Customer Convenience Or Is It?

There is talk in the media that environmentalism is the new religion of a large segment of America. But I believe there something else that Americans will gravitate towards as a whole people and will justify any means to that end to achieve and have been doing so knowingly or unwittingly since the dawn of the industrial revolution or as long as I can remember and continue to do so today.

When I was a youngster my pop would regularly take a ride to the local lumber yard with list in hand to pick up tools and material for what ever project he was doing at the time. I did not care or even know what the project was most of the time, only that I was going for a ride in the front seat. On the way we would occasionally stop at the local gas station and pull right up to the pumping station islands. There we were greeted by a service station attendant that would pump the gas, clean the windshield, check the oil, and tire pressure all as a courtesy. Of course I would watch all of this take place every time from the soda machine and yea pop always sprung for the change.

Arriving at the lumber yard everyone would park in the front and go to the main desk area. There one of the owners would greet all the customers, take the material list and hand it over to a yard helper. Pop would then pay the bill and move the station wagon to the loading area of the lumber yard. The yard helpers would then load your vehicle and you would be on your way.

Since there were no cell phones at the time mom would give pop a small grocery list to pick up on the way home. This was an easy chore as the grocery store always had a cash register attendant and a helper to bag your goods.

Let’s fast forward to 2009, take the same trips and notice how things have changed.

A trip to the local gas station will find “you” the customer exiting your vehicle sometimes dressed in your finest clothes in all kinds of weather day and night to pump your own gas, wash your own window, check your own oil, and tire pressure.
If you are paying with cash you have to then walk into the service station or mini mart to pay the attendant that has absolutely no knowledge about any of the services you just completed on your own vehicle. Remember to smile the next time you get gas on your hand or clothes because the previous user didn’t use the pump properly. Remember to smile the next time you get gas and get very wet because it is raining. Remember to smile the next time you get gas knowing that U.S. oil companies just reported the biggest profits ever in a one year period…40 billion dollars and that’s just 1 company and Remember to smile the next time you get gas because the reason they went to self serve is because “you” the customer wanted the “Convenience” and prices would be lower since they no longer needed to pay salaries to Service Station attendants …. Remember to smile as you watch the price of gas go up day after day after day.
“Convenience” is a beautiful thing, no?

Next we will stop at the new local lumber yards that are nothing more than giant self service box stores that cater to contractors but will provide the average homeowner bulky heavy steel carts to navigate long cluttered isles all the while loading your own material aka: sheet rock, lumber, shrubbery, or whatever is on your list.
Checking out is a “project” in itself as they usually have two registers with actual store employees and 4 to 6 self serve check out area’s because “you” the customer wanted the “Convenience” of checking yourself out. I guess their right because every time I look around I see all of “your” happy faces standing in long lines at the self serve check out counter! After we check our selves out we then get to push our heavy carts into the crowded parking area and load our own vehicles.
“Convenience” is a beautiful thing, no?

The trip to the grocery store is a joke today. The only problem is that mothers across America are crying real tears over the cost of every day goods. As national chains buy up local chains the expected results are slashing personal and customer service and of course raising the costs of goods. Remember to smile the next time you are standing in those notoriously long super market check out lines because “you” the customer wanted the “Convenience” of checking yourself out.

I don’t recall at any time over the years any survey or questioner form from any store or company asking me if I wanted self service area’s to check myself out, do you?

It seems as if Corporate America has creatively led you and I to believe that they are giving you the convenience that you said you wanted by letting you perform the services and duties that they used to pay an employee to perform for “you” the paying customer….Ah “Convenience” or is it?

Jeffrey Shawn