Going shopping can be puzzling
By:
Julio Martínez Molina
E-mail:
digital@jrebelde.cip.cu
July 12, 2007 - 02:16:19 GMT
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Original:
http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/opinion/2007-07-12/enigma-en-la-tienda/
Not long ago I had to embark on a lengthy tour around our network of stores to buy a shirt I needed to attend an official function. Rather than educational, my journey served as a run-through of my knowledge about this other galaxy or parallel world.
That the assortment remains an ugly stain on our domestic trade or that the price of the garment (the shirt I wanted, and I mean the same one, not a different kind) fluctuates between 1 CUC and 2 CUC from one store to another was in fact the least of my problem.
We've been told over and over again that every chain designs its own price list, never mind that the same cookies cost ten cents here and twenty cents there...; but that's a horse of a different color.
What proved most interesting in my inter-provincial trip (since I took advantage of my vacation time to make a similar check elsewhere) was to see that despite all the harping on about the same points, our stores pay little or no attention to the rule that an item's price must be in full view of everyone.
There are laws currently in force to this effect the observance of which has been continuously pushed for by many actors in our social milieu, even if such legislation is not always (nor everywhere) enforced to the letter.
Actually, there are very few stores where every item has a visible price tag. Very often we find them without it, which therefore arouses people's suspicions.
It also happens, as some salesclerks told me, that sometimes the customers themselves rip them off, or they just get damaged by the nonstop handling of hundreds of hands. But it's also true that many goods never had the relevant tag in the first place, since everybody can see them on display without so much as a trace of the sticker.
Leaving aside the alleged «penalization»[1] customers pay when the price tag is intentionally absent as part of a con job, every time this happens the store's credibility declines.
And even if some people tend to forget it, the customer's level of satisfaction with the service they received and paid for rests upon their confidence that they will be properly treated when they go shopping.
Things seem to be worse in hotel shops. Knowing the real price of a garment in their stores can prove to be an incredibly difficult task. They say that asking questions can help you get anywhere. Well, in those places you could very easily find yourself in Saturn. And then again, you have no choice but to turn again and again to the salesperson if you want to solve the puzzle.
At a time when the country is engaged in the greatest duel of its revolutionary history against corruption and illegality, finding a definite solution to this problem becomes indispensable rather than appropriate.
We have the laws in place, yet we need more demanding mechanisms to enforce them. No matter how you look at it, the pricing system is a highly sensitive topic, worthy of an adequate solution so that the above considerations can be no longer a problem.
No one is entitled to keep any information from anyone else or mock the person on the other side of the counter by messing around with her pocket and her common sense.
---ooOoo---
[1] Term used by Cubans to describe the somewhat widespread, if illegal, practice of cheating customers by overcharging them for items to which either a label with a price higher than the right one was previously attached or no price tag at all has been glued, so they just have to trust what the salesperson says they cost. (T.N.).
Enigma en la tienda
http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/opinion/2007-07-12/enigma-en-la-tienda/
Que el surtido constituya honda laguna del comercio criollo o que el precio de la susodicha prenda (me refiero a la camisa idéntica, no a otro modelo) oscilase entre 1 CUC y 2 CUC de una unidad a otra, sería de veras lo menos calamitoso.
Ya se nos ha explicado hasta la saciedad que cada cadena marca su tarifa, entiéndase o no que dos galleticas valgan diez centavos aquí y veinte centavos allá...; pero eso es harina ajena al costal.
Lo más interesante del recorrido interprovincial —porque aproveché las vacaciones para efectuar similar comprobación en diferentes sitios— consistió en apreciar cómo, pese a todo cuánto se insiste en ello, continúa haciéndose caso omiso a la regla de que los precios de los productos deben estar a la vista.
Existen legislaciones vigentes al efecto, por cuyo respeto disímiles actores de nuestro entorno social se han pronunciado de forma sistemática, si bien su cumplimiento no siempre ni en todas partes opera con arreglo a las orientaciones.
Realmente son pocas las tiendas donde cada uno de los artículos lleva su precio de identificación. Por lo general, existe algún producto sin su tasa correspondiente, lo que irremediablemente provoca la sospecha del público.
Es cierto que en ocasiones, como plantearon a este redactor algunas dependientas, los propios clientes se los arrancan, o que se deterioran con el manejo diario de centenares de personas. Pero es verdad también que en otras jamás tuvieron su pegatina aclaradora, pues ni rastro de marca hay.
Al margen de la presunta «multa» que el cliente pagaría en caso de que la omisión fuese para dar lugar a la estafa, cada vez que esto ocurre se deteriora la credibilidad del sitio donde el acto sucede.
Y aunque algunos suelan olvidarse, sobre la confiabilidad y la buena atención descansa el nivel de satisfacción del cliente con el servicio comercial que le prestan y por el cual paga.
El cuadro tiende a agudizarse en las tiendas de los hoteles. Saber cuánto vale en realidad una pieza de vestir en tales sitios puede convertirse en un acto indescriptiblemente complicado. Dicen que preguntando se llega a Roma, pero allí bien pudiera llegarse a Saturno. No queda más remedio que acudir, una y otra vez, donde el dependiente, para que te despeje el enigma.
En momentos en que el país emprende el mayor duelo de su historia revolucionaria contra la corrupción y las ilegalidades, resolver definitivamente este problema, más que pertinente se hace indispensable.
Medidas existen al respecto, lo que resulta necesario es exigir un mayor rigor en su cumplimiento. El tema de los precios, harto sensible desde cualquier ángulo que se mire, merece que el asunto aquí ventilado deje de constituir un problema.
Nadie tiene el derecho de escamotear la verdad, ni burlarse del que está al otro lado del mostrador al jugar con su bolsillo y su inteligencia.