Stupifying America

[Eli]

I think America is being "stupified."

Yesterday, I went into a seven-eleven, and when I was at the checkout, there was an "e-billboard." It flashes advertisements across the screen, via satellite, when you are waiting in line. I inquired with the man behind the register, and he says it is the latest thing in advertising. Bleh. I hate being accosted by signs, but now in the checkout line?!

It made me think about American culture as a whole. Sometimes, I am led to believe that Americans (myself included) are like little children that cannot wait for anything. (A "motor mile" is the prime example. I mean, you drive off the lot with a new car. My father says when he was young, all cars were ordered. Now while driving through the country, we have vast forests, and then poking up in the middle of the trees is a lot with 1,000 cars in every model ane in color ready to purchase).

Further proof is that I work at Sears. We get deliveries on Wednesday and Friday. Some people are not even willing to wait that short amount of time to get the things which they ordered. They are impatient, and "must have it right away." As of recently I don't take any flack from customers, and I tell it to them like it is, "take it or leave it."

My question to you all is, number one, do you think America is whoring itself to advertising? And, do you think that Americans are too impatient?

Easy E
www.angelfire.com/va2/gammachi

[This message has been edited by Eli (edited August 13, 2000).]

[Katelyn]

I do think that Americans advertise way too much. It seems like the only thing we think about these days is $$$$$$$$MONEY$$$$$$$$. Don't people know there is more to life than just money?

Sometimes I feel as though Americans are too impatient. Just the other day I was at work, I'm a cashier at a Lerner clothing store near where I live. A lady who was cashing out at my register had to use her credit card. So I swiped it through and just as I did that, the computer froze. She was bitc*ing ME out because it froze and she was going to be late for HER dental appointment. If she knew there would be the slightest chance that she was going to be late she shouldn't have gone shopping!

There are many more but I can't think of any at the moment!

[Eli]

The cashier I had said that e-billboards are going to spread to other stores. Not ones I usually shop in, but it is the concept which I don't like.

Easy E
www.angelfire.com/va2/gammachi

[prospectiverushee]

The e-billboards are coming soon to a store near you. There's one in the lobby at my bank. It normally flashes sports scores,but it's something to pass the time while I wait for one of the 2 tellers to become free to serve me.

As for people not wanting to wait for anything, you just haven't lived until you become a telephone operator prosessing orders for people who order things from INFOMERCIALS!

Just a tip: If you order something from tv,and you do not here the annoucer say that Rush Delivery is available,then chances are there is no rush delivery and you'll have to wait the 4-6 weeks for the product you ordered. Having said this,don't order something and you know you're going on vaction for three weeks. I do not know how UPS works. I do not know what day the postman will come to come to your door with the product you ordered. Nor do I care. If it's that important, then WAIT till you come back to order it so you can be assured you will get it.

(sorry about the mini-rant)

[mwedzi]

Okay, I have know my country was getting dumber (or at least, more poorly educated) for a while. But the Gallup poll confirms it.

I was searching their site and found some interesting information. About 21% of Americans did not know the earth revolved around the sun. Some said it was the other way around and some admitted to ignorance. 79% is a majority, but 21% don't know? Where are these people?

Do you know what country the U.S. gained its independence from? Was it Russia? France, perhaps? Or maybe it was the constantly-oppressive, the menacing, Mexico! Those were just some of the ridiculous answers American citizens gave. Hello people? What language do we all speak?!? Well, 76% of Americans got it right, but the other 24%. And the sad thing is, the Gallup poll says most American parents are at least somewhat satisfied with the public education system.

I'm not the most patriotic of people, but really, that was just pathetic. Now I have to hear I'm coming back to a country with flashing electronic billboards. Can we possible get any more gaudy?

[This message has been edited by mwedzi (edited August 14, 2000).]

[SilverTurtle]

I don't know how effective advertising is on my any more. I do 1 of 2 things:

1) Completely ignore it (this is what I do most often)

2) Analyze it--> target audience, stereotypes it perpetuates (or, rarely, goes against, etc.)

As for people being impatient.. OMG!

I work at kinko's. And customers are a trip. I just had my computer freeze the other day (like Katelyn). Well, when 1 POS system goes down, they all go down (because they are all part of the same system). It takes less than 2 minutes for them to reboot. This lady was throwing a fit, and was like "can't I just pay over there?" I said "No" and held on to her card until the computer came up. I had already rung her up and the receipt was printing when she asked again. I used my most irrated voice and said "I already rung you up, you need to calm down".

Customers are this impatient on a daily basis. And they don't understand why they can't get their job right now, never mind the 5 people who got there before them. (One of the guys I work with actually says to people "Well, if you go over there and ask those customers if they mind if we take their job off so we can do yours first, and they say it's okay, we'll do it." No one has ever taken him up on it, though )

I hear adults b****ing all the time about kids these days, instant gratification, etc. I don't know why they are so surprised, the kids are just doing what their parents do.

------------------
SilverTurtle@greekchat.com
Phi Beta Fraternity
Phi chapter

[NoLongerGreek]

Customer service is the biggest thing in retail now, and when I went through training at my job (Sally Beauty Supply), they told us we were supposed to do anything we could to make a customer happy. The only think we can NOT do is give a refund if there is no receipt for the transaction. We can do an exchange, but no refund- very understandable, and I think that's the way it is at most places.

