We shop weekly and for the last few years it’s been at Asda. But over the months they are increasingly having promotions which mean there are large displays jutting out into the main aisles. They also have those promotions at the end of the ailses but these are in the actual aisle. They significantly narrow the aisle exit. (The widest aisle? The beer one). Anyway, the frustration level has got too high recently. A wheelchair trolley is pretty wide, has a larger turning circle. I can manouvre it without a problem but with these obstacles it makes getting around other people impossible. We have to wait while some idiot hangs their trolley across the aisle while reading a label on the other. Battering through – which I have done – J doesn’t like. Being abusive just loud enough to know they are being sworn at but will be unsure what I said has J worrying we’ll be launched from the store. Not that I’m sweetness and light.
So we have Corporate policy that says SELL! (which reduces space) and moronic users (which reduces the in-store collective IQ). The sum of that is a decision to probably not use there again. Sure Tesco has it’s share of knuckle draggers but at least the aisles are wider. Except for the complete idiots who stop at the top or bottom of the escalator and wonder where they are going. They’ve had the whole moving journey to decide that frigging detail ffs.
Back to Asda. I used their contact form to tell them about the space and a wheelchair. I was really nice – I know this because J said so. I said their staff were excellent (which they are), that I know customers are an issue which they cannot solve (true) and that it is most obviously company-wide promotions to sell whatever that week’s product is. I said that this was the problem, that this was difficult for wheelchair users, that the result will be less shopping there. And I said the staff were wonderful. Yes, I said it twice because it’s true.
The email back from Asda:

I’ve now passed your complaint onto the store management team so they are aware of your complaint and can prevent this from happening in the future. All colleagues at the store will be spoken too & re-briefed on policies, procedures and the importance of delivering legendary customer service as customers are the most important part of our business.

Since when does that address what I wrote? The store manager can hardly stop the promotions and the “colleagues” are not the problem. Why batter the staff when I’ve praised them twice? Talk about avoiding the damn issue. And that non-reply makes me even more likely to avoid Asda. And why try to reply when they didn’t read the first?

And the email from Lucy?

Please do not reply to this email. This is not a monitored inbox and you may not receive a reply.

That says a lot.

Update:
The manager of the Asda we used called me. I told him his staff were wonderful more than once, he apologised for the navigation problems and I emphasised that I thought it was from Head Office that they do things etc, was not his fault. And he apologised. He sounded a really nice guy and I genuinely hope he was not offended but it was still a Corporate decision and he did not say it was not – because he couldn’t. But then he didn’t say it was – because he couldn’t. I’d have done exactly the same thing, have done. Asda Corporate need to get the clue, not the people working hard in the stores.