Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Petty, devastating annoyances

Today I decided to indulge myself. I work in a noisy open office, so I decided to purchase quality headphones of the closed kind. Big ones, because I want headphones not only to sound good, but also to convey a message: I'm working, I'm trying to insulate myself from all the noise and fuss, so don't bother me. You know, you got to have quality headphones when you spend eight hours each day listening to music. I don't necessarily want to spend eight hours each day listening to music, I'm forced to do it because I need to concentrate. It's easier to concentrate while listening to music than listening to coworkers conversating and socializing. They're not supposed to socialize too much in an open office either, because it bothers coworkers, but they do it anyway. Stupid lack of discipline.

Anyway. I went to a small shopping centre two kilometres from where I live, because there's a computer shop there that sells quality headphones at a reasonable price. I had my kid with me. At the store I went directly to the headphone rack, compared a few models, made a decision and went to the counter. It took me all of a 2.5 minutes to do that. But at the counter there was a line of about six nerds and two clerks serving them. I stood in the line for about half an hour, trying to keep my kid calm, while listening to nerds buying computers one component at a time. They'd ask the clerk to recommend a video card, who'd find the available video cards on his computer. Then they'd discuss and compare the merits of each model and possibly agree on the model the nerd would like. Then the clerk would go to find the video card from the store or possibly the back room. Then he'd come back and ask if the nerd would like to have anything else. The nerd would then name the next component he needed. It went on and on. There are many components in a computer. There are many nerds.

I was only one nerd away from purchasing the headphones, but I had to give up. My kid was getting restless and so was I. I took the headphones back to the rack and walked out of the store. The nerd was probably a more valuable customer than I, because he bought equipment for, say, 600 €. But in the time that it took the clerk to service him, 20 guys could have walked in and purchased 30 € headphones each, had there been a counter where purchasing items had been made efficient. All the store would have to do is to separate customer service and the counters. Now the customers who know what they want and want to get it quickly have to stand in line, annoyed, for a long time, tapping their wrists impatiently, and the customers who want customer service have to explain their needs to the clerks in front of an annoyed, wrist-tapping crowd.

So I came back home and ordered the headphones from another computer shop in another city via internet. They'll be delivered by mail and I'll have to fetch them from the post office, which is actually as far away as the shopping centre. But at least in the post office there will not be a bunch of nerds blocking my way. There might be a few grannies, but at least they're usually faster, and stronger, than nerds. They also have a more pleasant odour, might I say.

Oh, and also, there weren't any frozen Karelian pasties in the grocery store. What kind of a grocery store doesn't have frozen Karelian pasties these days? A crappy one, I tell you.

Yes, I do realize that I'm a spoiled brat for complaining of petty matters like these.

That's all.