Anyways, this lady comes into the store one day and I'm working by myself. She brings back this bottle of tea shampoo and said she wanted tea TREE shampoo. Not a huge difference, but it was a little difference. Anyways, she says she doesn't have her receipt, so I calmly and very kindly inform her that if there was ANYTHING she needed in the store I would be more than happy to exchange it, but I could not give a refund. This item costs, at the most, $4. Granted, that's not a lot of money, but I risk my job if I break this rule. The woman absolutely FLIPPED OUT. She asked to see my manager and when she found out my manager wasn't in she lost it. She had her little 4 year old daughter with her, who I knew by name because they had been in the store so often, so it kind of surprised me that she would act this way in front of her child. The woman screamed at me and cussed me out for nearly 10 minutes before someone else came in the store and the way they looked at her embarrassed her enough to leave.

The clincher? She STILL comes back and bitches about that bottle of shampoo I wouldn't take back. ARGH!!

[parrotthead]

I would defenetly have to agree with what everyone is saying, it not only seems as though society as a whole is getting impatient, and becoming even more apathetic. I worked for my schools phoneathon this past year, we call up alums and ask them to donate money to the university to use for scholorships, this one guy I called in new york, actually got made at me for inturrupting his nap on a sunday afternoon a 4. I mean I realize that sunday is kinda a bad time to call and ask for cash but still, he wasnt mad cuz it was a monday, he was mad cuz I woke him up? I dont know, I mean I personally would think that I would be happy to be contacted by a student of the school I graduated from just to know that they are still keeping me close, even if it is just because they are asking for money.

[Texas Alum]

in response to Eli's original rant about advertising:
remember this: we are all directors of our own fate! We can choose NOT to look at the advertising at 7-11 (I ignore it). AND, we can take matters directly into our own hands. You can tell your bank officer that you don't like the advertisements that are flashed at you at the ATM. You can tell the 7-11 manager that you don't like the e-billboards.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Commerce is ultimately run by the consumer. If enough consumers complain about something, the merchants/vendors/companies will change it!

[Texas Alum]

omigod, I hate to do this.

But since, in another post, we have been discussing grammar and spelling and usage......

It's actually "stupEfy".


XOXO don't hate me!

[Eli]

Lol, that is okay.

Usually when I type, I dont look at the keyboard or the screen. I can usually know when I make a mistake, just by where my fingers touch on the keyboard. (Yeah yeah, Im a dork, my keyboard is completely committed to my memory, I can type almost anything that I want w/o looking at a reference. :P) The mistakes I do make constantly, well, I just configure my computer to correct them automatically. But I dont use that program to type here, so my typing comes out exactly like I type it.

I will be the first to admit, I did not know how to spell "stupefy."

-----------------------

In response to what you said, yeah thats true, I suppose that I should write a formal complaint.

Easy E
www.angelfire.com/va2/gammachi

[tcsparky]

I completely understand. I teach high school students. I daily hear them talking to each other about things like this. What can be funny is when we have a test. Unlike many people I work with, I don't give all scan-tron, fill-in-the-bubble tests. I give them the chance to draw, explain, use their own words, to get the point across on a majority of the questions. The same student who "doesn't have time" to write the 10 vocabulary definitions for HW will walk in the next morning after a test and get upset if I'm not finished grading all 77 test papers (no one gets their test back until I have graded them all).
I know that they will either grow up and change, or grow up and stay the same, and that as one person I will have only a little influence, but I smile, point out to them that I wasn't able to complete all 221 pages of my HW (if the test was 3 pages long) and promise to try to get them back the next day. (The principal allows 3 days as reasonable for returning tests.)
Sometimes the point is made, and sometimes I get dumb looks!

[mgdzkm433]

ok, I guess this is a dream I have, but because of 'modern society' It will probably never come true. I'd love for everyone to just life out in the woods, grow their own gardens, and live off the land. In today's vegitarian, cafe moche, advertising society . . . my dream will never come true. I guess I go against the norm. My fiance and I are seriously looking at purchasing land (hopefully as far away from everything as possible) and building a log house--with the perks of washer/dryer and dishwasher, but as rugged as you can get from there. He wants to get his PhD and teach college--he says he hopes that one day he will be able to teach his class via e-mail--so he doesn't have to leave home. If we ever have kids, we'd home school them. I hate working, so I would probably do my best to stay home. I love gardening and crafts. We NEVER watch tv, we might have it on once a week--if that. Oh if we could all live in our ideal world. . .

[tickledpink]

With ever growing technology, we are constantly bombarded with advertisements. I went to the ATM the other day, and the screen actually plays a Mountain Dew commercial while you wait for your money!

And Americans are too impatient -- to the point that we are almost insane. I work in customer service, and I overheard a representative speaking to a customer that she eventually had to disconnect. WHY? Because the woman had actually gotten to the point to where when she was told her product was on Back Order, and she proceeded to throw a tantrum (REALLY)! She stated that she was sitting in the middle of her bedroom floor, crying her eyes out because of this, and that she would continue to hold forever until she got what she wanted "NOW!, Do you understand me..." And the product is not something that you must have or you will die (a necessity). I believe in good customer service, but sometimes I believe we can go too far. Truth be told (at the risk of sounding like a facist) (I know No Longer Greek will agree)the customer is not always right. Hmmmm-- *idea -- start a website for frustrated CSR's to vent!*

[This message has been edited by tickledpink (edited October 06, 2000).]