"Take good care of your customers
and they will take care of your business."
-- Biju Paulose
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| Wood mannequin with a bag full of bendy men 9-9-14 |
"One day some of the kids from the neighborhood
carried my mother's groceries all the way home.
You know why?
It was outta respect."
-- "Henry Hill," Goodfellas
I am old enough to remember when a friendly attendant pumped your gas for you, and a friendly bagger carried your groceries out to your car for you.
It was nice.
In today's "self serve" world, "nice" things like that are bottom line money-losers. If you can make the customer do it, then you don't have to pay someone else to do it. As a result, the "service" in "customer service" is shriveling like a vestigial tail.
Nowadays, you have to scan shit yourself, and then bag shit yourself, and then reload that shit back into the shopping cart yourself, and then get that shit out to the car yourself.
I'm no grocery store diva, but sometimes it's really refreshing to get a little bit of help, even if I don't really need it.
There is a little two-register grocery store just around the corner from my house where they'll still carry out your groceries.
There are no abandoned shopping carts rolling around the parking lot. No cart "corrals." That's because the nice person in the red apron who bags your groceries also loads your bags onto a little trolley and then walks outside with you and puts your bags right into your car for you.
(Insert sound of singing angels here.)
And you don't have to buy a cartload. They'll carry out one lone bag if that's all you've got.
And they won't accept tips.
Just yesterday I bought some groceries and a few bags of ice. I didn't even have to ask for help. They just did it.
Maybe it's just one of those old-fashioned things about living in a small town. We take care of each other.
Heck, we even have a gas station that still has full service pumps. They'll pump your gas, check your oil, and even clean your windshield. No extra charge.
I like living in a place where our frail elderly folks, and our exasperated moms with their hands and minivans full of little kids and babies, and anyone else for that matter -- can get a little help with the little things.
It makes ordinary life a little easier.
It makes ordinary life a little better.
It makes ordinary life a little friendlier.
It makes ordinary life a little happier.
It makes ordinary life a little extraordinary.
Life is good.
