It's amazing how petty we really are at our basic core. We can really feel driven toward any type of cause, no matter how strongly we feel about it, but if one minor aspect of it is taken away, we can loose all interest in it in the blink of an eye.
Case in point; not long after I moved to my current residence, a sign went up across the SavOn two blocks away from my house advertising that a WalGreens 24 hour pharmacy would soon be constructed on said grounds. This got me excited. Excited because until then, the SavOn was really the closest place to get anything, especially late at night and is located between me and the freeway, making it on the way home from work. Being that I often am stuck closing at my job, I don't get home until after midnight and being that I hate my job, returning home often calls amenities to help me cope with the fact that I'm wasting my life. However, SavOn at 12 am is something that resembles the 13th circle of Hades. The store is either patronized by people who are either depressed, on welfare, homeless or prostitutes, any pleasant "all is well" type elevator music is switched off to make the tension of the communal tension in the air that much more uncomfortable and the several cashers working at that hour are far more preoccupied with their own conversation about each others sex lives or hair styles than the customers who just want to get what they came for and get home. I hate going to SavOn late at night. Hate it so much, that if I really want something on the way home from closing, that I'll some time take completely different routes home in order to go to a Vons or a 7-11 where I know I can be in and out as quickly as I need to. Probably the climax of my frustration with SavOn came the night I had worked a shift at each of my jobs that day but was going to the Warped Tour the next morning so I needed to stock up on water and sunscreen and then just get to bed to get as much rest as I could so I could have the energy for walking around a parking lot in Chula Vista for 10 hours in July. So I wait in line for forever, sandwiched between a smelly drug addict wanting Lotto tickets and an overweight young Mexican couple in sweats with a screaming baby just itching to get what I need and get out. So finally my turn comes, and as I put my items on the counter the cashier turns her back to me to engage in a "girl, you know your man a dog," conversation. Now, I can understand a couple of comments between coworkers and then back to the customer or maybe continuing on with the conversation about possible promiscuity's while continuing on with one's assigned duty of ringing my shit up, taking my money and letting me go home. But this woman continued on gabbing on and on for a good 90 seconds while I just waited helplessly in hell for her to scan my things. She finally turned around and gave me a "how you doin'" to which I honestly wanted to reply with, "Terrible you stupid beyoch!" But I just let out an "'eh" and she went about scanning. Then with one item left half on the treadmill and half on the scanner, her friend in the photo asks a question and she just walks away, leaving me with 90% of my purchase run up and 100% of me pissed off. Eventually she came back and I go home, but I haven't been back at night since.
So the construction of WalGreens has continued literally across the street from SavOn and I saw it as a sign of hope. Hope for a place I can shop it late at night and be in and out. A place where the employees fucking care about their jobs and give a shit about the customers and a place where the lighting fixtures aren't being held together with duct tape or flutter off an on or inducing epilepsy. A place to turn to for solace after a long day of taking care of retard employees and answering to angry customers. I've mentioned this dream to my girlfriend pretty much every time we drive by there and she continues to shoot it down by pondering why I think it will be that much better than SavOn and the answer is truly simple; it's new. New places are nicer than old places and new people want to do good jobs and new people care, so therefore because it's new it'll be nice. She'll continue to snicker and I'll continue to dream.
Anyway, I've been dreaming of such a place for months, and this morning I finally encountered the dream as WalGreens opened it's doors at 8am. I went to run some errands this morning and was heading back around 12:30 when I decided to finally check out our local nirvana for myself by getting a six pack of whatever imports on sale. As the spotless automatic doors magically slid open, I knew I was right. Every employee greeted my un showered and unshaven ass with a joyful, "how's it going, welcome to our store." All the magazines were in order and crisp. The floors were spotless and the place smelled nice. I was home. That was until I headed for the cooler and realized they don't sell alcohol at all and the dream was crumbled. I then realized that since the place didn't sell beer at all, then I had no real reason to shop there. So I promptly left and have no plans to go back.
So I was right about the part that since it's new it's nice, but since I can't get beer there at midnight or any time ever, then I don't really care and I may end up going to SavOn again. Except it's not SavOn anymore, it's CVS but all the same people work there and they just rearranged the fixtures and they still have the same dirty floors and shoddy lighting. But maybe now they'll try harder with the competition across the way, but probably not because they have the alcohol which means they have the power. Se le vie.
