Allow your employees to sit on benches by the front door smoking on their breaks.

We’ve all seen trashy convenience stores - the sort that just exist to sell beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets, usually in downtrodden neighborhoods. They always seem to have staff that stands around the entrance having a smoke when they don’t need to actually be indoors helping a customer.

There’s a classy, large supermarket in our neighborhood where it seems like ninety percent of the time, you’ll find their employees doing exactly that, lounged out on benches by the front door, puffing away on cigarettes as if their lives depended on them. As a person with asthma, it makes it difficult for me to walk in without risking an attack.

But the largest point is one of the overall image of the store. Letting the staff smoke by the entrance makes your luxury supermarket look trashy. First impressions count, and that isn’t the one you want to make.

Posted: October 4th, 2007 under Rants.
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