Academy Sports + Outdoors — Local services in Foley

On Saturday, 20 April 2019 I had been in Foley shopping and decided to stop at the Academy in Foley. Of course, being a weekend it was busy throughout town even more so in Academy. This Academy is much smaller than the one where I live. I was browsing around and observing, I have a habit when I go into stores to always look at the staff to see how they work, handle the customers, your staff sells your products, they are the ones that will insure your customers return. This was approximately between 1230-130 and there was a guy telling a young lady at a register to get off and go help someone in the shoe department when she had a line of customers, probably 7-9 waiting to be checked out. I’m thinking to myself why can’t you go over and assist the customer in footwear while she’s finishing up on the register? Do you have just one person in footwear? Why make your customers wait, or go step into another line to wait even longer, what does the young lady do, she takes care of the customers that are loaded down with items in the buggies and their arms, this guy just wonders off to the back not even to offer any assistance at all, who he was I have no idea, sure hope he wasn’t the a manager.

Then I got to looking around to see if I could find my grandchildren a few things, summers coming up, we’ll soon be swimming in our pool, having the time of our lives. Then I looked around at a few departments, and please I do understand that it was the day before Easter, trust me it was chaotic in there and so many people, but when you have all your available staff on the floor and they are doing their best to keep their departments looking good I saw the same guy coming out of the back just “ugh I have to be here, like seriously, attitude, doing absolutely nothing!” He didn’t address one customer asking if they needed assistance, he didn’t greet them with any greeting of the day, this worse mannerism I have ever seen in my entire life. As I shopped through the store, I actually sorry for the some of the staff having to put up with his attitude because I happened to get up the courage to ask a staff member who he was, the manager, his name is Jason! Not once the whole time I spent in that store did I ever see him greet a customer, smile at a customer, offer to assist a customer, he relied wholeheartedly upon his staff who was already working nonstop to satisfy all of his customers coming and going and he could’ take two seconds out of sitting on his behind behind his desk to help a customer in footwear.

The manager as well as every staff member is responsible for satisfying your customers. It’s not just solely your staff, the Manager needs to get out on the floor, look at the displays, makes suggestions, listens to the employees, counteract with them, get to know them, greet your customers, tell your customers thank you WE are providing you a living!!!! After I found out who he was and his “I don’t give a hoot attitude”! I put my estimated $567.89 plus tax back on the shelf and walked out of the store and decided I’d bring my business back home!!!!

To the corporate office.....your manager, Jason is costing you money, he’s inconsiderate, he’s lazy, he doesn’t take into mind “your” customers...

The staff is generally friendly but they also appear to be frustrated at times. My guess is due to the lack of needed staff to address the issue below.

If you attempt to purchase or return anything you will have to wait for a long time. If there are other people ahead of you attempting to purchase or return anything you will wait for a much longer period of time. The checkout and return service at any of the registers, if there is even more than one open, is very poor. It is consistently poor each and every time I visit regardless of what day or time it is or if it is busy or not.

In addition to the very slow and poor checkout and return experience, I have had multiple experiences with attempting to purchase an item that, for whatever reason, didn't ring up correctly, which further extends the time having to wait. In other case the item doesn't come up at all or as a different item requiring some form of lookup or having the cashier go look for it which just leads to more waiting.

While some amount of delay is expected in any retail outlet it is the worst I've ever experienced here. It is to such an extent that it is clear to me that this is just the desired level of service that Academy chooses to provide. I would recommend removal of at least half of the existing standard checkout stations and implement self-checkout stations for customers who just need to complete a purchase. I would also recommend moving all returns to a dedicated customer...

admittedly, i went in about 25 minutes before the store closed. that does not justify the actions of one of the employees, however! i walked in, and there was an older and very unenthusiastic door greeter(again i understand it was almost closing). i went to go look at their shoes, as i do track and train at the gym a lot. there were plenty of employees around, cleaning or whatever, and i was taking pictures of shoes that i might’ve had interest in for later. no one had told me to put my phone up. on my way out (still not nine yet as they close at nine) i took a picture of an cropped hoodie i thought my friend would like. then as i was walking to the door, the same door greeter stops me in a solemn voice, “you cannot take pictures.” at first i had thought he was joking because that’s just my first thought, so i chuckled it off. then he gets mad and raises his voice and says, “no. taking. Pictures.” so i say, “ohhh ok” and he says it yet again?? like i understood? so i just walk out and i notice he watches me the ENTIRE way to my car and he’s staring at me as i sit in my car for a moment to connect my phone to the aux. he proceeds to give me a death stare as i drive past to leave. made me very uncomfortable and he could’ve been so much nicer about it? when i got home, i looked up is Academy had a “no picture policy,” and to my knowledge, they do not. so i do not understand the...