At Least They Didn't Ask my Name

I was talking to Mark the other day about Big Chains v. those Mom & Pop Stores. I like the stores where the people there have a stake in keeping me as a customer. More and more of the stores in my neighborhood are chains, where young, transient, disgruntled people work for a while, save up just enough money for a new video iPod or whatever, and then leave. None of them know nor care about helping us. A lot of these big stores just don't care much beyond getting that sale (see Mark Evanier's write up on the soon-to-be demise of the CompUSA chain), and if you do get any attention while you're there, it's attention forged in corporate meetings. Such was the case at Staples last month when the employee had to say four corporate-speak kinda things to me while I bought my overpriced ink cartridge.

I think I'll just buy online ...