Right now I’m sitting in intermission for “the wedding singer” the musical. It’s freakin awesome! I highly recommend it!

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Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Dear Seattle,

Today I put in my two-weeks notice at work. I have already made arrangements with a company called AudienceCentral in Bellingham, WA to start working there as soon as possible.

This has been a difficult decision. I like the grocery industry and love the people I work with at Associated Grocers. It’s no secret that I registered lachmullen.com and posted my resume there, and of course I afor every job on Starbucks’ website and Microsoft’s website (who doesn’t). I had even sent my resume to Google. But I wasn’t actively looking, simply getting myself out there to see what happened.

AudienceCentral came forward with an opportunity to travel, work in a small-company setting with large clients, have more flexibility with my time and of course, stock options. The “downside” is that it involves a move back to Bellingham, the town I grew up in and have not yet grown fond of through absence.

I will miss my church, my Seattle friends, Safeco Field, the amazing view from my neighborhood, the wonderful restaurants and the proximity to everything. It’s not like Bellingham is podunk, but it’s not exactly a metropolis either.

If you are a Friend form me who lives in Bellingham and are hearing this for the first time tonight, don’t be offended, I’m still at work and plan on calling you this evening to let you know. Since 10 people read my blog last week (jk), I doubt this will be a problem.

I love you, Seattle (you’re like a sister to me), but it’s time to move on.

It’s not you, it’s me.

Love,

Lach

For some INTENSE fan support of the Seahawks (good to see a Seattle fan in Denver!), plus some great rants about stupid Seattle jokes, check out http://thesportsjunky.blogspot.com/. This guy’s great. Now that the Seahawks are going to Superbowl XL, we need all the support we can get!

Self checkouts should be a reality-check for retailers around the USA (and world). Let me lay it out here: customers love self check-outs. To most store owners, this seems like a good thing, but as an analyst I am drawn to look deeper. I get paid “the big bucks” to look way too far into things.

Why do customers love self-check out lanes? In short, customers have found a work-around for their largest annoyance with conventional retailers: inadequate customer service. It is a sad state of affairs when a customer would rather talk to a machine than one of your employees. I can understand self-check outs at Wal-Mart, but QFC? Fred Meyer? Huh? The sad truth is that conventional retailers have missed the boat on the meaning of “upscale” and have instead shifted toward what I like to call “high-touch.” A High-Touch store has high prices and high labor costs, but still lacks a positive connection with the consumer.

You see, self check out lanes turn your store into a commodity, just like 80% of the goods in your typical grocery store. The highest volume locations in a grocery store (PDF) are the front door (entrance) and the check-out lanes (exit). Many stores focus on a brilliant entrance to impress customers as they enter (floral is most frequently purchased at the end of a shopping trip, and yet is placed at the start of the store, ever wonder why?), but completely neglect the exit points.

Think of it this way, your cashiers (or lack thereof) are your last chance to leave a lasting impression on your customer before they walk out of your store and possibly never come back.

Retailers, please, don’t install self-checkout lanes. Hire someone older than 16 for a cashier, it’s the most important job in the store (sorry managers, you’re a distant 2nd). Share the store’s sales with them, make them an active team member. allow for formal customer feedback and LISTEN to the responses. Here’s a novel concept: fire the checkers who get bad ratings.

The shocking thing is, 98% of the time a customer won’t notice the 5 minute wait in line if they are looking forward to talking to the cashier.

Thank you, Anne at West Seattle Metropolitan Market for inspiring me to write this article, and all the other cashiers there, for installing in me the belief that a store can have a STRONG POINT at the front-end that makes self check-outs obsolete.

With this now in mind, please read the following article in eWeek about self-check out style wine kiosks, and tell me how the hell these make any sense at all.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1910155,00.asp

The only thing that needs to be self-checked these days are store owner’s realities.