Angry at Sprouts!

[MeMelYup]

What's the name of that old song? I was looking back to see if she was looking back to see if I was looking back........

[Oldgringo]

What's the name of that old song? I was looking back to see if she was looking back to see if I was looking back........

[WildBill]

Jim Ed & Maxine Brown - "Looking Back At Me"

[tommyg]

I sent Sprouts an email apoligising for ever doing busisness with Sprouts I also told them that their company was placed on a gun owners boycott list this is their reply
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Thank you for your feedback and concerns. Our corporate policy is that weapons are not allowed on our premises, and it is not intended to be a political stance, but rather a policy developed in response to comments by the majority of our customer's regarding the issue. Thank you for your time and for shopping at Sprouts.


Sincerely,

Raquel
Customer Relation Specialist
Sprouts Farmers Market

[Oldgringo]

It's their business and they can run it however they choose...and we can shop wherever we choose as well. I don't care for 30.06 businesses; however, they are a part of life as we know it. Shoot fire, we even dropped off a bundle of stuff at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago. Somebody will get some use out of it even if we don't approve of the business' MO.

[Lumberjack98]

The location in Cinco Ranch in Katy is not posted.

[Dragonfighter]

I sent Sprouts an email apoligising for ever doing busisness with Sprouts I also told them that their company was placed on a gun owners boycott list this is their reply
------------------------------------

Thank you for your feedback and concerns. Our corporate policy is that weapons are not allowed on our premises, and it is not intended to be a political stance, but rather a policy developed in response to comments by the majority of our customer's regarding the issue. Thank you for your time and for shopping at Sprouts.


Sincerely,

Raquel
Customer Relation Specialist
Sprouts Farmers Market

My wife noted that she poked her head in the other day and it (a normally busy location) had almost nobody in it. The Market Street across the way however was loaded. Yup, sounds like the "majority" of customers wanted this. FWIW, I didn't even get a "how do you do" for sending an actual letter.

[John75]

I've shopped quite a bit at Sprouts and I'll be shopping elsewhere now. Sending them an email.

[jmra]

I've shopped quite a bit at Sprouts and I'll be shopping elsewhere now. Sending them an email.

[Oldgringo]

I've shopped quite a bit at Sprouts and I'll be shopping elsewhere now. Sending them an email.

Nice thought; however, if it ain't in writin', it didn't happen. E-mails ain't in writin'.

[TomV]

The majority of their customers wanted them to not allow weapons. So they say.

How did they learn what the majority of their customers wanted? Did they survey them? When? Where? How? Was it a valid survey? What kind of bias was introduced in the survey?

If they didn't, how do they know what their customers really want?

I do think you are wasting your time on corporate. Go after the store GM. It's their bonuses and lively hoods that are going to be affected by poor corporate decisions. A smart GM knows his/her market and how to work around poor corporate decisions. The stores that aren't posted probably have smart GMs

[jmra]

The stores that aren't posted probably have smart GMs

[el_chupo_]

I've shopped quite a bit at Sprouts and I'll be shopping elsewhere now. Sending them an email.

Nice thought; however, if it ain't in writin', it didn't happen. E-mails ain't in writin'.

I dont really shop there (maybe twice in the past year), but thought I might provide a little insight on the email vs writing.

I work in the financial industry, and while the "canned responses" may not make people in this complaint thread happy, they server a purpose in getting a unified response out to customers, with wording that has been approved by their legal team. Like it or not, the litigiousness of our society mandates things like this for certain types of responses.

On the email not counting -at least in the industry I work in, email writing holds 100% of the weight that a paper letter does, and makes life a heck of a lot easier. And anything that comes in via paper is scanned into our electronic imaging system anyways, and the paper copy is then destroyed. We don't keep a big filing cabinet with written requests and letters or hand deliver those angry letters to the CEO office in a giant mail bag to show how much people care (that scene from Miracle on 34th street comes to mind here...), and it actually takes longer to get a response or for it to be seen by anyone that matters. Also of note, it is processed by the same group of people, regardless of who it is addressed to. They then make the determination of responding, sending it up higher for review, or simply logging it as a complaint and moving on.

This isnt 2001 and a bad spam filter on AOL or Hotmail any more, and while individuals may feel electronic is cheating, that is how business is done now, complaints included...

[Oldgringo]

I've shopped quite a bit at Sprouts and I'll be shopping elsewhere now. Sending them an email.

Nice thought; however, if it ain't in writin', it didn't happen. E-mails ain't in writin'.

I dont really shop there (maybe twice in the past year), but thought I might provide a little insight on the email vs writing.

I work in the financial industry, and while the "canned responses" may not make people in this complaint thread happy, they server a purpose in getting a unified response out to customers, with wording that has been approved by their legal team. Like it or not, the litigiousness of our society mandates things like this for certain types of responses.

On the email not counting -at least in the industry I work in, email writing holds 100% of the weight that a paper letter does, and makes life a heck of a lot easier. And anything that comes in via paper is scanned into our electronic imaging system anyways, and the paper copy is then destroyed. We don't keep a big filing cabinet with written requests and letters or hand deliver those angry letters to the CEO office in a giant mail bag to show how much people care (that scene from Miracle on 34th street comes to mind here...), and it actually takes longer to get a response or for it to be seen by anyone that matters. Also of note, it is processed by the same group of people, regardless of who it is addressed to. They then make the determination of responding, sending it up higher for review, or simply logging it as a complaint and moving on.

This isnt 2001 and a bad spam filter on AOL or Hotmail any more, and while individuals may feel electronic is cheating, that is how business is done now, complaints included...

Really? When it comes time to produce a copy of the correspondence....

[mojo84]

Doesn't surprise me that email is taken as seriously as a letter. It's easier and quicker to process. I think it is important to note that it shouldn't be from a throw away temp email address and should contain the senders contact info in order to be taken serious. Companies for which I've worked pay zero attention to anonymous emails from "customers" using temp email accounts without verifiable identity information. The one exception is when one employee complains against another for ethical, policy or legal violations. Those tend to get investigated.