Case in point; not long after I moved to my current residence, a sign went up across the SavOn two blocks away from my house advertising that a WalGreens 24 hour pharmacy would soon be constructed on said grounds. This got me excited. Excited because until then, the SavOn was really the closest place to get anything, especially late at night and is located between me and the freeway, making it on the way home from work. Being that I often am stuck closing at my job, I don't get home until after midnight and being that I hate my job, returning home often calls amenities to help me cope with the fact that I'm wasting my life. However, SavOn at 12 am is something that resembles the 13th circle of Hades. The store is either patronized by people who are either depressed, on welfare, homeless or prostitutes, any pleasant "all is well" type elevator music is switched off to make the tension of the communal tension in the air that much more uncomfortable and the several cashers working at that hour are far more preoccupied with their own conversation about each others sex lives or hair styles than the customers who just want to get what they came for and get home. I hate going to SavOn late at night. Hate it so much, that if I really want something on the way home from closing, that I'll some time take completely different routes home in order to go to a Vons or a 7-11 where I know I can be in and out as quickly as I need to. Probably the climax of my frustration with SavOn came the night I had worked a shift at each of my jobs that day but was going to the Warped Tour the next morning so I needed to stock up on water and sunscreen and then just get to bed to get as much rest as I could so I could have the energy for walking around a parking lot in Chula Vista for 10 hours in July. So I wait in line for forever, sandwiched between a smelly drug addict wanting Lotto tickets and an overweight young Mexican couple in sweats with a screaming baby just itching to get what I need and get out. So finally my turn comes, and as I put my items on the counter the cashier turns her back to me to engage in a "girl, you know your man a dog," conversation. Now, I can understand a couple of comments between coworkers and then back to the customer or maybe continuing on with the conversation about possible promiscuity's while continuing on with one's assigned duty of ringing my shit up, taking my money and letting me go home. But this woman continued on gabbing on and on for a good 90 seconds while I just waited helplessly in hell for her to scan my things. She finally turned around and gave me a "how you doin'" to which I honestly wanted to reply with, "Terrible you stupid beyoch!" But I just let out an "'eh" and she went about scanning. Then with one item left half on the treadmill and half on the scanner, her friend in the photo asks a question and she just walks away, leaving me with 90% of my purchase run up and 100% of me pissed off. Eventually she came back and I go home, but I haven't been back at night since.
So the construction of WalGreens has continued literally across the street from SavOn and I saw it as a sign of hope. Hope for a place I can shop it late at night and be in and out. A place where the employees fucking care about their jobs and give a shit about the customers and a place where the lighting fixtures aren't being held together with duct tape or flutter off an on or inducing epilepsy. A place to turn to for solace after a long day of taking care of retard employees and answering to angry customers. I've mentioned this dream to my girlfriend pretty much every time we drive by there and she continues to shoot it down by pondering why I think it will be that much better than SavOn and the answer is truly simple; it's new. New places are nicer than old places and new people want to do good jobs and new people care, so therefore because it's new it'll be nice. She'll continue to snicker and I'll continue to dream.
Anyway, I've been dreaming of such a place for months, and this morning I finally encountered the dream as WalGreens opened it's doors at 8am. I went to run some errands this morning and was heading back around 12:30 when I decided to finally check out our local nirvana for myself by getting a six pack of whatever imports on sale. As the spotless automatic doors magically slid open, I knew I was right. Every employee greeted my un showered and unshaven ass with a joyful, "how's it going, welcome to our store." All the magazines were in order and crisp. The floors were spotless and the place smelled nice. I was home. That was until I headed for the cooler and realized they don't sell alcohol at all and the dream was crumbled. I then realized that since the place didn't sell beer at all, then I had no real reason to shop there. So I promptly left and have no plans to go back.
So I was right about the part that since it's new it's nice, but since I can't get beer there at midnight or any time ever, then I don't really care and I may end up going to SavOn again. Except it's not SavOn anymore, it's CVS but all the same people work there and they just rearranged the fixtures and they still have the same dirty floors and shoddy lighting. But maybe now they'll try harder with the competition across the way, but probably not because they have the alcohol which means they have the power. Se le vie.
