What? Pft, who wants to serve themself? Yh rgt.

Today The other day (I apparently fail at blogging on the same day ) I headed off to IKEA, surprisingly after a long hiatus. IKEA is one of those stores that used to be a great place to shop but has slowly, through foul decomposition and pure, ghastly rotting of rot, lost part of that greatness. These days they’ve resorted to selling AS-IS (broken/displayed products) for more than their original price. Say, would you rather pay $5.99 for tea saucer & cup set of 6, or $2.99 for a single cup and saucer that has been on display (or perhaps you’d like to opt for the third option–buying neither…really those things won’t hold nearly enough tea). Being the deviant I am, I am so very tempted to stand in AS-IS for a day just shouting at customers, informing them that they’re being ripped off, particularly ripped off for damaged goods, which in my opinion is the lowest of lows.

I remember the days when stores would actually put on their little facade and pretend to care about their customers. Now it seems they can no longer afford the illusion. Recall those days when Zellers used to give out free milk and cookies to kids every time their parents came to the store. Hell, parents didn’t even have to buy anything to have their child’s face shoved with sugary sugary goodness. Perhaps we’ve evolved into a society where people have attempted to exploit the goodness of others, or perhaps corporations are just becoming cheap mothers. Maybe a little bit of both? If not the first, most certainly the last. Here’s how I know:

On said trip to IKEA I was shocked to enter, noting that they had converted most cashier stations into self-serve checkouts and only one cashier was open at the time. I mean, great, woohoo for technology, but…at the same time, that’s a loss in jobs in an already hurting economy. I saw the same things happening at Home Depot two weeks ago: more self-serve, less jobs. Now, perhaps it’s wrong for me to just assume that there are less jobs–do I really know if employees aren’t just working elsewhere in the store? No, but I doubt it. Here’s to make another assumption: the purpose of these machines is to save money for the company. In no way do these grotesque hunks of metal help the customer (unless the customer is antisocial). Rather, I’ve seen many customers struggle with them. So I think I’m safe to assume they’re money-hungry. But what smart company isn’t? Unfortunately smart in corporate eyes isn’t always great in others. However, through decline in greatness and all, if there is one thing that IKEA has done right, it’s the fact they’ve kept their hot dogs at the same price…ooo and the meatballs…mmm, the lingonberry juice…swedish cookies *drools* —wait, what? I haven’t, nope, never said anything bad about IKEA in this blog. Nope, what *drools* are you talking about? not a clue *drools* about what you’re saying.ddal.,,,,,g/d.agfd.///////