Tweet
Concentrated Sightings in One Hour
It's been a long time since I've done much retail shopping other than weekly excursions to the grocery store. I spent an hour (total time in stores) shopping Saturday morning, and I was surprised by the idiocy that surrounded me.
First Stop: Best Buy
While perusing their discount games near the impulse buy section, I watched a woman walk through with some small kitchen appliance that I couldn't see clearly. She scowled in confusion at the narrow aisle of promotional stuff that led to the registers, then walked through it, passed by one of the two manned checkout counters (the others were empty), approached the second, looked around, ignored the employee at the second register who asked if she found everything she needed, and shouted to the security guy near the main entrance, "Hey! Where do I pay for this?" Security guy pointed and said, "Right there." She backed up to the first employee on a register--the one she had passed at first--then shouted back at the security guy, "Here?" He just nodded, and from there she made her purchase like any sane person might.
I also stopped at the Geek Squad counter. The last time my wife's computer had trouble, we brought it to this store, and they accidentally left a disc of their diagnostic software in it. I was returning that disc and dropping off some old hard drives for recycling.
I witnessed a man berating one of the Geek Squad agents over something. I tried to listen in, but I couldn’t get much out of his ranting because of the angle and ambient noise. From what I could gather, though, he'd had them install software onto his computer, and they missed one program. Naturally, he was displeased. The agent had apologized, said she would get to work on solving the problem right away, and even appeared to be starting the work as they spoke. That was somehow not good enough.
The guy went on and on, claiming that his time was obviously not important to the employees or to the company, that it was “ridiculous” that they could forget to do something he’d paid them to do, how he apparently knew it wasn’t specifically her fault but needed someone to complain to, etc.
He was obtuse enough to demand to speak to a manager, and when he was told that they were all in a meeting, escalated his demand and nearly ordered the agent to go get one out of the meeting.
He was oblivious enough to ask how she even knew that the software hadn’t been installed (wasn’t that his initial complaint?) even when she could show him the unopened software packaging.
And the one that annoyed me the most: he said, “Sorry doesn’t fix my computer,” (which is a claim that really annoys me, almost as much as "ridiculous") thus completely rejecting her apologies as she fixed his problem, as if suggesting that the only thing she could do to satisfy him was to turn back time and ensure the work was done correctly the first time around.
I wanted to stand up for the employees and the store by saying something, but this guy was angry and had at least 50 pounds on me. I kept my big mouth shut.
Second Stop: ROSS Dress for Less
I went to pick up a new white dress shirt, and I did manage to find a good deal. On my way to check out, I followed a shopper who casually abandoned three of her selections on the center aisle displays as she walked from one end of the store to the other. Three things she didn't want anymore, just dropped on the most convenient surface as she walked, nowhere near where they came from and not even related to the items she mixed them with. And I'll bet she's also among the shoppers who've recently complained that this ROSS location is poorly organized.
On my way out, I saw one woman pull up in one of those massive land-yacht SUVs. She stopped at the center point of four handicapped spaces (if the lines indicating those spaces were an X-Y axis, she'd be at coordinates (0,0)). Her passenger got out and walked into the store. The driver stayed there, idling, apparently waiting for her passenger to do some shopping. I saw no license plates or hanging tags that would have allowed her to use even one of those spaces, let alone FOUR!
Back Home: Trash Carts
At the dumpster near the front of my apartment complex, I saw a line of abandoned shopping carts. My neighbors use them to bring their shopping home and never bother to return them. I'll take some back every once in a while. This time, though, every single cart (about 14 of them this time from Wal-Mart, a department store, and a grocery store) had a bag of trash in them. As if the residents thought they shopping carts functioned as mini-dumpsters for when the main one was full (which it wasn't, by the way).
I think I've been sufficiently reminded why I tend to stay home on the weekends.
First Stop: Best Buy
While perusing their discount games near the impulse buy section, I watched a woman walk through with some small kitchen appliance that I couldn't see clearly. She scowled in confusion at the narrow aisle of promotional stuff that led to the registers, then walked through it, passed by one of the two manned checkout counters (the others were empty), approached the second, looked around, ignored the employee at the second register who asked if she found everything she needed, and shouted to the security guy near the main entrance, "Hey! Where do I pay for this?" Security guy pointed and said, "Right there." She backed up to the first employee on a register--the one she had passed at first--then shouted back at the security guy, "Here?" He just nodded, and from there she made her purchase like any sane person might.
I also stopped at the Geek Squad counter. The last time my wife's computer had trouble, we brought it to this store, and they accidentally left a disc of their diagnostic software in it. I was returning that disc and dropping off some old hard drives for recycling.
I witnessed a man berating one of the Geek Squad agents over something. I tried to listen in, but I couldn’t get much out of his ranting because of the angle and ambient noise. From what I could gather, though, he'd had them install software onto his computer, and they missed one program. Naturally, he was displeased. The agent had apologized, said she would get to work on solving the problem right away, and even appeared to be starting the work as they spoke. That was somehow not good enough.
The guy went on and on, claiming that his time was obviously not important to the employees or to the company, that it was “ridiculous” that they could forget to do something he’d paid them to do, how he apparently knew it wasn’t specifically her fault but needed someone to complain to, etc.
He was obtuse enough to demand to speak to a manager, and when he was told that they were all in a meeting, escalated his demand and nearly ordered the agent to go get one out of the meeting.
He was oblivious enough to ask how she even knew that the software hadn’t been installed (wasn’t that his initial complaint?) even when she could show him the unopened software packaging.
And the one that annoyed me the most: he said, “Sorry doesn’t fix my computer,” (which is a claim that really annoys me, almost as much as "ridiculous") thus completely rejecting her apologies as she fixed his problem, as if suggesting that the only thing she could do to satisfy him was to turn back time and ensure the work was done correctly the first time around.
I wanted to stand up for the employees and the store by saying something, but this guy was angry and had at least 50 pounds on me. I kept my big mouth shut.
Second Stop: ROSS Dress for Less
I went to pick up a new white dress shirt, and I did manage to find a good deal. On my way to check out, I followed a shopper who casually abandoned three of her selections on the center aisle displays as she walked from one end of the store to the other. Three things she didn't want anymore, just dropped on the most convenient surface as she walked, nowhere near where they came from and not even related to the items she mixed them with. And I'll bet she's also among the shoppers who've recently complained that this ROSS location is poorly organized.
On my way out, I saw one woman pull up in one of those massive land-yacht SUVs. She stopped at the center point of four handicapped spaces (if the lines indicating those spaces were an X-Y axis, she'd be at coordinates (0,0)). Her passenger got out and walked into the store. The driver stayed there, idling, apparently waiting for her passenger to do some shopping. I saw no license plates or hanging tags that would have allowed her to use even one of those spaces, let alone FOUR!
Back Home: Trash Carts
At the dumpster near the front of my apartment complex, I saw a line of abandoned shopping carts. My neighbors use them to bring their shopping home and never bother to return them. I'll take some back every once in a while. This time, though, every single cart (about 14 of them this time from Wal-Mart, a department store, and a grocery store) had a bag of trash in them. As if the residents thought they shopping carts functioned as mini-dumpsters for when the main one was full (which it wasn't, by the way).
I think I've been sufficiently reminded why I tend to stay home on the weekends.
Comment