TheAgitator.com
State Smiling Lessons
Monday, March 9th, 2009Most retail outfits catch on to the “be courteous to your customers” thing pretty early on. But most retail outlets don’t have a government-enforced monopoly on what they sell. So in Pennsylvania, where all liquor and wine must be sold in state-run stores…
The state’s Liquor Control Board is spending more than $173,000 to try to make workers friendlier and more well-mannered at the nearly 650 stores it operates. The board says it wants to make sure clerks are saying “hello,” “thank you” and “come again” to customers shopping for wine and spirits.
It has hired Pittsburgh-based consulting firm Solutions 21 to help coach store managers so they can instruct their clerks on issues such as how to greet customers and where to stand. Training begins this month.
Government, the anti-business.
Huh, sounds just like the liquor stores in WA…walk in, get that good ‘ol Back-In-the-USSR feeling….
The true beauty of our asinine system is that the PA Liquor Control Board (PLCB) was created to impede our drinking. one of those ridiculous puritanical bureaucratic pain-in-the-butts.
but it’s also a major source of revenue for the state (HUGE), so they need to make it profitable. and they have to make the stores somewhat customer friendly, because if they execute too poorly the electorate may eventually grow weary of their ineptitude … at which time the PLCB will have to bring out their “we keep kids from drinking card” … and so on and so on …
and then there is the fact that all 100K liquor store employees are over-paid state-employees with an uber-powerful corrupt union that maneuvers HUGE campaign funds and voting blocks … as if there isn’t a cheaper way of selling booze then that ….
AAAAARGH!
oh, and did i mention that we have a state lottery promoted by a cute little stuffed animal?
y’know, for the children …
My nightmare is that pot, once decriminalized, will only be sold thru state-run distribution centers.
That’s a major buzz kill to have to buy probably crappy shit from the soulless gray ladies that work those places.
If they started selling marijuana through state-run stores, I wouldn’t care if the clerk threw his shoe at me after a sale.
I dunno, I wouldn’t mind buying pot from Michele Leonhart, even if it was ditch weed, just for the novelty.
On a different note, I’d like to see how PA’s revenue from liquor sales (and Utah’s, for that matter) compares to normal states’ tax revenue from privately-owned liquor stores. Once you factor in the costs of the state workers’ union and general government ineptitude, as well as the utter lack of competition, I’d be willing to bet other states do significantly better on revenue.
Boyd, that’s who you meant by “soulless gray ladies,” right?
I’m fairly sure private enterprises spend similar amounts of money for outside consultancies (for example, after a few minutes of googling: http://retailconsultingsolutions.com/) to do similar things there.
One difference is, of course, that the private enterprises don’t need to disclose the expense. Just saying.
Obligatory: I think state-owned liquor stores are a waste of time and money; totally unnecessary; and at best an anachronism. It’s just that, for this _particular_ criticism to work I’d have to be shown that the expense is greater than that of a comparable private industry.
The state’s Liquor Control Board is spending more than $173,000 to try to make workers friendlier and more well-mannered at the nearly 650 stores it operates. The board says it wants to make sure clerks are saying “hello,” “thank you” and “come again” to customers shopping for wine and spirits.
I could’ve accomplished the same thing by having the employees watch clips of Apu on The Simpsons, and I would’ve charged a lot less than $173,000.
I could do that with one brief memo to all employees. “Be courteous or be unemployed.”
Dave, you’re such a capitalist.
In the state of Minnesota – who can sell liquor is up to the city and/or county. I live in one city that allows private liquor stores and I live a few blocks from another city that only allows city owned and managed liquor stores.
If you ever want a lesson in the differences between privately run with competition and public ownership with no competition just walk six blocks from the private liquor store to the public liquor store. You go from bright, large selection and friendly to dreary, poor selection, and unfriendly.
For-profit businesses hire consultants to develop customer-service initiatives like this all the time. I’m as opposed to state-run liquor stores as the next guy here, but this is really a non-story.
The funny thing is, politicians will probably point to this initiative and say “See, we really do care about you, and you will receive great customer service from the government”!
Everyone wins!
Welcome to the beverage barn where our prices are competitive. Wait, sorry we have no competitors.
We only sell beer by the case because a six pack isn’t enough to forget the misery in this economy.
May I suggest a lottery ticket with that keg?
Would like one for the road?
Paper or plastic?
Bye bye, come again. We know you will because you have no choice.
I live in Pennsylvania and frequent liquor stores fairly frequently. For cooking and medicinal purposes, of course. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve encountered a rude clerk in a state store once. They’ve always been friendly and helpful.
They are a little odd, though. Frequently grizzled and just a bit disheveled, bad teeth are common and their eyes have a bit of a distant look … as though they’ve been to the edge of their existence and stared into the boozy abyss once too often. I wonder if their homes are in a refrigerator box in a back alley or under an overpass somewhere. Seriously, the employees of a state store are a much more cynical cross-section of the population than any boutique that hires “pretty people” to interact with customers. More than once, I’ve thought that the people selling me my marsala do so as part of a state-sponsored rehabilitation program — dangling candy in front of sugar-addicted children — to tempt them into crossing a line so justification can be found to bury them forever in a dark dungeon for drunkards.
