Letter to the editor
We have in this country what is called a “service industry.” In the most recent decades that service industry has deteriorated to self serve in many businesses. As an elderly woman I can recall the days when there was real service.
Whatever happened to service? Nearly all petrol stations are self serve. If you want to pay for your gas with cash you must go inside the station and wait to be served at the kiosk. Then you still have to pump your own gas. Doing it outside with a credit or debit card, punching in the code, choosing the amount and grade of gas, lifting up the cold metal pump is no fun. I’m used to the process now but when the wind is howling and rain or sleet are coming down it is a challenge.
Whatever happened to the “grocery boy” who stood beside the cashier and packed one’s groceries and carried them out to the car for you? Cashiers are no longer able to make change from a cash payment until they have entered the amounts into the register and have the computer indicate how much change to give. In some businesses shoppers are expected to pack their own purchases, then carry them out to the car and wheel the cart back into the store.
Attempting to get a hold of a business via telephone is a process these days. The message “Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line …” can in extreme situations mean several hours of waiting on the phone.
In the big box stores it is nearly impossible to find anyone on the floor who can help you locate what you are shopping for. Once you wander around and eventually track down what you went in to purchase, you then have to run the gauntlet up and down lines of junk food and cheap treats to get to a cashier.
What got me reflecting on the general state of the service industry? Recently I went to get some soil for my garden. I brought my own bags in order to avoid collecting more plastic. Filling the bags from the five gallon bucket by myself proved to be a disaster. I managed to spill dirt all over the trunk of my vehicle.
I can’t help but wonder if the past five years of the COVID era, where we were made to live in fear of getting too close, we lost something of the community spirit that may take time to recover. It is always a treat to go into an establishment where the staff is friendly, happy, ready and willing to serve.
Lynn Askey, Radium Hot Springs
