Protected: Fuck, I hate my life
Opinion
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Feb 032012
Oct 212011
I had the – misfortune – to go to a large hardware store tonight after work, intending to purchase several hundred dollars of garden power tools. Large, well known retailer, who’s “slogan” is;
Just the beginning… of one of the most horrendous shopping experiences of my life, and one that, were I the store manager, I would be sacking people over
Now, I don’t expect staff at ANY retailer to fawn over the customers – but nor do I expect them to totally ignore and show complete indifference towards them either, as was the case at the McGrath’s Hill Bunnings store tonight.
Staff Member #1 was unloading a pallet of stock in the aisle we were in and (as she said) didn’t work in that area. Fair enough. I asked a simple question about whether a brushcutter came with a harness or shoulder strap – then I noticed the picture on a box showing the strap. She still proceeded to try (unsuccessfully) to unbox the product, all the while mumbling to herself and ignoring me.
My wife asked her to get someone who worked in the area and who knew a little more about the products – a reasonable request, no ? The response was an indifferent “Oh, OK”, and she wandered back to her pallet. Has the request not been repeated, I have no doubt she would have continued unpacking it.
Staff Member #2 turns up, allegedly one who worked in that area. I indicated the device I was interested in and asked if the harness I wanted came with it or could be purchased, and what attachments came with it. “No idea.. I don’t think I have any in stock anyway”. I’m actually rather surprised he was walking upright, to be honest. It seemed almost an intrusion on his time for us to be there.
It was at this point that I said to my wife, rather loudly, “Forget it – let’s go. It’s obvious they don’t give a stuff about serving customers here”, and walked with my family to the exit.
I mentioned to the “greeter” that the store needed to employ staff who were a tad more intelligent, and then told her what just happened. Her response of “Oh”, then turning back to her paperwork, was the last straw.
Out in the carpark I phoned the store to contact the Store Manager – 15 minutes ON HOLD before someone answered the phone – her name was “Laurel” or “Lauren” or something similar – she spoke so fast and in such a disinterested voice I’m surprised she even bothered to come to work at all.
I asked to speak to the Store Manager, quite calmly and as soon as I had finished SHE SLAMMED THE PHONE DOWN ! I called back when I had calmed down, sone 20 minutes later at the local McDonalds, and was on hold for 25 minutes WITH NO HUMAN INTERVENTION !
People, I’m no-one special – I’m just a CUSTOMER. The person who spends money ! The money which pays YOUR WAGES !
You blew a potential $600 sale tonight – I already had decided which brush cutter I wanted, and would have bought the appropriate protective accessories with it as well. Not a huge sale in the great scheme of things I guess, but I hardly think you can turn a sale of ANY size away – certainly not with increased competition from the recently-announced Woolworths hardware venture.
Think of it this way – you piss me off and I don’t spend, say, $600. I also blog about it and tell, say, 10 friends. Let’s say that those 10 friends don’t spend $300 each (1/2 of what I was going to spend). That’s $3,600 in potential sales that YOU WILL NEVER SEE.
But it gets worse. Those 10 friends tell 10 friends each. Using the same figures, we’re up to around $36,000 in lost sales VERY VERY QUICKLY !
Sales that will go to the competition.
Can you afford NOT to do something about this attitude and still stay in business ?
With NSW heading into what could be another political black hole for another 4 years, the spectre of compulsory voting has raised its’ head in some quarters. Few topics have engendered such vociferous debate amongst the cognoscenti (or, more correctly, faux-cognoscenti) in the past few years, with the possible exception of Pauline Hanson’s re-election to Parliament.
The tenets of the compulsory voting system stem from a perceived “public right” to elect their chosen leaders – and I’m not denigrating that right in any way. I believe we all have the right, if not the ability, to elect those who we think will best represent our views and desires in the governing of NSW after informed consideration.
And therein lies the crux of the whole problem – “informed consideration”
Consider the current situation in Australia: you are ORDERED, under penalty of monetary fine, to rock up to a polling place every 4 or so years to cast your vote for a range of candidates who, just possibly, may represent some or all of your political views. Maybe. Far too often they are a bunch of self-interested troglodytes who’s only interest in governing is for what they can get out of it (yes, this is a generalization, but not an overly unfair one). Their sycophants press “how to vote” papers upon you, printed at the taxpayer’s expense, to try to sway you to their point of view, often at the expense of their own self-respect as they attack (unfairly in many cases, justified in others) their political rivals.
