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BB King sings The Thrill Is Gone as a reflective journey of an intimate relationship that is no longer satisfying because the other partner has done him wrong and no longer meets his expectations.  That same feeling is translated in many ways for consumers.              So much hooplah including full page print ads announce the events.  News crews are dispatched to report live and anticipation mounts with each passing day, hour and minute as the day finally arrives.   It is the grand opening of a new store or a new mall.  In this case it is the new Steelyard Commons development in Cleveland, Ohio.            Built on the site of the old Republic Steel –  J&L Steel mills site,  the $120 million dollar, 125 acre open air retail  shopping center is home to many familiar retailers.*   Target, Home Depot, Best Buy and a Wal-Mart SuperCenter  serve as anchor stores.  Other nationally recognized retail chain stores such as Old Navy, Payless Shoe Source, Marshall’s, Radio Shack and others complete phase one of the project.            Weeks and weeks of preparation led up to the opening days.  Countless yards of ribbon secured each entrance, just waiting for the first customers to cross the thresholds. There was live music and giveaways.  Neatly attired smiley faced personnel stood stoically ready to meet, greet and assist the new customer base.   The stores were neat, well lit and conducive to a good shopping experience.              Fast forward six months –   the shopping cart corral at Wal-Mart is often trash littered and the contingent of smiley faced employees waiting to help have all but disappeared.  In their stead are sullen-faced, hard to find beleaguered staffers in no great hurry to do anything but clock watch and wait for the workday to end.   There is an endless collection of shopping carts banked near the customer service desk filled to overflow with “put backs” and discontinued items.   The staff working the deli counter often needs the sound of a Big-Ben alarm clock to jolt them into serving impatient customers who struggle with spending money in a store where they are ignored.  Unmanned checkout counters result in long lines, with the faithful weighing whether the price structure of the super retailer is worth the aggravation.            Following the hypnotic open red circle logo of Target or “Tar-Jay” to its faithful fan base, the first thing you notice is the quiet.   It is so quiet it can take ten minutes or so to find an “associate” to make inquiry of, the exception being the fitting room attendant.  The quirky pricing system and the unique integration of some lesser known designers in with much cheaper Asian imports is attractive to some shoppers, however, the integration of extended sizes with the smalls, mediums and larges are only displayed on the clearance racks. Cleaner than its huge sister rival Wal-Mart, the environment is much more sterile.  Chatty cashiers often fail to place a bag of purchased goods within reach of the customer, resulting in repeat trips and unclaimed purchases.            Home Depot is a lawyer’s dream.  Aisles that were clear on opening day are now cluttered with floor to near ceiling ladders, carts and stock or sealed off , rendering the store not particularly user friendly for the physically challenged customer.   Savvy shoppers are often more familiar with the location of items than the staff, which like the other two stores seems unavailable for assistance.               Best Buy, a national leader in consumer electronics is reminiscent of an unguarded toy store.  Everything imaginable is displayed, however, finding someone to ask about availability is another story.   It is not unusual to have to walk the store to find help that may or may not be knowledgeable enough to provide any assistance.  I was searching for a microphone for a tape deck.  After waiting for over twenty minutes for an associate and explaining what I needed I was advised not to waste my time but to just go to Radio Shack instead.            Yes, the thrill is gone.  The thrill of clean stores, friendly, helpful associates and easy to navigate aisles has been replaced by an attitude of indifference and the knowledge that I only shop there because it is close by.  Like BB King sings, I too have been done wrong.  I have been wronged in that my expectations of something new and different and wonderful have been dashed.  The promise of good service and a pleasant shopping experience has been replaced by disappointment and disillusionment.   The thrill is definitely gone. *Source – First Interstate Properties ©2008 Marsha Dean WalkerAll Rights Reserved