'Bred Crumbs
08.30.03
Stores That Have Wronged Me
10:31 AM— There's a chain of computer stores – let's call it InCompetentUSA – that is increasingly dedicated to giving the customer no assistance at all in finding anything. If you're bored, you could go to one of its stores and play Find the Product's Price. The placement of the price tag will probably have no logical connection to the location of the product; lucky contestants will find the price on a shelf sticker somewhere in a 100-foot radius of the product. The game gets trickier if the product is in a random stack in the middle of an aisle, in which case there may or may not be a sign on or near the pile telling you what the thing and its price are.
The latest epitome of the chain's recklessly meaningless labeling? In the downtown SF location a couple of weeks ago, one row of goods was capped by a large sign reading WIRELESS COMPUTING. Of course, there wasn't a single wireless device in the row; all the wireless stuff was along a wall well around the corner. No, immediately below the sign: a display full of cables.
— Attention Monolithic Phallus Records: If a cancelled TV series that was jerked around by a broadcast network has such a strong following that it has become a huge cable hit on the Cartoon Network, then maybe you might want to have the second season of it in stock the day it is released. No problem, though. Your competitors at the giant blue building had it. Thanks for nothing!
— A trip Tuesday night to a massive Swedish furniture store found it unusually depleted of several items I can always count on getting there. As it happens, the chain was opening another store in the Bay Area the very next day. Hmm. Did someone rob Pitr to pay Sven?
Features
