Customer Disservice

Lately, one of the local gas station chains has made several changes to the traditional customer service model which, in my opinion, are not quite working out.

First, no matter what you purchase, the cashier will now always ask you if you would like any of their specials today, which typically are artery-clogging items such as cookies or doughnuts. This means that, for example, if you dump an armload of junk food in front of them which contains as estimated 14,000 calories, they will still look you in the eye and ask you if you’re interested in their cinnamon buns, as if the 14,000 calories you’re already purchasing are not enough for a gluttonous hog such as yourself. It makes it hard not to respond, in a snarky manner, like this: “No thanks, I was only planning on one stomach pumping, today!”

Second, they cashiers no longer say, “Have a nice day.” Instead, they say, “See you later.” The problem with this is that since you normally do not know this cashier, saying 'see you later' makes it sound like they will soon be stalking you wherever you go, perhaps to see if you will buy some chocolate chip cookies, since they are only four for a dollar.

The cashiers, to their credit, are already aware of these issues, and they mostly sound embarrassed when they have to do and say these things. Because of this, I am typically polite and try not to make things more awkward than they already have to be. It’s the hyper cashiers that truly want to be your friend, and who truly believe you need to buy the special items, that get to me. They are so annoyingly friendly that they make the act of checking out fairly torturous. While they are happily prattling on about their incredible deals, I am impatiently tapping my foot and wondering just how big the lawsuit would be if my steaming hot cup of coffee accidentally spilled in their geenral direction.

But then again, maybe I am overreacting a little to this. Maybe I should try to lighten up a little. I mean, look how much energy I've already devoted to complaining about this.

Nah. What fun would that be? Plus, I really don’t need the cookies.