I stood in line today watching two clerks helping customers. There were five people in front of me and ten behind me. The clerks seemed to have molasses in their veins.
As they chit-chatted with the customers, I noted that normally I’d think they were being friendly. But they weren’t working while they chatted and if the customer was filling out a form, the chatting took him/her away from the task, so it took much longer than needed for the line to move.
Two copies of my local newspaper were delivered to my house every day last week. I’d put the paper on a brief vacation hold the previous week, so thought something got screwed up when it restarted. I thought it odd my carrier would deliver two papers to the same house.
I called to report the two copies. The accented woman heard my issue and said I had two subscriptions. How could that be when I’ve only been receiving one paper each day for 15 years? One subscription, she informed me, began years ago and was $115/year. The other subscription began 18 months ago and was $30 for 26 weeks. I told her this was odd because I’d only received one paper per day, and was paying $30 each 26 weeks.
I’d been looking for a new hair stylist so decided to try an upscale one near my home who advertised a special deal. When I arrived for my appointment, the salon was empty but for a lone woman at the reception desk who was taking payment from a teenager and his mother.
They chit-chatted for about 5 minutes while I looked around the shop’s retail area, then sat waiting for my appointment. The employee didn’t acknowledge my presence in any way until the pair left. “Can I help you?” she asked.