So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Trenchfriend]

You all would love Germany! We are still fifteen years behind, on technology-succession.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Well you have the internet so you're not that far behind. Besides there are plenty of people in Germany who have no choice but to work for 2 euros an hour so there's little financhial incentive for automation...........................................yet.
That said I bet in the large cities, the major supermarkets have at least some self-checkouts.

 

[tonyb]

Talking about drive-thru lines, what is it with people who feel like it's OK to line up into the middle of the street, past the boundary of the parking lot? There's a Dunkie's a couple blocks down from my house where the drive-thru driveway is quite short due to space constraints, but during the morning rush, you'll have people lined up all the way into the middle of Route 1, even though there's signs posted that clearly state IF DRIVE THRU IS FULL PARK AND GO INSIDE. You'll usually get faster service by doing this, but all these yutzes going for their morning Coolatta seem to think that going inside is too much trouble. Never mind the trouble they cause by blocking traffic for those of us who just want to get to work on time.

Same thing happens occasionally at a Starbucks the lovely missus and I motor past five days a week.

It's a heavily travelled route, and no reasonable alternative routes exist. So literally hundreds of people are delayed by those who can't get out of their cars to procure their five-buck morning caffeine fix.

Just shameless, is what it is.

 

[2jakes]

Same thing happens occasionally at a Starbucks the lovely missus and I motor past five days a week.

It's a heavily travelled route, and no reasonable alternative routes exist. So literally hundreds of people are delayed by those who can't get out of their cars to procure their five-buck morning caffeine fix.

Just shameless, is what it is.

Tony,
I see this happening in the surrounding towns with small population.

Where I reside with a population of 1.5 million, this problem as you mentioned,
does not exist regarding coffee shops.
If it was to occur, you can bet the cops
would put a stop to it and then enjoyed
their donuts.
Although freeway traffic congestion mostly going or leaving work at the end the day is
terrible.
Years ago, driving my '39 Ford to work,
I discovered routes that would take me to
work without speeding or hassle of any kind and made it to work with plenty of time.
I felt sorry for the folks on the freeway driving bumper to bumper as they went
to work. They did not look happy.
And that's a terrible way to start the day.

 

[Zombie_61]

...Comments like, "I can get this item for less at the other store!”
I would reply, "I totally agree with you!”. They didn’t expect that and would look at me puzzled as they walked away...

I had a customer pull this on my when I was selling tires back in the 80s. He asked for a quote for four tires, and when I told him the amount he said, "But I can get the same tires at 'Joe's' tire shop for a lot less than this." I knew he was lying because I knew "Joe's" prices were comparable to ours, so I told him, "Then you should go to 'Joe's' because I can't go any lower." He stood frozen in confusion for a few seconds trying to determine what his next move should be, then turned and walked towards the door. He stopped as he opened the door and turned to look at me, clearly waiting for me to call him back so we could negotiate the price. When I said, "Have a nice day!" he was stuck, and probably schlepped off to "Joe's" to try the same lie.

 

[2jakes]

"Tire kickers".... I can understand!

It's the ones that have to check out an item in the display
counter in which they have no idea what it is.
The only reason they want to see it is because.... it's on sale.
I could probably put a used portable urinal pot full of holes but as
long as it has a "sale" tag... they want to check it out!

 

[Trenchfriend]

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

That said I bet in the large cities, the major supermarkets have at least some self-checkouts.

Definitely nope. But maybe, there are some single short-time experiments on bigger supermarkets. Like I mentioned before in this thread, we still live the good old 90s-world, here. Nothing basically changed in daily life. Still mainly the old cash-money world.

Germany is an overmatured land of chippy middle-aged and angry "nag-nag-nag!-retirees". And customer is king, of course. So, they avoid installing self-checkouts and other 2000s-progress things, that would guaranteed bring TROUBLE all over, especially with our growing army of retirees. And with all the malfunctioning bank-chipcards, too.

And when someone in supermarket pays with his bankcard, what usually takes five to ten times longer than cash, you can promptly hear the increasing blood pressure in the row.

And one thing:
Whenever the term "Service-Desert Germany" appears, don't believe it! It's not existing. It's a term created by media, but has nothing to do with reality.

 

[2jakes]

Definitely nope. Like I mentioned before in this thread, we still live the good old 90s-world, here. Nothing basically changed in daily life. Still mainly the old cash-money world.

