Big Lots

Great selection of products here, we were surprised by the amount of Halloween decorations for sale, though a bit taken back by how much Christmas decorations were already out for sale. Having grown up in Winter Garden, it was nice to revisit this store since it was somewhat of a staple of my childhood. Fun to see how much they have moved things around from my last time there, everything looked like it had swapped sides of the store ha-ha. The store appears to be clean and tidy, unfortunately we managed to buy a blanket that had some form of substance on it that we didn't notice when grabbing off the shelf, hoping it washes out since this location is a good 30-40 minutes from us, not worth the drive back. The employees are for the most part great, the only real issue we had was check out. 1 Person manning the register while 6+ people in line, and the person at the register was pretty slow unfortunately, which meant we actually spent more time standing in line to check out, than we did casually browsing the whole store and selecting items to buy. Despite it all, I'm sure I'll be back eventually, just depends on when we drive through winter garden again next, I suppose.

Big lots is good. They always got a variety of everything so that's nice... Only thing is my uncle ordered a chair and they were supposed to replace it and never did and so for that I'm going to drop you one star. I apologize but other than that keep it up Big lots... The chair was some kind of default on the arm and they knew it. It shouldn't have been sold because you could obviously tell after we got it home that it was used as a display but whatever that was a year ago so

I literally had the worst experience. I went to big lots to get paper towels and toilet paper. I normally get the namebrand stuff because I’m brand loyal. I saw a sign which promoted the paper towels which were buy two get one free. After leaving the store I noticed on my receipt this was not the case. I came back into the store with my receipt and spoke with the cashier. First mistake she told me to go to the back and get the sign ….this is not customer service. After bringing the sign to her she called the assistant manager “Jen”, she advised me that this was a old sale and would not honor the promotion. Conclusion I end up returning $70 worth of merchandise for a coupon that was $4.95. The effort to return and restock stuff especially in a covid environment over something so small because of principal.

Went to buy a vacuum, 20% off signs lined the shelves there were at least five under all vacuums. The one we chose was $19.99 and it clearly said vacuums priced as $19.99 are now $15.99 when we got up to the counter she said "oh but not this vacuum it's only on carpet cleaners". I took her to the isle showed her the signs that stated vacuums and carpet cleaners, as you can clearly see in the photos. She said "just not off this one". Scam! I'm sure they say that about every vacuum you bring up to the front "oh just not this one". Very disappointed, obviously bait and switch.

My first paying job as a teenager was working at a 7-Eleven on Hwy 434 in Longwood, Florida. At that time in my life I had very little interest in much more than having a day job as a front and making my $4.25 per hour when minimum wage was still $3.35 per hour. Serving the customers that came in the door was almost a nuisance in my mind. Thankfully that didn’t end up as my career path. I starter working as a professional automobile technician at the Suzuki, Isuzu and Honda dealership in Sanford, Florida. Some things changed in my life and I moved to North Carolina. I worked at a very large Honda car dealership in Raleigh and thankfully they taught me what customer service actually was. It’s what builds relationships and keeps clients coming back for your services time and time again. It’s what keeps the doors open and pays your paycheck. It kept me employed and I bought my first brand new home when I was only 22 years old. By 30 years old I was the shop foreman and actually responsible for the customer service practices of 23 men and one young lady that were automotive technicians. By 38 years old I opened my own auto repair shop specializing in, but not limited to, Honda, Acura, Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Customer service fed my family and allowed me to buy a larger brand new primary residence on a 75 acre pond, a townhouse in Emerald Isle, North Carolina and acreage in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s actually very simple, customer service that is. Consider the fact that you are representing the company or brand that you work for at all times you are in uniform. If you do that, the money will come. It also feels good to help people believe it or not. Recently, I was on a two week visit back to the Central Florida area. On the very morning that I was leaving town my BMW 550i decided to indicate the left rear tire pressure was low. I also had to pick up my adult daughter on the other side of Winter Garden where she was visiting my ex in-laws. I needed to purchase 2 more pairs of memory foam Dearfoams slippers as last minute gifts. Procrastination 101, I know. I was at the Big Lots on Dillard Street just as they opened. The very first employee I saw was Zoey. I told her it may be a crazy question, but I asked if she knew where I could get air for my tires. I wasn’t really trying to ruin a $300 Michelin. She asked “do you mean a compressor?” then went ahead and directed me to a nearby WaWa that had air and it was free. They didn’t even have WaWas when I still lived in Florida. Zoey could have dismissed my question, but she gave me great customer service at that very moment. I’d bet she provides the same service quite often. She had no idea I was running late to pick up my daughter and had a 600 mile drive ahead with my elderly mother. My car was packed to the maximum capacity. I had my mom’s dog and pen set up. My daughter was in a brace recovering from ACL knee surgery. The trunk was so full I had to threaten my passengers not to open it. Zoey helped me out in an area that wasn’t exactly part of her job description. But, if you think about it, that was just good customer service.