With the welcome addition of Down to Earth, the Big Isle's newest health food store, comes a wonderful opportunity for all of East Hawaii's merchants.
Down to Earth (DTE) differs from our other health food stores (Keaau Natural Foods, Abundant Life, and Island Naturals) in that it supports vegetarianism in its various forms. It seems to me that ones shopping experience at DTE should be noticeably (experientially) different. This should be the result of such an intention. The benefits of such a diet and life style should be evident in the aliveness and happiness of its employees, and therefore favorably impact its customers. Impact here meaning to elevate each shopper from a 5 to at least a 6 on the aliveness scale. One walks in a 5 and walks out feeling somewhat better because of the interactions, the very space of vegetarianism. That is to say, the benefits of vegetarianism should be experientially evident, i.e."Whatever they are doing I want some because it obviously works."
One example of the difference between how customers are treated are with Safeway and Sears. It's a given that, with occasional exceptions, one doesn't go to Sears to be treated warmly or appreciatively with aloha,. Typically, a shopper must bring some aliveness to an appliance clerk, so as to trigger at least a pleasant exchange. Most often their employees are dramatizing their relationship with their manager which at best verges on heavy. On a scale of 1 - 10 (10 being the most uplifting shopping experience) Sears' employees have been stuck at 4 for two decades. It's not that their employees are rude, it's that they have mastered minimalism, as polite and friendly as it takes to not be reported.
Another example: Sears is among the stores a communication skills coach does not invite for leadership communication-skills coaching. "Hey, I noticed that your employees' are not very happy. Your Appliance Center employees have been treating us customers poorly for 20 years. They are completely unaware of their phony condescending aloha countenance, and, no manger has had a positive effect." The CEO of Sears has yet to acknowledge happiness as a sales-communication variable. Their employees are dragging around dozens of withholds into each new interaction with a customer; these unacknowledged withholds serve as barriers to an experience of service, of relationship, of truly caring.
I predict that Sears will not last many more years.
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