The universal complaint about most retail outlets, grocery stores included, is that you don’t get the service you once did. There was a time when it was expected that whoever bagged your groceries would carry them to your car, unless you chose to do it yourself. Today, in an attempt to save on personnel and speed up service, most grocery store baggers never venture outside except to retrieve carts. How about taking a group to a local market for a couple of hours and volunteering to carry customers’ groceries to their cars?
Approach the store manager first. It is important to not only explain your no-strings-attached outreach, but also let him or her know that you will be encouraging your church members to patronize this establishment. That type of free advertising and potential traffic is appealing to store managers. Once the date and number of hours are agreed on, get a clear sense of the normal customer traffic for that time slot. You will want to recruit an adequate number of helpers for this outreach. It’s nice if the group can wear some type of colorful or coordinating clothing.
Encourage volunteers to visit the store to familiarize themselves with it. Hold a meeting with the team members to stress courteous communication and walk through their responsibilities. Do not alienate shoppers by church promotion! Respond politely if people ask what you are doing, but let them initiate.
