Have I mentioned the astounding lack of customer service??

First mistake: going grocery shopping at Gurney Mall Cold Storage
Second mistake: going grocery shopping at Gurney Mall Cold Storage at 5 pm
Third mistake: expecting customer service

With a cart load of frozen items and other goods(since we are now doing our own cooking), we go to check out and the line ups are down the aisles. No kidding. Only three tills open. Bunches of employees in the aisles unpacking goods but only three on cash and one of those on "8 items or less" lane. We wait and wait. We roll our eyes and shrug our shoulders to the others waiting in line who are just as frustrated as we are.

One till didn't have the CLOSED sign on the conveyor belt so a bunch of people lined up behind it, waiting for a cashier to magically appear. No one did so a woman asked a male employee, who had been watching them all line up, if someone was coming. He said no, reached over and put the closed sign up. All those people then turned around and tried to make their way down crowded aisles, full of people just waiting to check out. A couple of the employees at the front start a conversation and begin to laugh about something but they make no effort to get the line moving or open a new till.

Here's my biggest problem: I love to serve people and, almost equally as much, I love to problem solve in the middle of a crisis. This qualified as one to me and I started mentally figuring out how to alleviate the stress of the situation. Should I find the manager and make him aware of the problem? Where would I look for the manager anyway? Do I suggest to one of the employees stocking shelves that they should come to the front? What if they ask me whose authority I'm under? Do I start passing out Smarties to everyone in the line ups to make their time more enjoyable? Disney World does stuff like that. Do I promise everyone something free of charge for the wait? No, wait, Tim would be VERY unhappy with this idea. Do I ask another employee to bag groceries so the cashier doesn't have to, like the two having a good laugh? Do I ......

I do nothing. Well, actually I applied the 'negative attribution' theory and started thinking, "If I was in Canada, I would...." or "This would never happen back home" or "I should tell them that I'm from Canada where we have customer service and if they want my business, they had better step up and improve things around here". Yeah right. Cold Storage is the expat grocery store because they stock things like cherry pie filling, marshmallows, salsa and mac & cheese. I know I'm not going anywhere else to shop, they know it and so I DO NOTHING!!!

But wait with everyone else and slowly inch our way to the til..........oh yeah, and mentally take note not to shop at this location at this time of day with a cart full of frozen meat.