SLIP-SLIDIN' AWAY . . .

It's 9;30 am on Saturday morning, here in this corner of So Cal, tucked in below some foothills, about 18 miles to the coast line - as the crow flies) and its 45 friggin' degrees out there. Last night at 10:05 it was already 36 degrees. Tell me Al Gore isn't on to something . . . Earlier this week found Mrs. LOST and I in a local grocery store that shall be nameless, well, its the one that rhymes with Shawn's and the line of 5 people ground to a halt, while the cashier sauntered over to get "help" from someone behind the deli counter a good 45 50 feet away. There was a loud discussion between the two, then a disgusted look from the deli person, who then disappeared behind the counter. Minutes later the cashier came back, acting like nothing had happened, and we were back to being processed. At that hour of the morning on a weekday, people are there to get in and get out. THe point is that "Shawns" may have padded its bottom line by breaking the union's back a few years ago with its cruddy, drudge level two-tier wage system, but it has also become yet another bottom feeding employer, taking on employees who treat customers poorly without a second thought. The cost of providing good service has simply been externalized to the customer. Cornelius Vanderbilt lives - "the public be damned" has been resurrected.

This grocery experience is showing up all over. Years ago, Home Depot abandoned its mantra that "we have contractors on staff" in favor of hiring cheap labor. Rumor had it that this was the brainchild of a Jack Welch devotee, recently picked up by General Electric. The resulting bump to Home Depot's profitability has come at the expense of service. In all the local 'Depot's, the orange apron wearers act like rabbits when they see a bewildered customer approach. They bolt - rapidly in the opposite direction. You're on your own in that big ol' stupid warehouse. Hope you know exactly what you're looking for, buddy.

Tom Petty was right, in his "Last DJ' song:

As we celebrate mediocrity
all the boys upstairs wanna see
how much you'll pay for what you
used to get for free

So . . . some corporate bottom lines have been bettered. Yee haw. Service stinks, and the people paid these kind of wages feel justified in offering none. Moreover, at 8 bucks an hour, few if any of them will ever be able to afford a decent living space on their own - let alone a home or a condo. LOST remembers the day - Hell, LOST had some high school classmates who left the hallowed halls of "the academy" and went to work for the grocery chains, and made a tidy enough living to afford a small home, and raise some kids. That's gone, now, just like the Rams, the "E-Ticket", and Movieland Wax Museum. That is money taken out of communities, sacrificied on some marble corporate alter - assertedly for value-demanding shareholders, but silently filtered into upper management's pockets for big bonuses and thickly larded retirements. Is anyone paying attention to this stuff, or are we still collectively broken up over Britney and K-Fed?