Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Here is Why I Shop On-Line and Not in Stores

I had a swift kick in the rear last Friday night that reminded me why I buy 95% of my non-grocery items on-line rather than in stores. Here is what happened…I went over to the very, very big Tucson Mall around 8:00 PM and the joint was jumping! It was obviously one of the busiest nights of the year.

Anyway, I went looking for one special item at a kiosk in the mall. I had to wait a while why the one guy manning the kiosk helped other customers. That was weird as I had been there a few days earlier when the mall was almost nearly dead and there were two guys in the booth. Strange, I thought that there would be only one guy on this super busy night. Turns out he didn’t have what I wanted, but it was kind of a long shot anyway.

I then moved over to Sears to look for an on-sale shirt. As I walked by the jewelry counter, I saw the very Seiko watch I was thinking of buying after the holidays…and it was 25% off! Wow, a sale! I waited for someone to help me but no one ever came over. So I walk around this rather large department and saw one woman waiting on a customer. I also saw four other people waiting for this rather incompetent woman to help them.

I say incompetent as she could not figure out something on her cash register. Then the customer she was working with started piling other items from around the store onto the counter and wanting the woman to ring them up. Again no one came to help her or all the other customers waiting. So, I just left…after muttering a few inappropriate remarks to myself.

I don’t blame the woman…I blame Sears for not providing her with more help. How stupid is that? Jewelry has one of the highest profit margins in the whole store and on one of the busiest shopping nights of the year, they had only one woman manning this very large department. That is just pure stupidity on their part!

Knowing me, I would have bought the watch on the spot and walked out with it on my wrist. But now, I will buy it from Amazon.  In fact, I bought all my Christmas gifts on line this year. I don’t need to suffer this kind of incompetence and frustrations from brick and mortar stores.

OK, I got that off my chest. That is why this blog is called Rants and Raves. If you had any doubts, that was a rant. Next time, I will do a rave. 

I am taking some additional time off for the Holidays and will write just one blog this week and one blog next week. After the first, I will get back on the two-a-week schedule. So, I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas and thanks for making me a part of your life. -JRC

Tech News and Opinions

 

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How Mobile Carriers Skirt Net Neutrality Rules

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The death of Adobe's Flash is lingering, not sudden

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The 10 biggest security stories of 2015

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Computer Tips and Tricks

 

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Outlook.com, Outlook on the Web to Gain New Features in Early 2016

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How to create an image backup in Windows 10 and restore it, if need be

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The Best Cloud Storage Services for 2015

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You can now ask Cortana to search Netflix on Windows 10

The app currently works with PCs and tablets, and will soon support phones. It offers a revamped Browse experience that supports gestures, so you can quickly scroll or swipe vertically through categories and horizontally through items in a category.


Mobile Computing

 

Wi-Fi in the sky still cloudy, sometimes costly as airlines try to catch up with technology

Logging on to most airline Wi-Fi networks feels like stepping into a time machine — and we don't mean that in a good way. On many domestic flights, the bandwidth is barely ample enough for checking email, never mind streaming videos.

 

Traveling abroad with your smartphone: You can take it with you

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Will Apps Help Convince Shoppers to Revisit the Mall?

Painful parking lots and aging amenities have only helped accelerate the shift toward online shopping. What are malls doing to combat this loss of business?

 

The best smartphone you can buy

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How to Put Free Ebooks on Your Amazon Kindle

Your Kindle isn't just restricted to reading books from Amazon. Here's how to convert various other ebooks formats for the Kindle, and where to get free ebooks.

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