Recently, I launched a best and worst consumer experience feature on Unlocking The Power of Your Money.
I think looking weekly at our best and worse experiences as consumers helps us learn from our successes and mistakes.
Each week, we have dozens of consumer happenings, some good and some bad. By working to improve these, we can get more for our money and achieve higher consumer satisfaction.
Here are my most and least successful consumer transactions for this week:
My best consumer experience: A great luncheon with friends
Yesterday, I got together with 10 of my friends for lunch at Mercato Ristorante, an Italian restaurant across from the Olympia Farmers’ Market.
The food and conversation were great. I had a sandwich wrap with spinach that was nicely prepared.
I enjoyed myself tremendously. It was fun to get out, and go to the farmers’ market after lunch and buy organic blueberries.
My worst consumer experience: Shopping at IKEA
My daughter asked me to go to the IKEA store and buy replacement bed slats for a youth bed.
When I arrived, I went to the youth bed department. No sales associates were in anywhere in sight. I finally found a cashier or customer service person. She gave me a map and told me I needed to go to the self-service section of the store.
I was confused. I thought she meant I had to get in my car and drive to a place where an attendant would load my order. Not so. She said self-service was in the store. She finally gave me a map.
I went to self-service. Then I wanted to have lunch, so I hiked back through the maze again.
It was time to check out. I got lucky. I saw a young couple, who looked like experienced IKEA shoppers. I followed them to checkout, another significant maze experience.
I asked the cashier why IKEA created such a maze. She said other people have complained about it, but she didn’t know.
Could it be as simple as you have to wind your way through more merchandise? Maybe. I bought a folding clothes dryer and a round hanger with 16 hooks. Both were impulse items.
