D.C., Baltimore score supreme in being slow

I can attest that the first thing I recognize when I return to DC is how bad customer service is….

D.C., Baltimore score supreme in being slow
Washington Business Journal - 3:52 PM EDT Monday by Neil AdlerStaff Reporter

If you are looking to take out money from your local bank, buy groceries, purchase clothes or other consumer items, prepare to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Washington and Baltimore have the ignominious distinction of being the two slowest cities in the United States when it comes to customer service.

In a survey by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, which collected more than 10,000 responses from mystery shoppers throughout North America, Baltimore and Washington had ratings of 5.13 and 4.58, respectively, worst among the cities measured.

What that means is in Baltimore people on average wait 5 minutes, 13 seconds, for their purchase or activity, while in the District it is 4 minutes 58 seconds.

On the flip side, those with the top two scores are Phoenix, at 3 minutes 5 seconds, and Portland, Ore., at 3 minutes 30 seconds.

Baltimore also had the worst return ratio, at 77.3 percent. This means that only 77.3 percent of shoppers would return to the same site in Baltimore based on the wait time. D.C., mirroring its slow wait time, came in second worst, at 77.6 percent.

The survey asked consumers to measure the time they spent waiting in line at banks, clothing retailers, department stores, fast food restaurants, sit-down restaurants, grocery stores, gas station convenience stores and other retail locations.

The Mystery Shopping Providers Association is a Dallas-based organization representing about 200 marketing research and merchandising companies, private investigation firms and training organizations. In the survey it focused on the top 25 U.S. cities based on population.

It's usually about half an hour at Trader Joes. Has anybody else experienced the retarded people working there?

It's better at our Whole Foods, because they seem to have bring teenagers working there.

Thank God for the self service lanes at Giant.

one of the best parts of leaving dc was getting better grocery stores, may sound lame, but seriously

When the starting wage is often less than $7/hr, in one of the most expensive places in the country to live, you get what you pay for. Fuck mystery shopper narcs.

As for self-check-out lanes, I can't count how many times I've gotten stuck behind people who just can't seem to figure out these gosh derned machines. And it even still happens at ATMs, despite such "conveniences" having been around for, what, 30 years now?!?

Originally posted by beetsnotbeats:
When the starting wage is often less than $7/hr, in one of the most expensive places in the country to live, you get what you pay for.

Oh, you have to buy common courtesy these days? I didn't realize that.

And for what it's worth, CA minimum wage is $6.75, and the service is heads above DC (SF is $8.50, realizing how expensive it is to live on SF).

Originally posted by vansmack:
Oh, you have to buy common courtesy these days? I didn't realize that.

I've been on the dark side of the counter and I developed a life-lasting empathy for my register-jockey brethren. Sure, many customers are nice and patient, and everyone believes that they are among that group. But the reality is that many customers suck, and they will suck the life out of you.

As a psychologist friend of mine put it, of all human relationships the clerk/customer is the most artificial. No matter how much the clerk appears to want to help the customer the reality is that the clerk wants to kill the customer.

Originally posted by Weird Little Self Loathing Man:
It's usually about half an hour at Trader Joes. Has anybody else experienced the retarded people working there?

The Trader Joe's that I go to in Towson has fantastic people. All very delightfully helpful and fast. No complaints whatsoever there about the service. My only real complaint is with upper management elimenating a lot of their older products…but that is another issue.

Not positive but I think minimum wage in Baltimore is $5 something an hour but usually the crappy paying jobs know that they have to pay at least $7/hour to get anyone.

i was going to say the few trader joe's i've shopped at regularly have been great

the safeway by my house has 3 lanes open max. even during the busiest times. i hate it so much, but hey, i can walk there

Trader Joe's is great in a sense that they are friendly and pleasant.

What I am referring to is they talk to you and comment on your purchases incessantly, to the detriment of speed. Just shut the fuck up and bag my groceries. If I want to talk to strangers, I'll do it on chatboards. :)

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
i was going to say the few trader joe's i've shopped at regularly have been great

the safeway by my house has 3 lanes open max. even during the busiest times. i hate it so much, but hey, i can walk there

i think part of the onus, but only part, goes to quite a few of the dc/balt consumers. i have never seen so many people fumbling around with whatever form of payment they might be using or, after having their groceries scanned, acting as if it is somehow a surprise that they will now have to pay for their groceries. slow ass motherfuckers all the way around.