Germany is an overmatured land of chippy middle-aged and angry "nag-nag-nag!-retirees". And customer is king, of course. So, they avoid installing self-checkouts and other 2000s-progress things, that would guaranteed bring TROUBLE all over, especially with our growing army of retirees. And with all the malfunctioning bank-chipcards, too.

And when someone in supermarket pays with his bankcard, what usually takes five to ten times longer than cash, you can promptly hear the increasing blood pressure in the row.

And one thing:
Whenever the term "Service-Desert Germany" appears, don't believe it! It's not existing. It's a term created by media, but has noting to do with reality.

Where I live, it's come down to two companies that have their stores all
over the city.
Like it or not, Wallymart has initiated
self-check services with fewer cashiers.
They dictate policy, not the customer.


Btw:
what is "Service-Desert-Germany"?

 

[Trenchfriend]

I am not familiar with the supermarket system where you live.

I don't know what you mean by
"Servi"c"e-Desert-Germany".

Media in Germany is and was always talking their usual nonsense blah-blah, that Germany got a bad trading and servicing-world. But it's not existing. Many people in the world would be happy to live in a "customer is king!"-society like this.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Germany is an overmatured land of chippy middle-aged and angry "nag-nag-nag!-retirees". And customer is king, of course. So, they avoid installing self-checkouts and other 2000s-progress things, that would guaranteed bring TROUBLE all over, especially with our growing army of retirees. And with all the malfunctioning bank-chipcards, too.

You're describing where I live to the T. But that hasn't stopped the onslaught of the self-checkouts in the bigger stores, and they enforce the use of them by deliberately understaffing the live-person checkouts. You can walk into WalMart any time of the day or night and they'll have one or two staffed checkouts open -- out of ten or more -- and the lines at those will stretch way out, which discourages anyone with just a few items from using anything but the self-checkouts. And poor Grampy is standing there with his pair of electric socks and his twelve cans of deviled ham and getting more and more frustrated when he can't figure out how to make the thing stop beeping.

We have constant problems at the theatre with patrons who get confused by any kind of tech. Our online ticket sale system for live and special events is a constant nightmare of "I CAN'T GET YOUR COMPUTER SITE TO WORK. I WANT TO BUY TICKETS FOR A SHOW THAT ISN'T LISTED BUT MY SISTER TOLD ME SHE HEARD FROM SOMEONE IT WAS COMING. CAN I DO IT OVER THE PHONE OR DO I HAVE TO COME IN? AND I DON'T WANT TO PAY A SERVICE FEE."

 

[tonyb]

I had a customer pull this on my when I was selling tires back in the 80s. He asked for a quote for four tires, and when I told him the amount he said, "But I can get the same tires at 'Joe's' tire shop for a lot less than this." I knew he was lying because I knew "Joe's" prices were comparable to ours, so I told him, "Then you should go to 'Joe's' because I can't go any lower." He stood frozen in confusion for a few seconds trying to determine what his next move should be, then turned and walked towards the door. He stopped as he opened the door and turned to look at me, clearly waiting for me to call him back so we could negotiate the price. When I said, "Have a nice day!" he was stuck, and probably schlepped off to "Joe's" to try the same lie.

I've done the same on more occasions and in more contexts than I can recall. I've had people come in with offers so unrealistically low that I just shut off negotiations entirely. Nothing more to say. Don't let the door hit ya, etc.

 

[Harp]

You all would love Germany!...

Marburg is gorgeous, absolutely love that town.

 

[GHT]

We have constant problems at the theatre with patrons who get confused by any kind of tech. Our online ticket sale system for live and special events is a constant nightmare of "I CAN'T GET YOUR COMPUTER SITE TO WORK. I WANT TO BUY TICKETS FOR A SHOW THAT ISN'T LISTED BUT MY SISTER TOLD ME SHE HEARD FROM SOMEONE IT WAS COMING. CAN I DO IT OVER THE PHONE OR DO I HAVE TO COME IN? AND I DON'T WANT TO PAY A SERVICE FEE."

Problems? For some reason I seem to empathise with those for whom technology is a foreign language, probably gibberish.

And why is it wrong to not want to pay any additional fees? Customers are being left bewildered by extra levies such as transaction and fulfilment charges, telephone booking fees, administration costs, and box office collection charges — which are all slapped on to the face value of a ticket. If the price of a ticket is X but the venue needs to charge Y, then charge Y. It's so devious to advertise at a price that the public will never pay. It's the same with airline tickets, festivals and other events like F1 Grand Prix.

