A Meaty Disappointment

It's heartbreaking when a brand and business you like and trust lets you down. Twice. So here I am, heartbroken. I've been a fan and loyal customer of Trader Jo's for a long time. In the past 3 years or so, I've done most of my weekly grocery shopping there, with only an occasional trip to Safeway for brand-specific items and items TJ's doesn't carry, like diapers.

However, twice now I've bought meat there (well, the first time it was fish -- just to be precise), gotten it home, only to discover it has gone bad before it's "sell by" or "use or freeze by" dates. The first time, I was willing to forgive and forget. No one is perfect. But not this second time. I will no longer buy meat or fish products there, and that's bad news for both of us: more trips to other grocery stores for me, which takes more time; and TJs will lose some of my business.

In reflecting on this episode, I was surprised and how truly disappointed I was that this happened. It's not the money (I'm sure I'd get a refund if I bothered to ask), it's being let down by a brand with which I have had a long-term relationship. I know some people have deep affections for their cars or their iPhones or other cool products. But a grocery store? Who knew!!

As a Product Manager, my take-aways from this episode are:

1) Quality control cannot be short-changed. I'm not sure what went wrong with TJ's meat handling operations, but given that we haven't heard of any large-scale food poisoning news stories, I suspect there are issues at the local store whereby some process isn't being followed correctly. Does anyone randomly test the meat (and other perishable items for that matter) to make sure it's still fresh while on the shelf?

In my previous jobs, I was fortunate in that the management teams understood the critical nature of QA and so we had a QA team. I know there are web and small software companies that do not. I've interviewed at places where the Product Manager is expected to QA the software. From a customer retention standpoint, that's taking your life in your hands. And is that really the best use of a Product Manager's time? Even if it's one lowly intern, someone needs to do QA - in software, at grocery stores, with any product.

2) The importance of having feedback loops for times when something goes amiss. In this case, I'm not likely to complain. So how would TJ's find out that that the was a problem and that they're about to lose a big chunk of a loyal customer's weekly budget (and have the opportunity to try to win it back, if they should care to try). Unless someone who reads this blog happens to work there or knows someone who does, they won't.

This one is a challenge. No one I know calls the 800 numbers on packages to complain when they have a problem with a product. Unless it's a larges-scale problem, it's unlikely to make the news (a relief to consumer product makes and sellers everywhere.) Other than returning clothing and shoes I've bought online, I cannot remember the last time I complained about any product or service with which I was dissatisfied. I simply took my business elsewhere. And how many consumers have blogs where they publish their frustrations, even if the producers or service providers are savvy enough to watch online chatter for feedback from their customers?

So how do you gather customer feedback when there's an issues with your product?

Sound, Sound, turn off the Sound!!

Attention all toy designers, manufacturers, retailers (are you listening Amazon, Walmart?), and everyone else in the toy industry: For the love of everything that is holy, please put a volume control and an on/off switch on any toy that makes any kind of sound. Whether it's motion activated, button activated, touch activated, whatever. Please, please give the parents the ability to turn it off!!! .

Let me give you a use case just to help you write the requirements (do they have product requirements in the toy industry?):

The mother is trying to put down her infant down for a nap. She is sitting in his bedroom, in a glider/rocker, with the infant in her arms. The baby is almost asleep and ready to be put in her crib. Suddenly, the infant's older sibling runs into the room, looking for his mother. A stuffed animal (the product in question) on the shelf, which has a touch-activated mooing capability, falls off the shelf as the sibling walks by and accidentally brushes by it. The fall causes the toy to start mooing loudly. The infant wakes up and starts crying, causing the mother to take the toy, and throw it out the window under the wheels of a passing car.

If the toy had an on/off switch, it would have been in off position. The fall would not have caused it to moo, the infant would have been happily asleep, and the mother would have kept her sanity.

Now really, do you want to be responsible for mothers all over America losing their sanity because you neglected to add a 50 cent feature to your product?

Of Apples and Stickers

My first post. So much pressure. Is has to be insightful. It has to say . . . something.

I'll start with something simple: stickers. On fruit. Those little stickers that are now attached to every individual apple, orange, banana, and every other piece of fruit you and I buy at the grocery store. There must be a special place in hell for the person who invented these things. Not only do you have to peel one or two stickers off every time you want to eat a piece of fruit (probably using more water to wash the thing in the process,) but often the skin of the fruit comes off with the sticker. They can't be good for the kitchen pipes either, as they inevitably go down the drain, rather than the garbage.

And what about organic produce -- is the glue used to hold the sticker to my organic apples also organic? (hhhmmm new product idea: organic glue.)

I know what problem the stickers solved: the consumer gets to the grocery store checkout line, the clerk doesn't know whether they're Fuji Apples or Gala Apples, doesn't know how much to charge and either guesses incorrectly or calls someone to clue him in, slowing down his queue. But this is the store's problem, not the consumer's problem. The producer's customer is the store, not the consumer who ultimately buys the product. The consumer's needs were not considered.

So putting on my Product Manager hat, how would I have solved this problem. How about printing the fruit ID code (or whatever it's actually called) onto the fruit itself with contrasting (organic?) food-coloring. Now eating a piece of fruit is just a matter of washing off the food color; no stickers to gum up the pipes, no mystery glue to ingest.

Anyone have other suggested solutions? Feel free to post in the comments.