Cool to see Portland as one of the best rated. I think the difference between here and the DC area comes down to patience. People tend to be more laid-back here, so if there is a wait, no one's getting antsy about it as they would in the DC area. That said, since moving here, I've rarely encountered super-long or slow lines anywhere. If the check-out lines sense a lot of people are going to come up at once, they *gasp* call for all lanes to open. Imagine that happening at a CVS in downtown DC.

I was even in and out of the OR DMV in less than 15 minutes.

My advice to everyone:

If you don't like the service in MD, please go to place other.

Lord knows I would if I were able to leave.

Originally posted by Weird Little Self Loathing Man:
Trader Joe's is great in a sense that they are friendly and pleasant.

What I am referring to is they talk to you and comment on your purchases incessantly, to the detriment of speed. Just shut the fuck up and bag my groceries. If I want to talk to strangers, I'll do it on chatboards. :)

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
i was going to say the few trader joe's i've shopped at regularly have been great

the safeway by my house has 3 lanes open max. even during the busiest times. i hate it so much, but hey, i can walk there

i didnt realize that retarded = friendly and pleasant

still better than my stupidass safeway

Yes, retarded people can be friendly and pleasant. In fact, at least in the DC Metro area, they are more likely to be so than your typical DC intellectual type.

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:

Originally posted by Weird Little Self Loathing Man:
Trader Joe's is great in a sense that they are friendly and pleasant.

What I am referring to is they talk to you and comment on your purchases incessantly, to the detriment of speed. Just shut the fuck up and bag my groceries. If I want to talk to strangers, I'll do it on chatboards. :)

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
i was going to say the few trader joe's i've shopped at regularly have been great

the safeway by my house has 3 lanes open max. even during the busiest times. i hate it so much, but hey, i can walk there

i didnt realize that retarded = friendly and pleasant

still better than my stupidass safeway

Originally posted by yinzer:
i think part of the onus, but only part, goes to quite a few of the dc/balt consumers. i have never seen so many people fumbling around with whatever form of payment they might be using or, after having their groceries scanned, acting as if it is somehow a surprise that they will now have to pay for their groceries. slow ass motherfuckers all the way around.

this happens ALL THE TIME at the SFW in Baltimore. ring up $150 of groceries, and then she gives the total, and THEN they reach in their purse/wallet and start getting out their bank card, or worse yet, looking for exact change. how many grocery store trips does it take to figure out: pick out items, line up at register, have items scanned, pay for items. its not that hard i dont think.

I can't believe anyone would pay cash at the grocery store.

Come on people, credit cards mean bonus miles. Bonus miles mean free trips. I've taken numerous free trips, and have enough miles to go to Europe again. And I'm not even a big spender.

And then there's my brother, who pays for his groceries with a check. Who does that anymore, other than 75 year old geezers.

Originally posted by le sonick:
this happens ALL THE TIME at the SFW in Baltimore. ring up $150 of groceries, and then she gives the total, and THEN they reach in their purse/wallet and start getting out their bank card, or worse yet, looking for exact change. how many grocery store trips does it take to figure out: pick out items, line up at register, have items scanned, pay for items. its not that hard i dont think.

The four words I dreaded the most while cashiering: I have a penny.

Originally posted by Weird Little Self Loathing Man:
I can't believe anyone would pay cash at the grocery store.

Come on people, credit cards mean bonus miles. Bonus miles mean free trips. I've taken numerous free trips, and have enough miles to go to Europe again. And I'm not even a big spender.

And then there's my brother, who pays for his groceries with a check. Who does that anymore, other than 75 year old geezers.

nice and pleasant people?

I live right down the block from Wegmans and the customer service is great…..never wait in lines because when more than 3 people are in a line they always open a new checkout lane….they'll have up to 10 checkouts rocking at once!……that's one reason they crush the hell out of the local competitors and are expanding at a high rate….plus,their selection is heads & tails above all others….

Originally posted by Dr. Jonas Sulk:
I live right down the block from Wegmans and the customer service is great…..never wait in lines because when more than 3 people are in a line they always open a new checkout lane….they'll have up to 10 checkouts rocking at once!……that's one reason they crush the hell out of the local competitors and are expanding at a high rate….plus,their selection is heads & tails above all others….

Wegmans owns all other grocery stores. I live about 30 minutes from one, but i still go every so often. i love it.