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El Dragón vs. Archer Farms Customer Service
Archer Farms potato salad sold at Target is being recalled due to "undeclared milk" (which means, milk should have been mentioned on the allergens list and wasn't -- the product is not being recalled due to outbreak or contamination.)
After my trip to Target where I learned that Archer Farms was located in my home state of Minnesota, I wanted to know how this recall effected the Archers on Archer Farms, so I called Target to find out more. Here's a transcript of my call:
Customer Service Operator: [boiler plate greeting, trying to get my email and address, etc -- couldn't place accent -- maybe Indian or Middle Eastern?]
Me: I'm not sure I have the right number. I'm trying to reach Archer Farms.
Op: I can help you with that. You purchased a recalled product from Target?
Me: I think so. I bought this potato salad from the Super Store on Hwy 77.
Op: Ok, what's the expiration date on the potato salad?
Me: October 4.
Op: Perfect. Ok, I can send you a five dollar coupon and you can use it at your next visit.
Me: I shouldn't take it back to the store?
Op: You can do that, of course.
Me: I should, right?
Op: Sure.
Me: I'm just concerned that the farm gets the potato salad back. I'm very concerned how this will impact Archer Farm.
Op: Excuse me?
Me: How will the recall impact the farmers at Archer Farm?
Op: Archer Farm is our brand. Grocery products for Target are produced under that label.
Me: By Archer Farm.
Op: No, we have manufacturers produce product under that private label.
Me: Right. And the product comes from Archer Farm.
Op: [tone getting very sharp] No, no, no, no. Archer Farms is the label. It's a private label owned by Target. Archer Farms is a private label in our grocery department.
Me: So what then? Did Target buy Archer Farm?
Op: This has nothing to do with any farm! Archer Farm doesn't have anything to do with any farm!
Me: Oh come on. It's got to be a farm. Someone grew the potatoes for my potato salad. Someone at Archer Farm obviously grew the potatoes.
Op: It's just a name! Target doesn't have anything to do with any farm!
Me: But these potatoes grew on a farm.
Op: Would you like the number of the manufacturer who made the potato salad? You can speak to them directly.
Me: And they can get me in touch with the farm?
Op: It's a manufacturer! They didn't grow the potatoes!
Me:But they're recalling the potato salad. Won't the farmers want to know there was something wrong with their potatoes?
Op: We don't know there was anything wrong with the potatoes.Would you like that number for the manufacturer now?
Me: Oh, it's not the potatoes that are the problem.
Op: I don't know. There's no reason given for the recall.
Me: You don't know why there's a recall? You don't have that information?
Op: No. Would you like to speak to the manfacturers who made the potato salad?
Me: Sure. [taking down the number she gives me] Maybe they can get me in touch with Archer Farm.
El Dragón
Comments
Gosh
It sounds like they're saying there might not even be an Archer Farms. How weird is that?
I know!
But I'm on to them. That Archer Farms pomegranate juice doesn't bottle itself.
Come on...
Their job already sucks (I'm sure they'd rather blog at home than sit in a call center) and you just made them deal with an annoying prank call so you could get a laugh. Not cool.
Come on yerself, cowboy
Does it suck? Have you ever been an operator for a big corporation? I have, and I lived for calls that broke the mundane. Not that I was doing her a favor, but seriously, dude, this was a walk in the park for a professional customer service agent.
But more to the point, I didn't call for a laugh. I called to find out if I could get a Borg-entity like Target, where truth gets reshaped into nonsense by high-dollar, slick marketing, to admit Archer Farms was a big load of Madison Avenue crap.
Mission accomplished: "Archer Farms doesn't have anything to do with any farm. It's just a name. Target doesn't have anything to do with any farm."
Do I need to drive this one home? OK. Hop in.
She's right. Target certainly doesn't have anything to do with any farm that actually needs the word farm in their name in order to do business. No local food anywhere in the store, and, worse, they're co-opting the one potent marketing edge that real farmers have: Their authentic identity as farmers. That's how broken our food system is, that corporations can pose as "farms" and get away with it, and I for one, want to pull back their masks on at that. The separation from megagrocery chains and reality is so massive, this customer service agent can't even send me to the farm that actually grew the potatoes.
The best she can do is send me to the manufacturer of the potato salad, and that, to her credit, was honest. A hell of a lot more honest than her company's brand-wizards slapping a label on everything from sockeye salmon to coffee to candy to flavored vitamin water to potato salad and implying it comes from a "farm."
I think
He was trying to prove that they are not a farm in any way, shape or form and are misleading customers under the name Archer Farms. It makes the product appear healthy and somehow natural. I think we have every right to know if the food is from an actual farm or if it is somehow contrived otherwise.
Well done.
Seriously, when you work in a call center, one pesky blogger calling you is the least of your problems. Your main problem is that you are paid low wages by some corporation to take the flack for all of the ways that they frustrate their customers (including having to wait a long time to talk to someone in their call center).
Sometimes I just have to stand in awe at how much our society tolerates, nay, is built on, transparent bullshit. Archer "Farms", celebrity endorsements, products that make you young, cool, and prove that you care about your family, corporations that own corporations that own a thousand brands, completely obscuring who actually makes a product, the relentless use of sexual arousal to sell almost anything, and on and on. We are so inured to spin and fakery that it often seems pointless to point about untruths. But thanks for doing it, anyway.
To me, one of the most important difference between capitalism and fair trade is that fair trade marketing (when done right) is based on real information about who makes a product and how it is made and traded. Seems like that shouldn't be so uncommon.
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