The slothful shopper

A chap called to ask if C&P sold joke books and, if so, which ones we had in stock. Judging by the tone of voice, the customer was clearly young and able; by the latter I mean not physically incapacitated or stuck under heavy machinery. This kind of lazy, 'general enquiry' armchair shopping really incenses me.

I know we inhabit a virtual 'I expect, therefore I get' world now, and I'm not going to hark on about how much harder we had it in the old days, or give you a parable on how my granny had to walk 5 miles to school with no shoes on etc. That was my dad in fact anyway. I just want to point out that the average westerner could easily hole themselves up for eons without any need to approach their front door other than to sign for that online Asda shop. How can this be a good thing, 'force majeure' scenario aside?

And rather than amble out for a browse around the shops on a global warmingly kind of mild October Saturday afternoon, I'd hazard a guess at one in three of us having degenerated to this level of person, whose main aim it is to get someone to do all their footwork for them and come up with that perfect gift idea. Sorted. Do a quick google search on the subject in advance of the call since I'm on Bebo anyway? You kidding? Maybe I'm being unduly harsh. Perhaps he is an 'rsi' sufferer and not just bone idle.

So, hurrah to all the active customers, those who stretch their limbs through the doors of shops here, there and everywhere with their requests - some specific, some vague. But at least they bothered to break the armchair generation mould for an hour or two and be vague in person. Obviously, this particular cross section of customer can present its own problems too, but that topic's for another diatribe. Hurrah again!

On a final note, my joker obviously hasn't yet had their bank outsource all customer service queries to Bangalore like mine. Otherwise clearly they would never ever put a phone call in to another supplier again.