 

[crawlinkingsnake]

Dinner at great Italian restaurant last night. Figaretti's in Wheeling, WV is special, but hadn't been there in years. Awesome dishes of pasta, peppers, sausage, shrimp, Chianti, and much more. All with Steubenville OH native, Dean Martin playing in the background.


All of which reminded us of recently in Steubenville for the Dean Martin Festival. We made special trip there in 2017 expecting plenty pasta, tomato sauce, Chianti & Dean Martin music, but found none to be had. Instead settled for a hamburger while a cover band played the Eagles. Shameful......

 

[2jakes]

"FREE" phone search!

The search might be free.
The information is not.


But it was my fault for thinking it
was all for free.
They are correct, but it ticks me off nevertheless.

 

[2jakes]

Dinner at great Italian restaurant last night. Figaretti's in Wheeling, WV is special, but hadn't been there in years. Awesome dishes of pasta, peppers, sausage, shrimp, Chianti, and much more. All with Steubenville OH native, Dean Martin playing in the background.


All of which reminded us of recently in Steubenville for the Dean Martin Festival. We made special trip there in 2017 expecting plenty pasta, tomato sauce, Chianti & Dean Martin music, but found none to be had. Instead settled for a hamburger while a cover band played the Eagles. Shameful......

I went to local Italian Festival to do a report on this yearly event for my station.

I noticed that for the most part, the food
being prepared was just food that anyone could buy at the grocery store and not
nescessarily Italian.
I asked one of the Italian ladies if this is
how she prepared her Italian dishes at
home. She laugh and said, "oh no, this is
just for this event!"
I smiled and thanked her for the interview,
but in my mind kept thinking---wtf call it an
Italian Festival?

Btw: Italian dishes from my favorite Italian diners is my favorite of all foods.
And I miss NYC pizzas.

 

[crawlinkingsnake]

I went to local Italian Festival to do a report on this yearly event for my station.

I noticed that for the most part, the food
being prepared was just food that anyone could buy at the grocery store and not
nescessarily Italian.
I asked one of the Italian ladies if this is
how she prepared her Italian dishes at
home. She laugh and said, "oh no, this is
just for this event!"
I smiled and thanked her for the interview,
but in my mind kept thinking---wtf call it an
Italian Festival?

Btw: Italian dishes from my favorite Italian diners is my favorite of all foods.
And I miss NYC pizzas.

I feel yer pain......

 

[2jakes]

I feel yer pain......

There are numerous “authentic” pizza places in my city.
But ever since I tasted pizza made in Chicago and New York City and
although they were different, both were so delicious that the
local pizza now tasted like cardboard with mozzarella cheese on top.

I envy the folks that tell me about local good tasting pizza.
I don't have the heart to tell them that it doesn't compare to the pizza
I mentioned earlier.
I do recall two brothers from New York who had a small diner in my city.
It was called, “New York Pizza”.
The brothers had a no-nonsense attitude and I felt lucky that they would
serve me their delicious pizza.
That was 20 years.

 

[Woodtroll]

And why is it wrong to not want to pay any additional fees? Customers are being left bewildered by extra levies such as transaction and fulfilment charges, telephone booking fees, administration costs, and box office collection charges — which are all slapped on to the face value of a ticket. If the price of a ticket is X but the venue needs to charge Y, then charge Y. It's so devious to advertise at a price that the public will never pay. It's the same with airline tickets, festivals and other events like F1 Grand Prix.

Hear, hear!

 

[Zombie_61]

I went to local Italian Festival to do a report on this yearly event for my station.

I noticed that for the most part, the food being prepared was just food that anyone could buy at the grocery store and not
nescessarily Italian. I asked one of the Italian ladies if this is how she prepared her Italian dishes at home. She laugh and said, "oh no, this is just for this event!" I smiled and thanked her for the interview, but in my mind kept thinking---wtf call it an Italian Festival?

Several years ago my wife and I were taking an after dinner walk with a couple of friends in the "uptown" area of our city when we came across a crew of three young men converting and re-decorating a shop that had formerly been a candy store. They told us they had taken ownership and were going to open it as "a traditional American diner". When we asked about the menu one of them, without a hint of humor, said, "Oh, you know, pizza, sandwiches, spaghetti, stuff like that." We weren't too surprised when that "American" diner never materialized.