As appeared in the Albuquerque Journal, Rio Rancho and Westside sections 3/28/09
Has anyone noticed that the service industry is on its last legs, or is it just me? Oh, this decline began long ago, but it is usually not until it seeps into our everyday lives that one takes notice.
Take gas stations. Not that I lived in Mayberry, but we did have our own version of Goober in town. When we pulled into Mr. Pierce's Marathon gas station, he always walked out to the car with a smile on his face, pumped the gas, washed the front and back windows and checked the oil. "Put it on the tab, Mrs. S.?" he would ask my mother. A friendly thumbs up and off we went.
Nowadays, you are lucky if your card makes a clean swipe at the self-serve gas pump. Unfortunate customers get the "SEE ATTENDANT" message and are forced to walk inside to clear up the problem. No longer is it self-serve as I find myself fourth in line behind the 12-pack of Bud and quick-pick purchasers. "What pump are you on, ma'am?" asks the cashier. "I don't know; it's behind number two over there on the outside," I answer as my geometry class post traumatic stress syndrome kicks in.
If that full tank of gas is taking you to the airport and you are not a regular traveler, heaven help you. If you think a courteous desk clerk is going to clickety-click away on her keyboard and find you a window seat, think again. The check-in counter at the airport is all self-check, individual kiosks now. You almost need an orientation class to know how to work the touch screen, get a seat and check your own bag. No, they don't make you carry it to the plane, that is unless you aren't checking it, then, yes, you do carry it with you, stow it and carry it off when you get to your destination. Ah, the good old days when the hardest thing to do was choose between beef tips and noodles or chicken Parmesan. Care for some peanuts?
They are even trying to get us to be our own cashier at the groceries and discount stores. The short little self check-outs look so cute and easy until you try one. Don't let the fact that they are always empty deceive you into thinking it is a quick alternative to the human checkers, and if you have tried this, you already know. Am I right?
"Remove your bag. Place item in the bag. Remove item from bag. There are remaining items in bag," says the automated monotone voice as you are adding and removing soup cans and bananas just to make it shut up. I thought you needed a union card to be a cashier.
My favorite has to be the full-on/non-human contact grocery experience. At Giant food stores on the East Coast, shoppers can now grab hand-held scanners upon entering the store along with their cart and bags – paper, plastic or the self-sufficient canvas ones from home. They proceed through the aisles scanning and bagging their groceries as they shop with a running total to show how much they are spending. When finished, they return the scanner to the rapid check-out docking station and pay with a credit card. It all sounds so efficient, so perfect, but what's to stop someone from skipping the scanning step and going straight to bagging? "That Rid-X is just too expensive to pay for this week, honey. Just bag it."
We've been doing our own banking at the ATMs and online for a while now. We have even become our own stock brokers, thanks to the Internet. The next thing you know, we will no longer send our kids to school but instead turn into teachers and keep them home. Oh, wait, home schooling is already here.
I say bring back the kinder, gentler people to the service industry. Where are the Goobers when you really need them?
Quote of the Week: "You can trust your car to the man who wears the star." – Texaco, 1962.
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