Friday, March 14, 2008

Big city techniques in the small town

You expect it in the big stores in Inverness but when the shop assistants in Nairn start asking you, 'Would you be interested in...' it really is too much. It is irritating for the shopper and embarrassing for the assistant. Shopkeepers and managers please resist this trend. The Gurn suspects that the majority of people want to get their shopping without this but are willing to indulge in small talk, gossip etc with shop staff in the time honoured traditions of small town community life. Please keep Nairn different - well until Sainsburys get here anyway.

2 comments:

Bill said...

Emotionally I share your view. However, it is this kind of 'stop the world, I want to get off' attitude that has made Nairn the shopping backwater it has become. Nairn people have a choice - do they want their community to start to thrive or do they want to continue the slow but steady spiral into cpmmercial decline? Decisions taken by Nairn people over the past several years about developments in the town seem to show a substantial number want the latter - I hope for the sake of its younger inhabitants it is not a majority.

Nairn said...

Missing you already

I am more than happy to shop in Nairn. Even in our busiest stores I tend to know the folk who are working there - familiar faces.
Nairn (Hopefully) is never going to be be an Inverness in terms of stores, but like it or not opening larger supermarkets will mean further shops closing on the High Street.
I wonder if Nairn has become a top up town for many of its shoppers who are doing their main shop elsewhere?
I too don't appreciate the hard sell - can only assume it was a certain chemist which has tried the same Amazon type marketing to myself - 'people who bought this also purchased....'
Have a nice day!