Tonight, after going to the tattoo shop (Janet needed some color touch-ups), we decided to go to Safeway on our way back home. Little did we know what an ordeal that would be.
While walking through the automatic plexiglas doors, I realized that I was starting to hit a really low blood sugar level. I knew that if I didn't get something that I could eat on the walk back home, I would become extremely irritable. So, while Janet went to the restrooms, I decided to get into line at the deli for some chicken strips and some potato wedges.
Safeway has now instituted this wonderful little number system. You get a number, and then wait for them to call it. So, I get number 87. they start calling numbers: number 83… number 84… number 85… number 86… number 86… no number 86? Number 87. About ten seconds before I could start ordering, number 86 pipes up …Oh wait, I'm here! So, the counter person tells me that I am next and I wait patiently.
About 3 minutes later, I noticed that though the server who told me that I would be next was still working on number 86, the rest of the clerks were just serving people wily-nilly, regardless of the fact that because I was number 87, I was next! At this point, I was cranky, hungry and just wanted to get home. So, I interrupt the woman who is still helping number 86 and inform her "What the hell is going on here… I thought you said that I was next?' So she tells the person helping number who-the-hell-knows to drop that order and come and help me.
Now tell me, if Safeway decides to do away with the oh-so-simple "waiting in line" schema of order-taking management for the more complex "take a number" schema… shouldn't they tell the order-takers that if the next person in line doesn't have the next freaking sequential number… that they don't get served?
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