Sears

Bought a terrible washer and dryer here recently. The washer does not wash properly. What a waste of money. Kenmore.

In the world of department stores, Sears is neither the cheapest, nor the most high quality, nor the trendiest. They are fairly middle of the road in all these respects. Well, except for maybe the trendy part. Let’s just say, Sears was my grandmother’s favourite place to shop for clothing.
But really, this review is going to focus on their customer service. Now, you have to understand that the Sears model is different from most other stores. There is no row of checkouts at the exit. Instead, each department has a customer service desk with an attendant who is an expert in that area and who also rings through sales in that area. It seems like a good idea in theory, but in reality it causes a lot of inefficiencies.
The first inherent problem with the system is that it creates huge bottlenecks. If you are in line to simply buy an item, but the person in front of you wants the sales rep to detail all the pros and cons of 5 different vacuum cleaners, you and all the people in line with you are stuck waiting until the rep answers every question of the customer who arrived before you. If you have questions of your own that you need answered by someone employed by the store, if you go to a different desk they will simply tell you to ask the rep in the department where you just were. So customer volume does not get spread evenly throughout the number of available employees.
Now, this particular Sears was particularly awful at customer service. I spent 15 minutes trying to get ANY customer service rep to talk to me, and even after that ended up waiting another 15 minutes in a lineup to ask a 1 minute question. If you are a fan of efficiency and order, Sears will drive you crazy. Additionally, I found their employees to be cheery, but maddeningly lackadaisical, going about their tasks as if we are all part of a small town, and they must have a good chat with each customer. Maybe this is a normal part of Sears culture, because the other customers seemed equally chatty, but it’s just not good etiquette when there are 4 other customers in line who have been waiting there for 10 minutes. Perhaps they are just short-​staffed. But it was enough to remind me why I generally don’t shop at Sears.
tl;dr — Spent 30 minutes trying to find an available sales rep, to answer a 1 min question. Lady in front of me got shuttled between desks, ended up waiting 15 minutes just to buy a couple small things. Shop here if you like cheery service and long waits. Avoid if you have better things to do with your time.