Rural King — Local services in Paducah

—THE GOOD—

I PURCHASE from RURAL KING PADUCAH 2 TO 4 TIMES PER WEEK. The prices are excellent, the staff courteous & very helpful, always.

—THE LACK

1. I feel the improvements listed below can only be solved by corporate action at the top.

2. Items most sold, like small storage crates, small truck bed hooks, or other popular items become “extinct”.

I realize there are nationwide supply chain shortages causing some of these “extinctions”, but it would be helpful to know a best estimate for product return (perhaps a paper sign on the shelf).

3. Similar to above, except let the employees also know. if you ask when an item will return, the employees are given no information. “It might come on a truck one of these days”. When do certain items ship OUT on certain trucks? “We don’t know what they’ll ship us.” Perhaps there is a way you can give the store personel an expected restock window (I.e. Staff, we expect small storage crates to restock in 4 to 8 weeks.)

4. The website not good for such a large business. The data is poorly executed. I don’t know what to tell you except hire a company with major experience in brick-and-mortar store online sales AND product description AND —CURRENT— inventory!

5. Barely zero Verizon internet in the store, & free WiFi sketchy. Many customers need this for multiple business reasons, but if nothing else, to access your own website while in the store.

Yes, your website terrible, but periodically I need to refer to it in the store to make purchasing choices, so need WiFi. (Update: The store WiFi appeared okay today but I'll monitor it more to be sure.

6. Theft. I heard a guy telling his daughter, “This store loses so much merchandise because of (shoplifting) it’s ridiculous.” The printed photos of the suspects are in black and white, I feel a color printout would be better at identification and helping people notice the flyers.

7. Entrance & Exit from the highway need painted lane designations (a dividing line).

8. Corporate might consider contacting the neighboring property to the east and see if you can get permission to have some trees cut for visibility reasons. Highway traffic coming from the east don't have a long view of people exiting the eastmost exit of the lot.

9. Corporate needs to be assertive with other Exit 3 businesses to lobby local and state leaders to widen your stretch of the road. The interstate has frequent wrecks causing mile long diversions in front of your store. You have missed sales from me because on those days I was aware of the gridlock and avoided that road. One day I was not so fortunate and just passing through, but got stuck bumper to bumper in front of your store on the highway for about 23 minutes. How many people that day read the road report and decide to shop elsewhere or stay home?

10. There is no discernible feedback process for this store in relation to what the exec’s at corporate need to do to address these things. There is little to no review online feedback. My 5 star Google review two years ago was never thanked by...

There are a few things you need to know before shopping here.

To start, the prices are fantastic and the selection is good. This place has a unique niche in Paducah. The store is typically clean and organized, however with the free popcorn offered, the stuff is always all over the floor.

On to the other things you should know. The wait in checkout is comparable to that of Walmart on Christmas Eve every time you go. Employees are often not trained well, thus have to call somebody else any time you ask a question. Next there is the "Wallis talkies" which everyone that works there carries. They crank these things up to the point where everyone can hear them; trust me very annoying.

Lastly, there is the employees themselves. Most are very professional and genuinely want to help, but the other 49% are jerked from the gutter in a back alley. The lack of consideration for others is horrible. They don't have a problem telling you how bad they hate their jobs, or how little money they make. Heck, I have even had one guy complain about his wages and tell me he only works there because he doesn't get drug tested. Most recently, a cashier asked my wife if I were her son or her husband. ABSOLUTELY APPALLING.

Bottom line- if you want cheap stuff and free popcorn, this is your place. If you want to be insulted or hear about how your clerk is having a kid and she doesn't know who the father is, this is also that place. If your in to that...

By the worst ran Rural King I have been to. Unfortunately this is now my home store and have been there 10+ times. Born and raised just outside of Mattoon, IL (where RK was founded and is headquartered) and I absolutely love the company. I love the values of the company and the products of the company. I will go out of my way to shop at a RK because of the company values. I have shopped at 11 different RK locations and this one is BY FAR the worst ran store I have been in. It is the most overstaffed and under performing store I have been in. The employees that are not just standing or walking around are the slowest I have ever seen, almost every time I ask for help the employee does not know the answer or even where the item is located. It seems like half the employees do not know how to use the computer systems they are using. Longest check out lines of any store. Tried doing an online/in store pick up order (only 3 items) to save time; 4hrs and 15 mins later I still had not received notification that my order was ready. I called the store and they told me the order was already picked but they didn't have time to update the system to notify me.... Seriously need to spend more time training the employees (including the managers) and less time pushing the...