Rarely have I been so disappointed by a store

Simons, Park Royal Shopping Centre, West Vancouver, BC

On November 2nd, I made my first trip to Simons at Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver.

I now ask myself why I bothered. I spent about 15 minutes in the store and was greeted with utter indifference. Or perhaps I should say that I was not greeted at all. I had staff working filling shelves right next door to where I was browsing and none of them even acknowledged my presence. Not so much as a hello.

I was looking at some men's shirts that were on sale and I wondered what the fibre content was. (I suspected a polyester/cotton blend.) The sign by the shirts provided no information about the fibre content so I had to disassemble a folded shirt to determine that the shirts were 65% polyester and 35% cotton. Two female members of staff were talking together and standing about 6 feet from me. They paid no attention to me at all.

The merchandise seems great and the pricing on the private label goods is very attractive. The displays are eye catching and the store design is very appealing.

But the service was horrible. There will be inevitable comparisons with Nordstrom, and Simons does not look good. Both are large fashion retailers that offer "better" goods in at attractive environment. But the difference in the quality of service is staggering.

I will try to contact Simons directly and see what response I get.

November 6th update - I got no response to my email inquiry and so I posted this to the Simons Facebook page.