I took my daughter to Best Buy today to shop for a laptop. They had the widest variety to choose from and I wanted her to be able to find what she really wanted. Making the decision took her all of fifteen minutes. But getting checked out took nearly half an hour.
First was the sales clerk. We couldn't seem to find one! Then we noticed a guy on a portable phone in a blue shirt walking up and down the aisles. Since he hovered near the computers, we assumed he must be the one for that department. Seeing the name badge, we knew he was the one.
But the phone call he was on was never-ending. What happened to the adage about the bird in the hand being worth two in a bush? A customer in the store should certainly be worth more attention than someone on the phone needing information, shouldn't they? One would assume that a customer on the phone could be put on hold while tending to a live one in the store ready to check out. Apparently not. He waved to us several times to let us know he was going to be finished at some time in the future.
Finally we grew tired of being patient. I told my daughter, let's leave and see if that gets anyone's attention. So we headed out of the department toward the front door. That seemed to get the clerk in the mood to end his conversation on the phone and he came after us. With a sigh of relief, we went back, showed him what she wanted, and he got the laptop and walked to the cash register....which of course had to be at the far end of the store from where we were.
Then he had to write up the sales slip and punch it in to the register, only to find out he didn't have enough cash to make the change needed. He had to call someone to come and bring him some cash for the register. A bored looking gal showed up and found out what he needed and vanished back into the back of the store. We never saw her again. After five minutes, during which time he paged her again, we persuaded him to give us our change in smaller bills so we could go. For all we know she's still searching for the department that handles making change. The entire store seemed to be teeming with blue-shirted employees, all sporting the same vacant I-Don't-Know-I-Just-Work-Here look. It was probably my last trip to a Best Buy, since a similar experience was had at their Roanoke store some time ago.
Contrast that to a trip to the local stores in Floyd. Farmer's Supply has fewer employees, and immense range of stuff to sell, and they are always ready and willing to help you find whatever you need. At Slaughter's Supermarket, any employee will make eye contact and ask if they can help you find something...and their bag boys actually take the groceries out and load them into your car! I really like dealing with the smaller local stores whenever I can because I'm a shop til you drop kind of person...with arthritis in my knees, shop til you drop takes me fifteen minutes!
Give me small town shopping ANY day.