Shape Up or Ship Out

I went to the Subway on the south side of Bend for lunch (5 dollar footlongs!), and it was an interesting experience. They had three employees, a guy making your sandwich, which would then get passed to a girl adding condiments, then a lady with a “trainee” sticker was at the register to ring you up. The two sandwich artists were doing a decent enough job of trying to say “Welcome to Subway” to everyone who walked in, though they missed a few people (myself included). I’ll cut them a break due to it being lunch hour and the line being a good size. The first thing that stuck out in my head was how unhappy the trainee looked. She frowned the entire time, and moped around the back area in between orders. It looked like this was the last place she wanted to be, and if this were my store she would be getting the “shape up or ship out” conversation immediately. How big of a turn off is it for the customers to see an employee who looks like they absolutely hate their job? There was a very uncomfortable feeling in the restaurant and I think her attitude was the main cause.

There was this really weird moment that occurred while I was waiting for the transfer between the condiment lady and the register. The line held up a bit because a guy asked the trainee for 2 cookies. She walked over to the oven, then mumbled something to the male employee. The male employee then told the customer that they were just done cooking and would still be very hot. The customer said he didn’t mind. The male employee then mentioned that they will probably just fall apart. The customer told the trainee that he didn’t mind, so she then stared and the male employee while everyone in the lobby watched to see what would happen. The male employee then said “just give it to him I guess” and that was that. The customer felt so awkward that he explained how they were for later and would be fine sitting in his car for now. Just wow. Give this guy his cookies! The whole thing was ridiculous, and now the customer feels like a jackass.

When it was my turn to pay, the trainee got called in to the back by a voice from a 4th, unseen employee. She went back, the re-emerged and grabbed a towel and went into the dining area and started wiping down tables. I stood there, with no employee acknowledgement, for a full minute (I was counting), before the 4th employee finally came out of the back and walked up to the register. She didn’t say hi or hello or hows it going, instead she went straight into asking what kind of sandwich I ordered. Her shirt was maroon and not green like the rest, so maybe that meant she was in charge. And that explains the lack of good customer service that all of us customers were experiencing- this person in charge didn’t display any friendliness or try to treat us as anything but numbers, and her employees certainly weren’t going to do anything but follow her example. She took my money, said “here you go” and handed me back my receipt, and that was the end of our interaction.

Experience: Bad. I would rather not go back.

Is This Really the Only Answer

In response to Jacob Smith's editorial in the March 8th edition of the The Bulletin, which depicted a correlation between rising prison populations and the decrease in violent crime rates, thus justifying spending “large sums of money” on more prisons, as he claims “there is no other alternative.” I don’t think anyone would disagree that we should put violent offenders behind bars. However, further research into the issue indicates that it is far less cut and dry than how it was presented, and shows that there are potentially other alternatives to just building more and more prisons.

According to the Department of Justice, while prison population in the United States has increased over the last 3 decades, the percentage of those inmates that were locked up due to violent crimes has remained steady (around 50%). At the same time, the percentage of inmates in prison due to drug related crimes has sky-rocketed (over a 15% increase since 1980). There are many different ideas as to why this shift has occurred. Some would argue it was caused by the "Drug War" initiatives started in the mid 90's, which changed the focus from rehabilitative measures for drug offenders to giving them more jail time. Others make the case that the rising inequalities between the upper and lower classes has lead to increased drug crimes within the poorer communities in the United States. Whatever the reason for the increase may be, one could potentially make an argument that there is at least one alternative solution to spending tax money to build more prisons: shift the punishment for drug offenders away from prison time and more towards rehabilitation. This would free up room in existing prisons for violent criminals. I may not necessarily agree with this idea, but it does open up the possibility that there are other avenues to look at for controlling our prison populations, without throwing tax dollars at it.

The larger question mark for this whole issue comes to the surface when comparing our crime and prison numbers to that of similar countries. Recent reports put our incarceration rate at over an astounding 1 in 100 citizens (approximately 1,000 prisoners for every 100,000 citizens). Most research indicates that Canada has about the same violent crime rate as the United States (it can be tough to compare the two because the definition of "violent" crime varies for each country, but most official reports put them very close). However, their incarceration rate is drastically lower, at about 130 in 100,000. Why are our violent crime rates so similar, if we put 8 times more of our population behind bars? England's incarceration rate is almost as low as Canada's, at 139 in 100,000. So why have they experienced, according to their official police reports, a 41% drop in violent crimes since 1995? What are they doing as a society to reduce violent crimes if they aren’t throwing more people in prison? I want my family to be safe, just like everyone else. But statistics like these prove that there are alternatives out there for making our country a safer place to live rather than simply building more and more prisons and locking up more and more of our citizens.

If You Want Me To Rent Your Movies, Pretend I Exist

I hate it when you walk into a store and the employees do not acknowledge you. It was something I promoted heavily to my employees in one of my previous jobs, where I was the store manager in a customer service related field. Since I left that company, I still find myself watching the customer service skills of the employees of any retail business I enter.

Today on my lunch break I returned a movie to the west side Blockbuster store in Bend, and went inside to see if I could find a good kids movie to take home. Upon entering, I saw only one employee at the front of the store. She was organizing candy, and never looked up from her task to say anything to me. Would this bother anyone else? It gives me a strange vibe, and I feel awkward that they don't care I am in their establishment.

I was taught that you should at least give a simple hello to everyone who walks in the door. I wholeheartedly believe in this. It makes a store seem cold and impersonal when you walk in and are greeted with silence. Customers need to feel the personality of the store, and there is no better time to put it out there than right when they walk in the door. This opens up the type of experience the customer will have right out of the gate, and makes them more comfortable being in your space, and also approaching you for questions.

I feel like I’m kind of rambling, so I will close this post and visit this topic another day. To end the story, after walking in and being greeted by complete silence, I wandered down a few aisles. The store manager walked out from the back room and made eye contact with me, but she then quickly turned away without saying a word. I actually started to feel so out of place that I wanted to just put my head down and walk out. I decided to give them another shot and instead wandered towards the front of the store, and kept my head up as I walked out. There were 3 employees by the door, none of which were working with any customers, and not one of them looked my way or said anything.