Fold My Laundry Please

Twice in two days I’ve been confronted with some of the worst customer service I’ve ever seen.  On Friday, I decided to stop by Gandolfo’s New York Deli to pick up something "quick" for dinner.  Many times in the past I’ve pulled up to the place only to find a sign taped to the window saying something like, "Closed early.  Out of bread."  And this is always at a fairly early hour, like 5 pm.  What kind of a sandwich place runs out of bread more than 5 hours before closing time!  This time, however, they had bread but were out of brains.  There were two young girls there staffing the place.  As I placed my order, I found myself having to speak very slowly and hearing a whole lot of "I’m new here and our manager is gone."  Even with me trying to check and double check what she was doing, she still got it wrong and I had to go back up to the register to correct the error.  The other girl I’ve seen in there before…on her very first day…a week before.  She was intently studying the cheat sheets trying in vain to make sandwiches for the orders that were quickly piling up.  In case you missed this most important point of my story, the entire store was staffed by two people who had been employed less than a week.  No managers.  No properly trained employee of any sort.  At the high point of the dinner rush.  Eventually, the girl at the register asked those people waiting in line to hold on a moment while she went back and stared blankly at the cheat sheets with her co-worker.  The situation was really so awkward, it was funny.  Eventually I was given sandwiches vaguely resembling what I had ordered and headed home before my humor ran out.

Saturday evening, I took Ethan out to Walmart to find something to spend his well earned money he got from the Tooth Fairy on.  He was so cute about it!  We spent a fair amount of time wandering around the toy section discussing the different toy combinations he could get with $5.  Finally, he decided on a puzzle and a little light up sword.  He wanted to get one for Gideon and Aurora, too, but he didn’t have quite enough money for that.  I volunteered to pay for their swords and we cheerfully headed off to the register so that Ethan could pay for his items.  We stood in line for a little bit and when we finally got to the front, I informed the cashier that Ethan wanted to pay for his things himself and could she please ring them up separately.  She sighed, looked incredibly annoyed, and proceeded to scan his toys and then turned to me and gave me the total.  I turned to Ethan, told him how much it was and let him know it was time to give her the money.  He smiled big and handed over his $5 bill.  She refused to look at him and then dropped his change in the general area of his hand.  Of course, he dropped it all over the floor and instead of apologizing, the cashier commenced scanning the rest of my items while I crawled around on the floor picking up the coins so that Ethan could put them into his envelope. 

When I stood up, she told me my total.  I looked at the conveyor belt and stared for a moment at the remainder of my items she had failed to scan.  "That includes my things over there, too?" I asked.  Then she got really irritable, because, really, who did I think I was, wanting to walk out with every single thing I had put in my cart!  And…I had a coupon!  The nerve!  So while she scanned the other things, I swiped my card.  She did her thing so that the transaction could be completed.  Then she started scanning the next customers things and bagging them, before I had even signed the screen for my credit card.  I had an evil little thought run through my head that I should just leave without signing, obviously she didn’t really want my money.  "Just tap the cancel option!" the little voice said.  But then my shoulder-angel appeared and reminded me that I would be setting a very bad example indeed for my children and also, Walmart most likely would prosecute to the fullest extent of the law!  I signed for my card, the cashier took time out of checking out the other customer long enough to shoot me a disapproving glare and thrust my receipt at me, and I left the store feeling more than a little peeved.  I could have stood the rudeness to myself, maybe even have laughed it off, but that hag was rude to my baby on his very first time experiencing the joy of first person consumerism!  The more I think of that fact, the more I wish I had reached across the counter and taught her a few things about manners and common decency!

What is wrong with people lately?  At work I talk with customers all day long and if any of us even dared think anything rude at a customer, we’d be called in to counseling with a supervisor before we even hung up the phone!  What kind of manager lets the store be run completely by new employees who still know next to nothing about the jobs they’ve been hired for?  Not to mention the frequent running out of bread thing.  Either someone isn’t planning effectively, or they need to find a new manager.  And has Walmart lost so much money trying to pretend to be high end by selling fresh sushi and having professional pianists play live music for their customers that they can no longer afford to hire polite people?  All I can say is that I will definitely be calling some store managers tomorrow, not to mention getting in contact with some district offices.  There’s just no excuse for this sort of thing.