• K-Mart

    I have used this space in the past to describe my families oath of allegiance to the blue light retailer. Over the last 10 years, the retailer, and my families allegiance to it, has been in decline. First, there was the declining stock price. Then there was the bankruptcy. Then there was the lousy service, and the crummy products. Then there was the great divestiture.

    Now comes the final straw. There was exactly one reason why I continued to shop at K-Mart – it was convenient for me. I knew that I could grab something and get out quickly. No, this had nothing to do with the quality of service provided by it’s employees. In fact, it was convenient in spite of the employees. It was convenient because I could get in and out without having to deal with a single employee directly. Yes, they had self-check out registers. On several occasions I brazenly bypassed the long lines of lemming like shoppers waiting for assistance from the K-Mart cashiers. A quick scan of my one or two items, a swipe of my credit card… and I was ready to leave retail purgatory behind me.

    Now imagine my disappointment when I picked up a few items this weekend. I walked through the facade that is older than I am, passed the jewelry case that looks better suited for displaying lottery tickets at a 7-11, walked through the isles that look as if they were organized 15 years ago by an intern from G. Pierce Wood, picked out my selections, and prepared myself for self-checkout; only to face rejection in the form of an expanded magazine selection. The self-checkout stations were gone, and so is my patronage

    It is finally time to abandon the sinking ship.

  • Still Awake.

    It’s past my bedtime on a work night and I’m still awake; a perfect time to grab my handy-dandy iBook and let my fingers do some talking. I would really like to share some good advise I got from a friend, the only problem is said friend makes up half of my readership. Oh hell, if it benefits even one person it will all be worth while. Of course that’s the best I could hope to do, but I won’t dwell on that right now.

    A while back I was having a problem at work. It wasn’t a big problem, just something that was nagging at me. I was having a bit of a communication problem. I know what you are thinking: me, the great communicator, having problems vocalizing? Surely you’re more likely to catch Rush Limbaugh with a nasty drug problem, right? (O.K., that was admittedly a low blow. While it is never funny to see someone suffer, this “commie liberal” still finds it terribly ironic.) But I digress…

    The advise involved making an effort to connect with people on a regular basis, perhaps simply making it a point to touch bases with everyone each morning. It seems to be paying dividends. There are folks I work with who will never be my best friend, but it’s nice to work in a place where everyone can talk, where everyone is approachable. The key for me has been making the effort to approach on a regular basis, not just when I need to discuss a problem.

    It’s funny how obvious solutions can sometimes be so evasive.

  • Tap, tap.

    Your foot makes an odd sound when it taps on a fake wood, laminate floor. It doesn’t sound like wood. It doesn’t sound like plastic. It sounds just like a piece of particle board sitting on top of a thin sponge. Why on earth am I talking about the acoustics of my living room floor? (Insert you favorite line about readership here.)

    Waiting at home, instead of work, waiting for a meeting at school with Beth’s teachers; I’m in a good mood. I should have been at work for the last 45 minutes. Instead I’m home typing this entry. I could be working on the overwhelming stacks of “responsibility” sitting in my office, but I’m not. I could be worried about all of the work that I’m not doing right now, but I’m not.