Hi Friends!
Isn't it amazing how long it can take to even accomplish one task? And while it is true that living in one of the most congested cities in North America certainly contributes to the problem, my own special take on this is that things would move a hell of a lot quicker if so many people weren't stupid, lazy - or both. Case-in-point...last Saturday evening.
It was a chilly, rainy, windy miserable night. Due to an injury I had been unable to do much holiday shopping and/or shopping for Shar's birthday present (her birthday was the following day). Feeling better, I had allocated an hour (at most) to travel two subway stops and purchase the bluetooth speaker that I had already picked out for her. A few weeks earlier I had managed to visit the Radio Shack in Forest Hills - but that store had sold out the item I wanted. At the time I asked the clerk where the next closest Radio Shack was located and - without batting an eye - he responded "the Rego Park Mall". Just 2 subway stops away.
So this past Saturday evening I set out into the rain to buy Shar's gift, confident that the entire process would take an hour - tops! I left at 6pm expecting to return by 7pm. (However - not being a NYC "travel virgin" - I told her that I would return no later than 8pm (or an hour later. After all (I told myself) you never know…
I took the F train one stop to 71st street, intending to grab the local. Much to my surprise the F train - and evidently ALL trains on that line - were running "local" - meaning that I now had to wait on the platform for another train - thereby quickly killing ten minutes.
I finally grabbed a train that would take me to the Rego Park Mall. Wet, cold and miserable from the short walk from the subway stop to the mall, I quickly discovered that the Rego Park Mall - algthjough it does have a roof - is an outdoor mall, wide open to the elements at either end, necessitatiung the wind and cold (if not the rain itself) still casued discomfort - and making the walk through the mall rather unpleasant. I ALSO discovered that the clerk from the Forest Hills Radio Shack had been mistaken - that there was in fact NO Radio Shack at the Rego Park Mall. I walked into a store to ask someone if they knew where the closest Radio Shack was located. "Not far" the worker responded with enthusiasm, evidently happy to help. "Forest Hills" he told me. "The closest Radio Shack is in Forest Hills".
I walked back out into the cold rain, walked back to the subway and took the train an additional stop west to the Queens Plaza Mall. That mall had a "Best Buy" store - and "Best Buy" sold a speaker similar to the one I wanted to buy for Shar.
However, I was amenable to buying another speaker if the salesmperson could convince me it was better than the one I had chosen. Walking into the store I found a salesperson and told him my problem. He nodded; he understood. We walked over to the display of speakers with "bluetooth" capability. He paintakingsly went into the positive and negative features of each speaker. It was a very informative and impressive display of his knowledge. I practically sank to my knees in joy that I had found a salesperson so helpful and knowledgable...except that when I made my choice (a slight, mostly cosmetic upgrade on the model I had previously selected) the young gentleman from "Best Buy" indicated that - due to the holidays - the store was completely out of the speakers - each and every one of them! and that, as they'd been backordered,a supply should be arriving any day. I looked at him in disbelief. I needed to purchase a present that evening for a birthday that was taking place the following day (this had already been explained to him). And - if the product wasn't available - why had the salesperson wasted my prescious time with his all-inclusive explanation? He shrugged. "Just following my manager's instructions" he said. (Notice...there was no apology or even an acknowledgment that he may not have used good judgmenet in this situation.) It wasn't worth my time or energy to complain to the manager...I had to get the damn present...I didn't want to have to give Shar an "IOU",,,that's no fun!
In desperation I returned to trhe original Radio Shack - located in Forest Hills several stops back in the direction I'd come from..it was getting late. There had been a slightly cheaper speaker that I had previously comnsidered. It was possible that thgis model would be good enough (although if it wasn't, I'd have HAD to have given Shar that IOU - and she'd have said to me "where the hell DID you go for two hours?" However - much to mys surpise - the model I wanted was again in stock. (Oh....I'd told them to notify me if the product cam in. Yeah, right...no one had, I am still waiting...) Anyway, the speaker had coime in with a variety of colors to choose from. I gave the salesperson my preference. By now it was about 730...I'd been gone for an hour and a half. Ten minutes later she returned, empty-handed. They didn't have the color I wanted. (This took TEN minutes? It's a small store.) I learned quickly from the experience....there wefre 4 or 5 additional colors....I gave her mr request in order of perefernce....I figured she's come back with SOMETHING. And she did - again, TEN minutes later. She had no answer when I asked what had taken so long. Except that her sweater looked a little...wet...as if she had possibly gone into the alley gto smoke a cigarette - or make a phone call. Or both.)
I made my purchase, tripled-bagbging the present because of the rain and walked back to the apartment. I walked because the train I had taken back to Forest Hills was packed, terribly hot, uncomfortable...an reeked of urine from the homeless people who were living in each corner of the car.
I just about made it back within the two hours, exhausted form what I had assumed would be a simple, pro-forma and relatively quick process. I'm 61 years-old...I should know better, right? SHOULDN'T I?
Shar loved the present. But a BIG "WTF?" goes out to the salespersons who supplied wrong i nformation or who had launched imnto a time-consuming explanation of products which were no longer in stock...or the final salesperson who took a grand total of 20 minutes to find and make the sell on a product I had alreacdy decided to buy!
WTF is wrong with people?
Stevenn
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