It's Alive!

These days customers can wander for hours in department stores that are more like ghost towns than the bustling bastions of luxury shopping they once were. We have been tempted to set a stopwatch to see how long it would take before any of the very few remaining staff positioned mostly at checkout centers might ask if we need any help. Our suspicion is that the clock would keep running forever. Remember when sales people were so persistently present that you had to beg just  to browse on your own? It was sometimes annoying, but we actually kind of miss the attention and do occasionally wish for some help.

Well, we are glad to report that in some small pockets of the retail industry service lives on.  Our recent experience with a young salesperson who stuck with us through the entire process of testing mattresses for a guest bedroom, making a selection, and arranging for delivery was quite satisfying. A few weeks later he followed through with a phone call to make sure we were getting a good night's sleep, and then sent a postcard which was not only thoughtful, but brought smiles to our faces.