Wacky Wednesday # 23 – National Tailor’s Day / Drive-In Movie Day

Hooray for tailors who make off the rack clothes work for those of us without off the rack shapes.  My complaint is that only good men’s stores seem to offer tailoring any more.  In my youth I never was allowed to wear a dress or skirt until it had been to the seamstress  and properly ‘hung’ and hemmed.  I had the shoulders and sleeves of jackets altered too.  The aunt who raised me had grown up with a maiden aunt who was a seamstress living on the farm as part of the family so even though there might have been a depression going on her clothes for school and going out were all properly fitted.  Years ago I bought a nice Ralph Lauren suit at a Nordstrom store while on a trip largely because the clerk said they offered alterations and would ship it to  me.  I think that was the last time I found in store tailoring offered with women’s clothes.

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I am of an age and from a rural area where during my childhood the only place to see movies was an a drive-in during the summer.  There were no multiplex cinemas.  I never when to many drive-in showings.  I think Jungle Book during elementary school was my first.  And I remember that I saw the first Star Wars film with my brother at a drive-in.  That may have been the last film I saw at a drive-in.  No, I can tell no tales of dates at the drive-in or of not seeing the film because of back seat activities but …. I am betting I just might have a blog follower or two who can not say the same.  Not asking for any confessions here.

Those are the wacky holiday observances for June the 6th.

Thoughtful Thursday # 16 – Retail P.O.S

What companies provide the best customer service?  The worst?

Oh, why did I select this prompt way back at the end of 2011?  Because I was trying to select 52 different ones and I must have figured I would have something to say about it when the time came.  Looking at it now, at nearly 9:30 pm after two Zumba classes today plus some gardening I am thinking it isn’t really about  companies when it comes to service; at least not for me when it comes to retail shopping.  It comes down to individual sales people.  But that said a company can really hinder an otherwise terrific sales staff.  I find it very annoying to be having a fine time shopping right up until the ” P.O.S.”  – or point of sale.  That is when company policy and computer programing prompts can spoil it all.  I just want to pay for my stuff, the way I want to, and get on with the rest of my day.  Most often I believe that the human being waiting on me can read my face and body language and know that BUT they have these questions they are required to ask:  will you be paying with X-store or company card, would you like to apply, do you know you will get Y discount, points, free-shipping.  Oh if only that were all.  They probably have irritated me already by asking for a zip code, email, or phone number to track me by.  I know the company requires them to ask this stuff and the computer system makes them enter answers to proceed with my payment.  There has no doubt been big bucks spend on studies and consultants showing these queries will yield more gross sales.  But I remember clerking in a store as soon as I was ‘legal’ to do so.  The store has very old fashioned even for the long ago time I worked.  Sales were written down on paper and added, only the total was rung in the register.  Money was counted back to the customer, change first.  And I was taught to keep the money tendered on the far side of the register until after the customer accepted that money, just in case they claimed to have handed a green young person a $20 when it was really a $10 they had given me.  Automation may make companies feel safer about employee actions but it really treats those employees as not human enough to respond in a human way to individual human customers.  No wonder we happily order things online, without seeing or touching them to avoid the lack of personal interaction in a brick and mortar store when it comes to “P.O.S.”

I am writing this as I intend to make an over an hour journey tomorrow to a mall that has stores not found any closer to me.  Sometimes you just want to try on the clothes, or touch the towels before buying.

Word for 12/13 – Surprise

Making plans when you travel can help you get the most out of your trip.  Then again the things you come across accidentally can be the most enjoyable aspects of a day.  When we took a bus to Tewkesbury, England we had two nice surprises:

Surprise # 1 –     this lovely little shop.

Surprise # 2 -     there was an adult choir festival taking place at the Abbey so we were able to listen to rehearsal.  We also decided to skip whatever it was we had planned for the rest of the day so we could stay for an afternoon performance/service.

 

 

Word for 11/26 – Mumble

What might his woman have to mumble about?

Her expression suggests she is mulling something over.

Word for 7/17 – Trading

With some items, like cereal, trading a ‘national brand’ for ‘store brand’ is A-OK.  You save a little money and there is no noticeable difference.

But, as my husband learned this week, trying this with some products is less wise.Trading my favorite Vanity Fair paper napkins for a store brand is a no-go.

Word for 3/15 – Expensive

This expensive little trinket was a gift to myself to mark turning 50 & 25 years of marriage.

Guy Clothes

Yes even guys need a few new clothes once in a while.  My husband plans on filling in with a few basics from the post Fathers Day sale at Brooks Brothers.  Here is the loot he brought home from Boston today.Yes he likes blue.  And Brooks Brothers means  classic starchy – even stogy.  So what!

Newbury Street is Boston’s premiere shopping street.

When my guy shops he wants to head pronto to the store.  These are ‘snap on the run’ pictures -