gen is it more supplimental income and they enjoy being a knowledge base for people like me who sometimes know enough to be dangerous..

In my experience, if i’m 10 mins away from a store, my end to end time is at least an hour if you don’t already know where the items is and if it is in stock. Then it’s 30-45 minutes. Driving, parking, walking into the store, check out, walking out, driving takes a surprising amount of time if you actually count it.

If I call, it’s often 5 to 10 minutes for the call to determine stock availability (often the clerk needs to go wander around to find it, or go to the far back of their lot to see how much they have). That’s assuming anyone knows what I’m talking about/I can adequately describe what I’m looking for without them getting confused, which isn’t always the case.

This adds up. For some things it’s worth it, or even essential. For other things, it is not. I’ve given up on in-person for computer/networking/IT equipment for instance. Too difficult to get a clear answer, local markups and stocking are too unpredictable, it’s so much faster doing a search and purchasing online.

> I can’t help but point out that you could call the store before you left your house. And when in the store, you could ask a sales associate for help.

This is still worse than going to amazon and doing a quick search, seeing a ton of different products that satisfy your needs, and reading reviews from people that bought them. Then when you purchase it arrives in a day. Fake reviews aside, this is vastly superior.

And then possibly ending up with a counterfeit.

That is equally possible in a brick-and-mortar store. Even regulated shops such as pharmacies are suspected of selling counterfeits: https://www.deutsche-apotheker-zeitung.de/news/artikel/2017/...

I'd even argue that brick-and-mortar is more prone to counterfeits because control buying by the original producers is far harder.

And mislead by fake reviews.

I asked floor staff and manager about item that they had pile of in previous week, they said its all gone I even pointed on same item smaller size (slow cooker) went two aisle down found bunch of them there. Shop staff is not keeping track with items being sold unless you ask about bread and milk locations

I can also go online and buy it from any retailer living in 2021 for a similar or better price. It's really not practical to call up the store and ask about every single item I'm looking for.

You're not wrong that those are options, but those options are the exact reason brick and mortar stores are struggling to stay afloat. They offer an inferior service.

Calling a store is usually phone system menu hell, you will usually ultimately reach a 19 year old that doesn't care or someone in a call center.

What small/local store has a call center?

Well my most recent experience is trying to call the local number for the electric company office in my town which went to someone asking what state I live in.

So now I have to spend 5-10 minutes talking with someone and waiting on them just to find the price versus knowing it instantly. Then I have to drive there and buy it (if it is cheaper) versus just having it shipped free to my house. None of this makes sense for me to do.

Prepare to be on hold a very long time and be subjected to the person who answered the phone flagging down a coworker to go physically check the isle.

Tried this when I wanted a tool to help pick a tubular lock that was being difficult with the improvised stuff I was trying and which I didn't want to drill out. Of all the hardware stores and hobby shops I called, only one actually took me seriously and checked to be sure they didn't have it. All the rest falsely told me that lock picking was illegal and seemed to take offense.

Ended up buying some cheap shit off ebay that got the job done.

They might do that for the occasional person, but it wouldn't scale. They have to hire far more people.

how do i get this Tele-Phone app you speak of?