I use convenience stores a fair bit.
One thing I’ve noticed a lot recently is a complete lack of knowledge on the part of subcontinental convenience store clerks on their product line.
Say you regularly buy a certain food or beverage product, then one day you notice there isn’t any more of it, and you go to ask the clerk, “Did you stop carrying X, or are you just out of it at the moment?”
Increasingly, you’ll get a blank look, and a ‘Uh…’
Recently, I laid into one: “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
“Sorry, boss!” (In the homeland, back during the Rаj, they’d have said ‘Sаһіb’; now they say ‘Boss’. Progress, I suppose…)
Yes, I get that head offices make business decisions that franchise owners don’t always get informed about. But they should make it their business to care and learn what’s happening. Their livelihoods, after all…
I’m not the only one who’s noticed increasing incompetence on their parts. One day, while in such a store, I watched a fellow Canadian rant at them over their misleading labelling about their brewed coffee products and their general incompetence at simply making a decent pot of coffee. I hoped he would simply take his business to a nearby Timmy’s instead, where he’ll get what he came for and the incompetents won’t get his money for substandard product and service…
And so, the decline and fall of our civilization continues…
