Bad shopping experiences
Stephen and I visited four places during our recent trip to Kerikeri and in three of those we had a bad experience. This is not the first time I have written about the shopkeepers in this town. In the past, I have found them extremely rude and even labelled the town Snootsville in my last blog on the subject.
My doctor’s appointment was for 9.15am. We had left our home at 7.30 to allow enough time for roadworks or other hold-ups. Due to the earlier hour of travelling, we made record time and were in Kerikeri’s outskirt in an hour. Usually, the total travel time is about 80 minutes.
All our reclining outdoor chairs had rusted, making them inoperable, and I wanted another one. Our first port of call was to a shop that stocked them. I had checked on my phone beforehand. We were immediately met with a screaming woman when we tried to go down a particular aisle. Apparently, a forklift was working on the other side of it. “Get out,” she yelled. We did so, waited for the forklift to go then went searching for our chair again. Alas, none were visible as we searched the aisles. A woman asked if she could help, went looking on her phone, when screamer came up to take over. Yes, they had located it but it would take quarter of an hour to get it down.
I said we didn’t have that much time to wait as it was still another 10 or so minutes into town and we had already been delayed for about 10 minutes, waiting for the forklift to do its thing.
However, when I pulled out my phone, I realised we did have enough time to wait for them to get it. I went back to the screamer to tell her we would wait for it now and she said to me. “We can’t do it now. We’ve been working for two hours without a break. We haven’t had a break,’’ and off she trotted, along with a sidekick to the staff’s cafeteria. And that was that. Now the wait would be a morning tea break and the quarter of an hour to get it down off the shelf.
We did return a few hours later. She had the chair by then. When I told her I wasn’t happy at being both screamed at and made to wait while her staff went off for a break, she threw it all back onto me. ‘’You said you would come back later. The others had already gone by this stage.’’ Yes, I did say that, but it was only about 30 seconds max, before I returned and said we would wait the quarter of an hour. Never, ever, have I had to wait to buy something because the staff wanted to go and have a break. She and her sidekick were both there and there were heaps of other workers in the shop. How many workers does it take to get something off a shelf?
My next stop was for our morning tea, a couple of hours later. I eyed a coffee slice as I joined the queue and made my way down towards checkout. However, the customer before me, took the last piece. Firstly, I asked for a custard pie, custard in a pie shell, for Stephen. She didn’t know what I was talking about. “Just there,” I pointed as they were at the end of the cabinet closest to us. She still couldn’t understand what I wanted, so I went back and the correct title was custard tart. Then, when we established there was no more walnut slice, I asked for a piece of the lemon slice, that was sitting next to the walnut slice. I met her at the cabinet and she had already loaded something on the plate from somewhere else, not from next to the walnut slice. Which was a lemon slice. The correct title for mine was lemon and ginger slice. This woman knew exactly what I wanted in both instances, but chose to be obnoxious. Once again, I have never had to define something I am buying by its exact correct title. Saying where it was, was not good enough on this occasion.
The third place, I was reprimanded for not having a booking. It was the first time I had used this facility. I thought it would be like Kaitaia, where one just walks in. However, the woman did do the necessary thing but had to get the jibe in first.
I don’t know what it is about this town, but my experiences are always the same. I don’t have these kinds of things happen anywhere else in the country. They are a strange breed. I think Snootsville is very appropriate.