Dear Crate and Barrel
Your catalog tells me you sell these mini pie cutters:
So I can make this pumpkin pie:
But when I go online, the item cannot be found. Does that mean I have to drive to your store? And if I do will it even be there?
I’m sorry to say, but all my shopping experiences with you have been sub par. Frequently your website tells me something in your store is available, when it is not. About a year ago I bought a media center from you. You made me schedule the delivery for a month after I’d purchased the item, even though if I had a car big enough I could’ve taken it home that day. Do you make your online customers wait that long also? When the media center arrived it was as poorly fabricated as Ikea furniture, but for three times the price.
So you might ask, why do I continue shopping with you? It certainly isn’t for the service I’ve received in your stores. Your employees are snobbish (imagine their surprise to find someone under the age of 30 making a $500+ sale!) They act put-off by retrieving items from your stock room, even if it’s a $300 set of pots and pans. It’s not for your prices, you charge far too much for cheaply made furniture, and I can buy the small kitchen appliances on Amazon for a fraction of the price. It isn’t for the comfort of shopping in your store, your kitchen and glassware aisles are narrow and filled with soccer moms, I can rarely get to what I want.
I shop at Crate and Barrel for the kitchen gadgets. Chain retailers, such as yourself, have run all the mom and pop kitchen hardware stores out of business. Cleveland’s West side doesn’t have a Sur La Table - yet, or a Williams Sonoma, and Bed Bath and Beyond is a little too As Seen on TV for my tastes. So I come to you for sheet pans, and pot holders, and bakeware, and knives. I even like your place mats. So why do you make this part of your store so small? It’s always brimming with people. And why is your furniture so poorly constructed? I’m glad I didn’t buy that couch I liked, or dining room table and chairs. And why are your employees so rude? It seems that Crate and Barrel needs to take lessons on all counts of respecting your customer. Be assured, when Sur La Table opens I’ll be taking my business there.
