I am the secret that you keep; MISS SCARLET.

Friday, January 28, 2005

"common courtesy" is one of the most understated phrases

Common Courtesy. everyone says it. but how many ACTUALLY practise it? just look at drivers. public; random people along the sidewalks, shopping malls, parks. simple things like saying "excuse me" when you want the person to make way for you, or "sorry" when you accidently bump into someone, or even helping the lady/man to pick up a ten-cent coin that happened to fall at your feet - no need for words. just simple gestures.

but being the egoist that we ALL are - men and women alike - we have our "pride" and "dignity" to save. or some would even go as far to say, our "right" to not want to be courteous. the reason why this suddenly popped into my mind, is because i just went to NTUC with my mom for grocery shopping. and we all know that there's always some sort of stock-taking or re-stocking happening along every other aisle. trolleys filled with cartons and boxes of who-knows-what are parked along the aisle, while more smaller boxes and cartons are scattered along the aisle floor. then *DENG, DENG*. there you are with your full trolley of groceries, but no space to move. so of course, you expect them to make way for you, or you ask politely. YOU ARE THEIR CUSTOMER. but instead, they grunt, give you a sick look and mumble under their breath while kicking away their stock. so you don't want to make a scene, and just struggle to pass through without causing an avalanche of food products rain down on you.

WTF? and this carries on in almost every aisle you pass through. the big irony is that, at the check-out counter, there is an article praising NTUC for their efforts in rounding down the prices of their products, after the obsolete one-cent coin; and the article's heading goes: "Customer's convenience is of high importance to us." BLEEEKKK!!! CONVENIENCE? u telling me about CONVENIENCE?! you can't even get through one bloody aisle without having to get pissed off with the staff first. and what's worse, even other shoppers just leave their trolleys at the weirdest of corners, and block the whole FREAKIN' PASSAGE!

what i suggest is, supermarkets should make bigger aisles if they intend to let their staff stock up while there are shoppers around. it really spoils the look and the ambience of the place (if they ever had ambience to start with :-P) when it looks more like a warehouse. i'm not saying decorate the place or put on soothing classical music (though of course, don't even get me STARTED about the music... -_-), but at least clean it up a bit, and make it look like some place where people go to buy stuff. FOOD. and make the food ACCESSIBLE.

it's a sad, sad place.