heard

At Zeller's:

"Will you be using your HBC card today?"

"No."

"Do you have an HBC rewards card?"

"No."

"Would you like to apply for one today?"

"No."

"Would you like to donate one dollar to [unintelligible]?"

"No. Thank you."

And unfortunately, because I found the cashier nearly impossible to understand, the conversation actually sounded like this:

"Will you be usinzyershababalalay?"

"Sorry?"

"Will you be using your sheesha bleeza today?"

"No."

"Do you have a kurjashablablahcard?"

"Sorry?"

"Do you have an blatherbebeddy card?"

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Would you like to jabbawabbablabla today?"

"No."

"Would you like to donate one dollar to wazeewhahoolie?"

"No. Thank you."

Please just let me buy these two items and get out of this store!!

Comments

  1. brian16 June 2006 at 21:28

    Don't tell it to the cashier, tell it to the boss who tells them to say a whole bunch of different things on a retarded script or else they will suffer the ultimate punishment, getting written up (that's why they hire young people, we take more crap because we want to be good workers, because we haven't learned that working hard gets you nowhere in a dead end job like retail yet).

    ReplyDelete
  2. laura k17 June 2006 at 03:58

    I would never tell it to the cashier. I know she's given strict orders on what she must say. Her boss is given the same by his corporate superior.

    The cashier wasn't young. Sadly, many middle-aged and elderly people are working those dead-end jobs, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Diamond Jim17 June 2006 at 06:44

    Eventually everybody over 60 will be working one of those dead-end jobs, at least in the States--giving a whole new meaning to "dead end."

    ReplyDelete
  4. brian17 June 2006 at 23:17

    Working in retail, I have to realize that the fundamental constant is corporate idiocy. They are so insulated from what both the customer and the employees want

    ReplyDelete
  5. laura k18 June 2006 at 05:48

    giving a whole new meaning to "dead end."

    What a depressing thought. And so true.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kyle_From_Ottawa19 June 2006 at 06:34

    My brother works at Home Outfitters (another HBC store)....

    Apparently, manangement at his store is so pushy about forcing them to sign up people for credit cards that they actually schedule part-time hours based on how successful the person was at foisting off HBC cards....

    Not only that, they get yelled at if some percentage of credit purchases (40ish, I think) that day weren't made on HBC cards....

    But then again, HBC's been bleeding red ink for years. Maybe things will change now that that South Carolina guy is in charge of things.

    ReplyDelete
  7. laura k19 June 2006 at 09:21

    Not only that, they get yelled at if some percentage of credit purchases (40ish, I think) that day weren't made on HBC cards....

    Bleh! As if they have any control over that.

    I was so put off by all these questions. As Latour said above, the people making these decisions are totally out of touch with what customers want.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

sharia

This morning I see that Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario, is banning the Muslim religious court known as sharia . This ends months of debate about whether sharia would be legal and binding in Ontario. I'm quoting at length from the story in today's Toronto Star because many US readers are likely not up on this. In a surprise announcement that caught both supporters and opponents of sharia law off guard, Premier Dalton McGuinty says he will move quickly to ban all religious arbitration in the province. McGuinty made the announcement in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press yesterday after months of debate and controversy surrounding use of Islamic sharia law in family arbitration. "I've come to the conclusion that the debate has gone on long enough," the premier told the news agency. "There will be no sharia law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians." The announcement prompted t...
Read more

can of worms

I'm opening a sticky subject here, my need to understand causing me to throw caution to the wind. It's about Alberta. Alberta vs. the rest of the Canada. The Globe And Mail runs something about Alberta's gripes every day, and I try to follow along. If it weren't for wmtc's resident Albertan , and the ensuing arguments in comments, I would've had no warning. It's not something Americans know about. As is, observing for more than a year, I have only the smallest of clues. Here's what I know. Please pardon my ignorance and oversimplification, but I have to start somewhere. The province of Alberta is rich, because it has oil. The province of Alberta is conservative, relative to the rest of Canada. Hmm. Funny how those two go together. Because of its great oil wealth, Alberta revenue helps fund services in the rest of Canada. (These are transfer payments?) Apparently many Albertans resent this. They want to keep Alberta's money in Alberta. They don't...
Read more

low confidence

I'm excited about today's no-confidence vote . Only three months after moving here, we'll get to see a government fall, a campaign, and an election, in a system very different from what we're accustomed to. Even the expression "the government will fall" strikes us as oddly dramatic and revolutionary. My sense of current Canadian politics, for what it's worth, tells me that very little will change from the upcoming election. I'd be surprised if the Liberals didn't win. So it's kind of cool to see this happening without a lot at stake. On a semi-tangential note, have I mentioned I'm completely down with "Corner Gas"? Excellent show; I love the deadpan humour. (Great website, too; check it out .) So was that really Finance Minister Ralph Goodale ragging on Brent Butt's camera last Saturday night?
Read more