Posted by Audrey on December 20, 1998 at 16:37:52:
In Reply to: How important is the retail presentation area if the products are perfect? posted by Sandy on December 17, 1998 at 07:49:17:
No-one seems to have put it to you in plain simple terms from
your customer's perspective, so let me try.
I don't buy food, *EVER*, from a dirty shop.
I don't care if it's sparkling clean out the back; as a customer
all I see is the front. If the front is dirty, I am going to
assume that the back is as well. Or that the owner and staff
don't care (in which case, do they care about the food? About
food hygiene?)
Just to give you a couple of examples:
1. Supermarket, which is part of an open-air market and therefore
has numerous openings to the outside. Problem there was birds -
birds got in, pecked open packets of flour and other things, did
their "business" in the aisles etc. The only things I ever bought
there were tightly sealed things in tins, jars and boxes. I gave
up on the place (since I did most of my shopping at the market,
it did have the benefit of convenience) when I started finding
cardboard boxes which had obviously been gnawed on by mice.
2. Baker, which looked clean, but had a lot of dead blow-flies
on the window sill. At least a week's accumulation. I went to the
other baker further down the street that only had a day's
accumulation of dead flies.
3. I should mention that standards vary. I have my Christmas
holiday in a small country community with a population of about
700 people all isolated on an island only accessible by light
aircraft and the once weekly ship that brings in supplies and
takes their exports of seafood, cheese and beef. There's only one
baker there, and, to be honest, I wouldn't buy from them if they
were in the city. However, I'm confident that they're clean and
their produce is quite good. (Albeit very Australian, which is a
shame considering the fantastic German butcher's sausages and
salamis in the next shop! Not to mention the fantastic cheeses
that are made on the island.)
Whoops, sorry, I went waffling away.
Audrey