McNiel resents lack of service

Businesses are supposed to wait on their customers and not the customers waiting on the businesses. When a customer has to stand in line longer to get checked out than it took to get their merchandise, it is the management’s fault. Businesses and customers are supposed to be mutually beneficial.

You may remember a time when you went to buy gas and there used to be an attendant who would pump your gas and wash your windows and service your car for you. That attendant is now long gone because we have all been programmed to do all this ourselves.

There was a time when you would go to a restaurant and a waitress would get you a refill on your drinks and bus your tables. But now we have all been programmed to refill our own drinks and bus our own tables.

There was a time when someone used to help us carry our groceries out to our car. But now we have all been programmed to do this our own selves. Even the elderly have to do it for themselves now.

Now-a-days we have all of these self-checkout registers where we can do it ourselves because it might be a little faster than waiting.

On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be a problem with these things, but in reality, it is the corporations who are gaining the benefit of not having to hire the additional manpower because as I said, now we the customers have all been programmed into doing the work for them and we aren’t even get paid to do it.

The problem is that most of the public have been taught to keep their heads down and not complain or make any waves.

Imagine that you are in the forest and you have become lost. But then imagine if someone was flying overhead in a plane and they can see you and they radio down to you that the fastest way for you to get out of the forest is to walk towards the sunlight. This is because the person in the plane has a bird’s-eye view of the situation and they can see the big picture.

I am not necessarily making all this noise just about my own dissatisfaction with these diminishing services. I do it because they are not just doing it to me but they are doing it to all of us. Just think of me as the fellow in the middle of the road trying to flag the cars down and four or five cars drive right on past without stopping. Finally, one of the drivers with a full load of family members finally stops and yells, “What the heck is going on?” And I proceed to tell him that the bridge is out. All those other people who did not stop and take the time to hear the warning are now dead.

BOYD B. MCNIEL Pea Ridge, Ark.