The Grumpy Old Fart Customer

Photo Credit Christina Rausch

So somewhere in the early to mid-1980s the United States in its infinite wisdom forced most states to raise its legal drinking age from 19 to 21.  In the state where I hail from they raised the age to 21 just 28 days prior to my 21st birthday.  So, I had to wait for nearly a month before I could begin to legally drink again after having been able to do so for a year.

Now, this is enough to piss most people off, and I’m with them.  Imagine being legally able to imbibe (I know this audience knows the meaning of that word!) for a year then be cut off for a month.  Did I comply?  I will leave that to the imagination.

I bring this up because during a recent trip to one of the countries most popular stores, you know, the one with smiley faces everywhere, I encountered an aggravation (go figure).  During the always wonderful check out lane experience, I discovered that my “check out associate” was under 21.

This isn’t usually a big deal, however, today I have adult beverages in my cart!  So, as is in accordance with the law, this young person cannot swipe a sealed bottle of alcohol across a scanner.  This then requires the assistance of a manager, who in this case was powdering their nose.

So, this whole process grinds to a complete halt.  This put the rest of my weekend, which includes some imbibing on hold.  I am generally a patient man (LOL!) but this aggravates me to no end.

There are a few keen observations that need to be made here.  First, this young person is old enough to drive, vote, work and to be sent to a foreign country to either be wounded or killed.  However, he/she is not old enough to swipe a sealed bottle of alcohol (which is virtually impossible for he/she to “illegally” sneak a drink out of).

Then there is the issue of stores carrying alcoholic beverages, which one must be 21years of age or above to consume, however, we put individuals who are of a minor age at the cash registers.  When alcohol is sold within a premise, all cashiers should be of legal age.

Now, I realize that this may sound ludicrous to some but think about it for a minute: these so-called minors are old enough to be sent off to war and possibly lose their lives, yet, these minors cannot complete a sale by scanning a sealed container.

I understand the arguments against under-age drinking, however, maybe some modifications of the law can be made where the selling of alcohol within legally designated places can be done by a person of any age.  Maybe some specifications would have to be made regarding the types of establishments.

Let me be very clear here– I am not in favor of drinking and driving, underaged or otherwise, it is unacceptable at any age.  But, by the same token, we trust these under-aged minors to pull a trigger in combat but not to scan a bottle of alcohol in a store.

Surely there is a more efficient way of handling this situation for the customer.  Not only for me the customer but also for the other customers waiting in line behind me.  Maybe it is just me or it only happens to me but in either event it is aggravating!

Talk to ya later.

The Grumpy Old Fart Customer @ 2018 All Rights Reserved

“We’re Not Going To Take It”——-Dee Snider

So—what is this about?  I’m glad you asked.  I find my myself at the doorstep of 60 years of age. While this may not be a big deal to most, I find it interesting as I am beginning to see things more clearly as I slow down.

 

By the psychological definition of the phases of life at age 60 I am now entering the final phase of my life (you know, the Golden Years!). In my younger days, I did everything at a high speed.  This included work, play and virtually every facet of my life.  This was especially true when it came to shopping for goods and services.

 

For me a trip to any store meant a strategy of get-in and get-out.  Usually, having a very singular focus on what I needed to pick up while spending the least amount of time in any given store.  This meant that I rarely worried about how a store operated or the conveniences that should be offered to customers.  I had a singular focus.

 

I’m am finding that in the final phase of my life I’m slowing down enough to see things that I used to ignore or miss as a younger man.  This is especially true of everything that I buy in my life now and as a very active customer of various products and services I’m seeing things I never seen before.  You know—–I am stopping to smell the roses!

 

I am noticing that we as customers are not treated as you would think customers would be treated.   We are referred to most often as consumers, I hate that expression! The title “consumers” reduces us to something that is always shown on some business show chart.  We are customers! In so many ways we are customers of virtually everything that touches our lives.

 

Now, how did I achieve the nickname grumpy old fart customer?   Well, recently while shopping with my son he referred to me as a grumpy old fart.  Maybe it’s true but I must tell you in all honesty some of the stuff out there in stores and various places where I go as a customer really pisses me off!

 

So as a part of my ongoing, self-imposed therapy, I’m going to write in this blog the many different things that I am now noticing out there in the customer world.  You will notice from time-to-time my absolute frustration!  I hope that some of you have seen the same things and can understand the reason for this writing.

 

I’m going to write as I speak, so for those of you who want to criticize me for my English don’t bother! I am a business communicator by profession and I have a vast knowledge and mastery of the English language. One of my biggest literary heroes is Ernest Hemingway.  Hemingway believed that writing should only use simple words and sentence structure.  I believe this as well.

 

One of the other things that I notice when I read the various blogs that are out there is that they try to put their mastery of English on display by using words that are rarely used (if even known to most). This creates a situation where some of the readers of that blog must constantly have a dictionary present and must look the words up.

This makes a Blog a lot slower to read and easier to lose the train of thought when we try to use many words not commonly used in our everyday vocabulary.  So, I am just going to chat with you here and make a few observations from the prospective of a customer.

 

Ok, so here we go: I am going to share with you the experiences that I have while shopping as a customer.  You may not always agree with everything that I write here and that’s OK, you can comment on either Facebook or Twitter and let me know how you feel about everything that I share here.

 

So, let’s have some fun with this, maybe laugh, maybe even cry. I will post at least once a week, possibly multiple times, so check back and stayed tuned.  I just believe that we are not being treated well as customers and it is time to speak up!

 

Talk to ya later!

The Grump Old Fart Customer @ 2018 All Rights Reserved