For those of you who live outside the NYC area, Duane Reade is our biggest pharmacy with over 250 locations. The logo pictured about is their new one, after undergoing major renovations in many of their stores because they were notorious for being dirty, smelly, generally unpleasant places. Not all the stores in the chain have undergone the renovation however, of course including the two closest to my apartment. Now it seems those renovations have stopped altogether because the company was recently purchased by Walgreens so they are in limbo while deciding whether to change all the store names or not.
I mention this not because I like to lecture on the business models American pharmacies, but because I experienced something yesterday at Duane Reade that is becoming all-too common in stores everywhere. First allow me to disclose my shopping list in bullet form...
- 2 bottles of Sprite Zero
- 1 Lean Cuisine
- Degree Arctic deodorant
Quite an exciting and eclectic mix of good, indeed.
I went to the register to pay only to realize that only one register was open and there are about 8-10 people in line waiting. The manager was at another register counting money, not looking up to see that they could use some help up front. The girl behind the register was taking her sweet time and I noticed that she didn't greet anyone with a "hello" or "how are you?" or anything at all for that matter. She also didn't bother with "thank you" either, but she did manage to check her nails in between virtually every item she scanned.
(Do girls nails change often throughout the day? If I'm missing something here, please let me know.)
In the interest of common good, I decided to try a little experiment. When it was finally my turn I wouldn't say a word unless spoken to. This goes against my general policy of trying to be a half-way decent human being, but I wanted to give it to go. Needless to say, like she had done to everyone else, she didn't say greet me, thank me or anything. I think I made it slightly weirder by staring at her throughout the scanning, but fortunately she never even picked up her eyes to look at me.
I know these jobs suck. I worked for a summer as a stock-boy/cashier at a pharmacy in a mall many years ago. I've worked plenty of crappy jobs that I never discuss with anyone and would rather forget. But I see this general state of customer service getting worse and worse, especially in this city. I'm not even sure why it bothers me so much, it's not like I wanted to date her, but I guess a little human connection throughout the day is good for everyone. Duane Reade's are notoriously bad at this, and I'm curious what other stores in your neck of the woods are equally as bad.
As for me, I'm gonna try to do more of my pharmaceutical shopping at the local CVS, which also has rather unpleasant people behind the counter, but also has a few self-checkout machines, and I find those computers rather pleasant.
And perhaps date-worthy...
I've decided not to give you all the details of the big Pride Parade (you really had to be there to believe most of it), suffice to say my evening ended by having dinner with Nathan's Famous July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest champion Takeru Kobayashi.
Can someone please explain to me why when a team wins a championship that people in that city decide to flip cars, burn garbage cans and throw rocks through windows?
The first quarter of game 7 of the NBA Finals just ended with the Celtics up 23-16. Despite that score, I'm gonna predict the Lakers by one, with Kobe Bryant (pictured above, clearly having some sort of problem with his jersey) hitting a buzzer-beater to win it all.
In a story that is truly strange than fiction, Star Magazine is reporting that Al Gore had a two year affair with Larry David's ex-wife, Laurie.
Here's White House Witch Helen Thomas' written apology for telling Jews to "get the Hell out of Palestine."
Episode #42 of The Six Pack with GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios is up on iTunes and BenDave.com. Of course, as a subscriber you knew that already. 
