I am a loyal fan of Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage. Since moving to a city three years ago, it has been -- nearly exclusively -- the place where I shop. It is small, it is friendly, it has high product standards on everything it carries. It leads the progressive grocery trend; they don't even have trashy carry-out bags. So I don't have to walk a mile between the detergent and the milk; everything is quick and easy to find. The staff has always seemed happy to be working there. My own unsatisfiable moral code gets a bit of a label reading break. I have trusted Natural Grocers to have done much of that work for me. After all, they don't have trashy plastic carry-out bags and carry pasture-based dairy products. If Natural Grocers' carries it, is is likely to be more healthy, and more environmentally sustainable than most of the competition. I still have to work a little on each purchase, but it's not so damnably difficult. I was even proud to have worked there and been involved in healthy food and better business.
Yet I am afraid of some directions Natural Grocers is pursuing.
I believe a good portion of Natural Grocers customers are like me. They like the store because it has an identity very different from even Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. Natural Grocers is intimate. Friendly. When I was first hired there, I was amazed by the demands of World Class Customer Service and, to be honest, balked a little. But, the ideal is well placed, and cannot argue with it. The other advertised core values of Natural Grocers are equally important: to be committed to the highest standards in the industry, to nutritional education, to their employees, and to being accessible (being affordable). All of these support our customers, and, in wholistic fashion, each point supports the others and thus supports the business as well.
As with anything good, vigilance is needed to preserve balance because balance is hard. Evil and wrong-headedness are often good ideas taken too far and thrown out of balance. Natural Grocers' recently went public. Which is a dangerous, dangerous thing for a progressive company to do. It's been hard on Google, and it's been hard on Natural Grocers. Public corporations' incessant and increasing demands for sales and money only support one or two of these ideals at a time, and tend to sacrifice of the others. Well before I left, I was able to see the stressful impact of increasing scrutiny on employees and management; which, despite our best efforts, were picked up by customers who would voice their disappointment. Detailed management undermines the sense of trust I first felt when I was hired, and the deflating loyalty of employees -- many of whom had worked there before going public -- was palpable.
Incremental sales became more of an issue as time wore on. Undermining previously genuine interactions with customers. Instead, we were being told more and more to push specific products during every transaction. Like little robot clerks. Because I am also a scientist, I thought it would be a fun experiment and dutifully followed orders to the letter. I told each and every customer about our specific sale (at the time Arnicare and Lutein) and what their benefits are. Predictably, most people (the vast majority) didn't care at all. So surrounded by advertisements in this culture, they didn't even seem to notice. In a day (over 200 customers), I would encounter around 10-15 who were truly annoyed. Because they had heard this before, often from me (how am I supposed to keep track of who I've already told? I see more than 200 people a day); or because they really, really do not want to hear a sales pitch. They come to Natural Grocers in the assumption and expectation that it'll be different here. Selling to them makes them incredibly disappointed, and instantly begins to alienate the customer base.
For that same day, I might sell 2 to 4 products.
Hm.
Granted, this is loose data from one poor salesman, but it is still somewhat suggestive.
I understand that there is a need in this culture to not only remain profitable, but to increase profits. I don't agree, but I wont argue here. I would, however, maintain that in the long run, Natural Grocers must work with the identity they already have. I like that identity. It is why I was first drawn and kept in the store; and it is why many other shoppers go there. Natural Grocers cannot just have higher standards than the competition, that detail is easily overlooked by many patrons. World Class Customer Service, however, is experienced daily and intimately and must remain compromised by mechanical sales techniques. Even if, in the short term, they don't see rising profits. Be patient. That's a virtue.
Natural Grocers may still be ahead of the curve, but it is in dangerous territory. It turned its back on one pillar on day one of it's corporate existence: their employees. This is a business employing and serving the progressive population. They will notice that you are not employee owned. They will notice as "customer service" becomes mechanical; they will notice when "nutritional education" becomes advertising; and they will notice if "highest standards" just becomes green-washing.
So don't let that happen.
Promote the opportunities to work out solutions. To question where the company is going. When I left, there was a depressingly unquestioning attitude present in these stores from baggers and cashiers to general store managers of acceptance. Committed order-taking behavior, no matter the order. This will allow the pillars to erode. Again, vigilance is an imperative part of maintaining an enlightened tract. Essential to any great organization is feedback from all levels of operation. It is a fundamental to Systems Thinking (a very interesting lens of thought, if you are interested). Bees do this very well; the cells of the body do it even better. When it becomes difficult to say 'no', or raise objections, then events like our recent banking crisis evolve (as is illustrated eloquently by Barbara Ehrenreich).
I was warned from questioning, but was not persuaded to remain quiet. I'm bad at that sometimes. In no way am I presuming to know everything, or even have a good understanding of the difficulties and intricacies of business. No one really knows everything about anything.
That is why it is important to consider many points of observation and thought.
When you do that, it will be easier to maintain the moral high road. It is the essence of democracy. Which, though faulty due to human stupidity, might be less faulty than other human systems.
No comments:
Post a Comment