I say that a vote cast in this manner is marginally, VERY marginally, worth more than the ever popular Australian idiom, the “donkey vote”. If you NEED a piece of paper, pressed upon you at the last moment, to help you decide who to vote for, then I say your vote is WORTHLESS. It is a vote cast out of enforced necessity – in fact, were you to arrive at the polling place, be checked off the roll, and stuff your blank ballot paper in the appropriate collection receptacle provided you have complied with your “obligation”. You have ATTENDED – the manner or style in which you cast your vote is immaterial.
Then, for an indeterminate period of time (in NSW at least), you are subject to the whims of your “elected representatives”, who generally represent no-one other than themselves. Their “promises”, given to entice you to cast favourably upon them, are largely forgotten and if not then there’s little if anything you can do to address the situation. They know you HAVE to vote, and factor this into their over-zealous and ill-considered “promises”. THEY DO NOT CARE!!
Your vote has, in many cases, done absolutely nothing – zip, nyet, nada, ZERO.
Yet, even if you didn’t vote, and have taken absolutely no interest in or responsibility for putting the incumbent in office, you can still bitch and whinge like a little schoolgirl about what they are doing right or wrong, how they don’t represent your views, etc. And they will give ear to your complaints – at least until you leave the office, and then promptly forget them. You can’t do ANYTHING about them!!
Contrast this with the polling methods used in that bastion of democracy and freedom, the United States of Obama… err, AMERICA.
Voting is non-compulsory. It is enshrined in their constitution. You have to REGISTER as a voter, and show your registration card at the polling place in order to cast your vote. You, the member of the American Public, will largely be motivated to vote based on research into the various candidates’ and parties’ policies, and you will HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE, in one way or another, for failure to perform. Candidates will still attempt to sway your opinion, as they have the right to do, but this time THEIR HEART IS IN IT – they know that you don’t HAVE to vote, you have to WANT to vote!
Should you disagree with what your local elected representative is doing, you can confront them about it and they will (on the whole), listen and actually DO something – not because they care more than Australian politicians, not because of some altruistic bent they have, but because you BOTHERED TO VOTE. You registered, and you voted – two conscious and unenforced decisions on your part.
And when you do take them to task they are under no obligation to listen to you, or even to talk to you, unless you can show your REGISTERED VOTER card.
How many of your friends and family will vote LIBERAL or LABOUR because “that’s how I’ve always voted”, or because “your Father votes that way and I vote the way he does”? In my own family, that was the norm. I suspect many other families are the same.
I say it’s time to break the shackles of this antiquated way of electing our governing representatives, and move toward a considered and defined policy of NON-COMPULSORY VOTING, along the lines I have described above.
Some of you have already countered this argument, saying that it “disenfranchises” certain segments of the community by making it more difficult for them to vote. Even to go so far as propose insane situations, like the Government having one polling place in Canberra and everyone who wants to vote having to attend there. This is childish in the extreme.
How does giving someone the basic human right of being able to CHOOSE disenfranchise or disadvantage anyone?
I would envision that the polling places would stay the same – schools, churches, village halls, etc. The candidates would hold far more “community consultation” and better define their platforms and promises, knowing that those who DO vote for them will HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.
Those who want a say in the running of their Local Council, State or Federal Government will REGISTER, will become INFORMED of the various platforms and promises, will INTELLIGENTLY select their candidates and cast their votes accordingly. And they will hold those same candidates ACCOUNTABLE for their performance, personally if not on party lines.
They will REGISTER TO VOTE. Those that don’t care, can’t be bothered, think all Politicians are lying, cheating… well, you get the idea – will NOT register, will NOT vote and will have NO RIGHT to whinge and bitch about what they see being done wrong.
All Australians have a RIGHT to vote – IF THEY SO DESIRE TO EXERCISE THAT RIGHT. Enforced voting does nothing but make a mockery of the whole democratic process.