I judge how crowded a place may be by the number of times I need to say, “Excuse me”; from the time I arrive until I leave. If it’s any more than a four “excuse me” affair I swear never to return. Life is just too short to play the waiting game.

Of course, you don’t need a crowd to have to wait sometimes. I was in Walmart the other day; I was at the registers waiting in a line about fourteen people long because they had one register open. One! They had what looked like a hundred cash registers and only one working! Oh they had six of those do it yourself register things. Two were broke and the other four didn’t look trustworthy to me. Besides, part of what I’m paying for is the service of the cash register person helping me.

Speaking of service, let me compare something with you. You go to Walmart for your groceries. You put your groceries in your cart. When you arrive at the cash register, you take them out of the cart. When the carousel comes around with your bagged groceries you put them back in your cart. Then you push the cart to your car and put the groceries in yourself. We pay them for this.

On the other hand, you shop at Lowes and you put your groceries in your cart and guess what? You don’t touch them again until you get home! They take them out of the cart at the register, they bag them and put them back in the cart, and then they push the cart to your car and put your groceries in your car for you! And we pay them for that.

I know groceries are cheaper at Walmart than at Lowes. I try to put up with the lack of service to get my staples as cheap as I possibly can at Walmart. But wouldn’t it be nice if service made a comeback? I don’t expect to return to the days of full service gas stations, but when I have a question about a product and I’m standing in a store big enough to land an airplane in I would like to hear something besides crickets! I would like roving floor employees who are on the lookout for anyone looking perplexed and immediately asking, “May I help you?”

We as a society have let them get away with treating us this way. It’s hard to take your business elsewhere when everyone is treating us the same. You would think as bad as the economy is a business would go way out of its way to attract my dollar. But no, it just doesn’t matter anymore because the stores have gotten so big the shareholders are all that matters.

I have seen Kmarts close down and they build a new Kmart right beside it. Why? It’s all marketing I guess. I’m just tired of always being stuck with the cart that has the squeaky wheel, aren’t you?

I’ll be right back.