I always liked shoe-shopping at Aldo. It is one of those trendy shoe shops with lots of modern, hip, cool looking shoes at decent prices. Not the world's best quality, but that's ok if the style is nice and the price is affordable.
I changed my mind today...
At the Elmhurst shopping mall in Queens (it's huge!), there is an Aldo, just like in all the nice malls in the United States. Like all hip stores, the staff on the weekend exists mostly of youngsters, probably still in college/school trying to make an extra buck. That's all fine with me as long as they do their job. In a shoe store that means finding the shoes you want in your size and taking away the boxes of shoes that people don't want. With all respect to shoe shop staff, it's really not that difficult.
While walking into the Aldo today, we noticed immediately that the store was a complete mess. Boxes and shoes everywhere on the benches and on the floor. There were quite some people in the store, but it was not extremely busy at all. I could tell, because four of the sales clerks were having a laugh in the corner with each other while taping a discount sign on the back of one of their colleagues without him noticing. I'm all about having some fun with your co-workers but there were at least 3 customers trying to get help from them.
Finally I found someone willing to help me find the shoes I liked. It turned out she was the manager. While literally dumping the boxes in front of me, she started yelling at the other staff to clean up their mess of shoes, but nobody even looked her way. Everybody was still snickering over the dude with the sign on his back.
I started trying on the shoes I liked and the one pair I really wanted only had the left shoe in the box. So I beckoned someone over asking him to get me the other shoe but all he answered was: "Who was helping you!" Now, when I say asking, I actually mean biting my nose off...
I almost answered: "You are, you dick head", but the manager saw my face and came to the rescue.
After loving both shoes on my feet, I went to the cash register to pay and the girl behind the counter asked me who was helping me. I pointed to the manager and said: "She was the one... she was actually the only one in the whole store helping anyone!" The girl laughed and said: "Well, she IS the manager!"
I think it was one of those rare moments where even I didn't know what to answer.
We finally left and on the way out I saw that the manager finally figured out why her complete staff was having fun and not helping anyone. She moved behind the dude with the sign, read it and buckled over laughing...
I still like the shoes at Aldo, but I don't think I'll be going to any of their stores any time soon. I don't mind paying a little bit more if I get a friendly service and a clean store. Otherwise, I might as well do all my shopping online.
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