“About 15 years back when we were in our old location. It was a strip mall and one of our neighbors was a large bar and restaurant – about 12,000 square feet. They advertised very aggressively their ten cent wing night every Thursday. Like clockwork, that Thursday night special attracted 200 to 300 customers. After getting their fill of chicken wings and alcohol some people would come into our store. Single men were pretty bad with the female staff. They’d hit on them and make suggestive comments. Usually we’d have to ask them to leave the store. Most complied and police were never called. Couples that were a little tipsy or slightly drunk were worse. The guy would buy anything the woman wanted while they were drunk and in the mood. But buyer’s remorse would set in when they were sober. As a result there were a lot of returns. At my current store we do share a strip mall with another bar and restaurant. It’s a better class of people with more affluent tourists. But we recently had one guy come in, obviously drunk, who started hitting on another customer’s wife. Fearing an altercation from a jealous husband I had two of my male employees escort him shoulder-to-shoulder out our door. We called the man’s wife to pick him up because it was apparent to everyone involved he was in no shape to drive.”
Medford Chason, owner
The Treasure Hut
Charleston, SC
“This happens so rarely for us – perhaps once a year. Even though it’s not an issue for us we still have a store policy for just these types of incidents. We treat it like a security and safety matter. When such an incident occurs, an employee will do a store page using code words we all know based on store meetings. After the page, every employee comes to the sales floor. Usually a sales associate is confronted with a person in this condition, so a senior manager or owner will step in. Once the sales associate steps away, the manager will try to isolate the person in our private viewing rooms. Meanwhile, we try to shift customers and staff as far away from the situation as possible. We have a 10,000-square-foot store so we take advantage of our space in these types of situations. Nine out of ten times it’s not a customer, but a member of our homeless community that came in to the store. We usually call the local police non-emergency number and have officers come to the store to assess matters. The station is just a few blocks away so response time is fast. With the help of police these matters get resolved quickly and easily. Also, ours is a small ‘walking community’ so a lot of people walk to our store. If this was a customer we’d try to determine if they arrived in a vehicle to make sure they get home safely. If a customer left our store to walk home in that condition we’d call the police non-emergency number to make them aware of the situation.”
Georgena Kincaid, president
Gold Casters Fine Jewelry
Bloomington, IN
“This type of thing mostly happens with our scrap gold customers. Not all, but some of these customers come in mainly to get cash to buy other items than jewelry. Given the nature of retail jewelry sales, whenever a customer comes into the store we’re always alert. In situations like this a sales associate will typically convey that they need assistance in handling a customer. This is done non-verbally or verbally. To date we’ve been able to handle these situations internally, only having to call the police a few times regarding these matters. The key is making sure everyone in the showroom, as well as others in the store, are aware of the situation going on with the customer in question. There’s always at least two sales associate and two to three other employees on the sales floor at all times. Second, our bench jewelers work in a space with a large glass window, so they can see what’s going on. Third, we have an extensive network of security cameras throughout the store so people can see what’s happening on the sales floor from any point in the store. When more eyes see what’s going and there are more people on the sales floor, typically the person will leave. But, there are cases when the customer is in such an inebriated state that they just don’t care. Either way, we react the same and it has worked for us.”
Arron Hoppe, office manager
Hoppe Jewelers
Richmond, IN
We want your opinion for our Retailer Roundtable. To answer a question or suggest a topic for a future Retailer Roundtable question, e-mail your name, store name and location to bill@southernjewelrynews.com.
