Letters: A simple 'thank you'

A simple ‘thank you’

Times have sure changed. Twenty years ago, it seemed like any time you made a purchase you would get a sincere “thank you” from the person you made the purchase from. Here today in Lake County it seems like getting a simple “thank you” is getting harder and harder to come by.

For example, we do (or did) business at grocery stores in Ronan and St. Ignatius. When we are checked out by an employee that is older and has been working there for a few years we almost always get a “thank you.” However, if we are checked out by employees who are newer and especially younger, we very rarely get a “thank you.” In fact I would say that in the last three years I have only gotten a “thank you” two or three times from the younger employees.

Evidently the owners of these stores have not instructed the people who train new employees to require these new people to say “thank you.” Pretty sad. When I owned my own business for years, one thing that was mandatory for my people was for them to thank our customers every time, regardless of how much they spent. If I ever caught someone not saying “thank you,” I would bring them into my office and let them know our customers pay their wages, and because of that we need to let them know we appreciate their business.

I am getting tired of handing over my money and have the clerk say “would you like your receipt?,” or “have a nice day”, or many times say absolutely nothing — just hand you your receipt.

So if you are the owner or manager of a business I would suggest you instill in your employees the importance of thanking your customers every time. In fact, we have quit doing business at two of the three businesses in the towns I mentioned above, and the third one is about to lose us. So where will we shop for groceries?? We'll just go to Walmart and use the self checkout. At least it will tell us thank you on the screen (I think).

John Meinders, St. Ignatius