Boy this post took me back to my college camping trips to Ohiopyle. PA must have the most arcane liquor laws in the nation. I remember two trips specifically. On one we went in to a packaged goods store to buy beer and were told they could only sell us a six pack at a time. So each one of the four of us went into the bar 4 times for 16 six packs of cold beer. It may be the second or third most asinine dance I have ever been a part of. Later that same trip we went to a state run dispensary because we wanted a couple of cases of beer, but we knew we could not buy it cold so we loaded up on ice. When we got to the dispensary it turned out to be a drive through Butler Building refrigerated so low the beer was de facto if not legally refrigerated. And of course we couldn’t put the cases in our own trunk, the employees had to do that. And of course the whole time we were underage and were not carded once.
But everyone was friendly accept the part ranger who ticketed us for drinking on park property. Not underage drinking mind you, just on state property. My guess is the state makes more money from a quick ticket than an arrest, trial, and fine.
Ahh memories….
Dave, you could try it, but the actual effect would be employees having to guess what you mean by “courteous”. Even if it’s very vivid in your mind, the concept doesn’t automatically transfer because they’ve read a word and a threat from you.
I employ people, and I find that courtesy and clear explanations work rather well.
As for the PA state liquor store program, the first thing I noticed was that nothing was being spent on teaching the staff about what they’re selling.
What I want is a Trader Joe’s that sells wine– nice wines, low prices, I don’t have to know anything because they’re all decent.
What I get is state stores with a huge selection, but I can easily spend more than I do at TJ’s and get something really mediocre.
I live in Alberta, Canada. Years ago, all liquor stores here were gov. run, and the only offsales were for beer. The provincial gov. decided to get out of the retailing part of distribution, privatized all liquor stores which led to more stores with longer hours of operation, allowed offsales of anything the bar wanted, etc. In other words, modernized. Upshot is, booze is more available than ever, and there are fewer liquor related problems, because with more availability there is less bulk buying. There was a guy, Ed, who worked in the gov. store, and was a real grouch. Never happy, never smiling. After privatization, he went to work for one of the biggest of them. Never saw a happier guy. Asked him about it. He said “Never worked so hard for so little, never was so happy.” Everyone wins; less liquor related trouble, happier employees, more availability at lower prices.
New Hampshire has a state liquor monopoly (distilled spirits only, oddly, beer is exclusively sold by private businesses and wine is sold by the state and private businesses). While it is silly, I can’t complain much. Selection is pretty good and it is cheaper than anywhere else I have been in the country.
So Utah is not the ONLY state with fucked up liquor laws?
That’s true. I single memo wouldn’t suddenly make everyone warm and personable. But, I think the reminder that their employment is contingent on their behavior can work wonders.
In general, I think people know when they’re being courteous and employers know when their employees are trying to comply with the requirements of the job. On the other hand, I think some employers are saddled with so much red tape in the firing process that employees know they can’t fired for anything short of a crime (almost).
I’m a big proponent of the strategy of taking one or two problem people out in the parking lot and shooting them as an example for others. Figuratively speaking, of course.
But you are correct that it’s not fair to expect employees to read your mind and automatically know what to do to meet your expectations. You need to provide them with the details they need to comply.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania – State Civil Service Commission
1. Intermittent Liquor Store Clerk – $10.58/hour
2. Liquor Store Clerk 1 – $20,694/year
http://www.scsc.state.pa.us/scsc/cwp/view.asp?a=392&q=138400
Yeah, those overpaid clerks are just sucking up tons of cash aren’t they dsmallwood?
I worked for a summer as a clerk (this was about 10 years ago) and their union wasn’t very powerful. In fact they had been working without a contract for about 2 years at that point. That may have changed since.
Based on what I saw, it would be much better to privitize them and dump the PLCB – it’s safe to say that the price would come down plus it would be much more convienient to be able to shop for liquor at Wal-Mart instead of the current system:
many stores for groceries, one store for wine/liquor, one store for beer by the keg/case or a different store for beer by the 6-pack.
What’s funny is that of all of the retail jobs I had, customers were politest at the liquor store…probably because they didn’t want to get cut off from their booze supply. I’m surprised that the PLCB thinks that it’s losing customers – where are they going to go? I wouldn’t be surprised if this marketing firm has good relations with the upper management of the PLCB.
As a side note – apparently PA is one of the largest buyers of liquor on Earth…but it wasn’t until recently that it occurred to them to use that leverage to try to get lower prices from suppliers. (which strongly supports the government ineptitude argument).
The current Chairman of the Board was selected because he’s good buddies with our Govenor (not sure what he actually knew about the business beforehand) even thought the previous Chairman was doing a good (good for government at least) job.
Sounds like if you live in PA, it is best to live near a state line. And probably a lot of liquor store owners across the state lines that would hate to see PA get their act together.
Here in the south, where there are still dry counties, it is the guys with county line stores that gladly give kickbacks to help ensure the dry counties stay dry.
I don’t WANT liquor store clerks to smile at me when I’m buying booze. It defeats the purpose.
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