Changes on the High Street

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Jeez - John Lewis have gone mad!¬

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog...es-in-england/



A politician couldn't have been more stupid. Well ...

How?

John Lewis stores are extremely popular at Christmas. Many of them occupy prime units within major shopping centres and are designed to attract casual footfall (often they have entrances and exits on opposite sides, sometimes to the outside of the mall, to positively encourage people to walk through and maybe impulse buy).

With restrictions on the number of people who can be inside a shop, that design is now a positive disadvantage. They don’t want the place stowed out with people just passing through or casual browsing. They need as many people in the store as possible to be those intent on making a purchase.

They are basically doing what the Apple Store has been doing since lockdown ended in the summer, encouraging pre-booked visits (for a stated purpose only in the case of Apple) and virtual queueing those who show up on the day without an appointment.

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Jeez - John Lewis have gone mad!¬

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog...es-in-england/

A politician couldn't have been more stupid. Well ...

I read that to mean you will put into a waiting list/virtual queue, and when the actual queue diminishes, you will get a message telling you you can come to the shop (whilst in the waiting list/virtual queue, you wait in your car, or somewhere else besides the physical queue).

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Hugh

I read that to mean you will put into a waiting list/virtual queue, and when the actual queue diminishes, you will get a message telling you you can come to the shop (whilst in the waiting list/virtual queue, you wait in your car, or somewhere else besides the physical queue).

How stupid is that? Normal people expect to be in the queue (like with supermarkets) and go in when they reach the head of the queue.
The JL lady on the phone said that people with a booked slot will "jump the queue". The bad feeling this will cause is obvious. Not the way to do the right thing for customers.

I hope all you're doing is interpret and don't agree with it.

[BenMcr]

I'd hope that they make it clear at the entrances that there is a 'turn up' queue and 'pre booked' queue.

Similar to the way you can do priority boarding airlines, which works and doesn't cause arguments.

[Hom3r]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Jeez - John Lewis have gone mad!¬

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog...es-in-england/



A politician couldn't have been more stupid. Well ...

or buy from amazon and get next day delivery

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

How stupid is that? Normal people expect to be in the queue (like with supermarkets) and go in when they reach the head of the queue.
The JL lady on the phone said that people with a booked slot will "jump the queue". The bad feeling this will cause is obvious. Not the way to do the right thing for customers.

I hope all you're doing is interpret and don't agree with it.

You do realise that a virtual queue is basically the same thing as an appointment, don’t you?

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

How stupid is that? Normal people expect to be in the queue (like with supermarkets) and go in when they reach the head of the queue.
The JL lady on the phone said that people with a booked slot will "jump the queue". The bad feeling this will cause is obvious. Not the way to do the right thing for customers.

I hope all you're doing is interpret and don't agree with it.

Hope all you want - I’m trying to explain what I think they are trying to do.

You have to understand the world doesn’t revolve around your interpretation of what companies/people are doing, and others are allowed to have different opinions without being berated.

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Chris

You do realise that a virtual queue is basically the same thing as an appointment, don’t you?

Do you get a time slot.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Chris

You do realise that a virtual queue is basically the same thing as an appointment, don’t you?

It's a ******High Street department store we're talking about!

---------- Post added at 21:43 ---------- Previous post was at 21:41 ----------

Originally Posted by Hugh

Hope all you want - I’m trying to explain what I think they are trying to do.

You have to understand the world doesn’t revolve around your interpretation of what companies/people are doing, and others are allowed to have different opinions without being berated.

Look, it's in the realms of the****** obvious what they're trying to do. You don't need to explain it to me.

That JL should try to operate in this way is what I find so ridiculous.





Language please.

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

It's a ******High Street department store we're talking about!

---------- Post added at 21:43 ---------- Previous post was at 21:41 ----------





Look, it's in the realms of the****** obvious what they're trying to do. You don't need to explain it to me.

That JL should try to operate in this way is what I find so ridiculous.





Language please.

I know it’s Friday evening, but you may wish to put the Buckie down - you’re getting a little heated...

[Sephiroth]

Nice one Hugh. Top winder-upperer and then judge and executioner on your victim.

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Nice one Hugh. Top winder-upperer and then judge and executioner on your victim.

Try and avoid doing things worthy of judgment and execution. You’re a rational being, not an impassioned animal.

That said, for a rational being you’re having a surprisingly difficult time understanding why a shop struggling with unprecedented limited capacity, at its most busy time of year, might resort to planning a way to control who is in its premises and when.

As a rational being I’m sure you’re not going to start bleating about your human rights being infringed or other such nonsense.

[Stephen]

Sounds like a great idea to me.

Rather than stores reopening and everyone rushing to shops and them being really busy. JL has taken steps to try and keep things simple and organised. Booking appointments to visit is a great move in my book.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Chris

Try and avoid doing things worthy of judgment and execution. You’re a rational being, not an impassioned animal.

That said, for a rational being you’re having a surprisingly difficult time understanding why a shop struggling with unprecedented limited capacity, at its most busy time of year, might resort to planning a way to control who is in its premises and when.

As a rational being I’m sure you’re not going to start bleating about your human rights being infringed or other such nonsense.

As a rational being, I'm saying that the public understands that they'll have to queue outside JL - it happened last time the shop was open.

What the queuing people will get narked about is someone jumping the queue because they'd learned about the booking facility. It's psychologically ill judged by JL. I certainly don't want to glide past people who've been waiting for some time in the street because I've made a booking. (And it's nothing like the priority booking on an aircraft which does not have a potential excess of numbers wishing to take a particular flight).

Also, imagine this scenario. Let's say that the number of people booking a JL shopping slot reaches the shop capacity that JL have set. Then those who haven't made a booking don't stand a chance. I can entirely foresee this possibility. People able to book will hunt for the first available booking slot and if enough of them do this, then just like grocery deliveries, all the slots will be taken.

And don't compare me with an "impassioned animal". That's outrageous. My argument is entirely rational.

And your final paragraph is entirely gratuitous and not worthy of you.

You do realise that most institutions in these circumstances don’t book the virtual queue to full capacity, ensuring there are spaces for the ‘walk ins" - because this is what they do for a living...