Outback Steakhouse - Largo FL - Reviewed

I had gone online and tweeted that we had phoned ahead for "call ahead seating" for 6pm at Outback Steakhouse. The restaurant is located in Largo - ten minutes from where we live in Clearwater FL.

Four of us were going there to celebrate my wife receiving the great news that her biopsy was negative. My son had had suggested Outback and we were joined by his girlfriend. 

So let's get down to business. This Outback location, as I believe all of their restaurants around the country are, is busy as hell. The parking lot was full - mostly with "snow-birds" or tourists from "up North", many of which are Canadians. Great for business, not so much for us "locals".

We got there precisely at 6pm and was told it would be a minimum 20 minute wait. Another couple sitting and waiting said that sometimes, even with "call ahead seating", the wait could be as long as an hour.

So my first (negative) comment is that forget "call ahead" anything. What's the point? Just go there early and wait along with everyone else. We took the (actual) 30 minute wait in stride and chatted with the other cranky "guests" waiting outside. Thank goodness the Florida weather was still fairly mild for April.

We were seated in a large booth and immediately overwhelmed with colorful cardboard menus & inserts (even more stuff on a spiral bound little stand) with lot's of pictures. We would have preferred a better organized presentation involving one or two pages to hold and look over. I always favor, as with many other aspects of life, a "KISS" approach (to menus) - keep it simple. We told the "server" (waitress) to please give us a minute or so - twice. 

My wife and I ordered some type of "speciality" drink - not part of the Happy Hour offerings - of course. I honestly don't recall what they were - it had a medium sized lime wedge in it and contained a minimum quantity of alcohol. It wasn't bad and I guess if I were on a cruise ship, I would have had three.

You really cannot eat at Outback without ordering their "Bloomin' Onion". It came with the bread and butter. The "ring" of onions is the same as it always has been since Outback first opened - greasy but crunchy and tasty. The bread? Well I remember it as being less "commercial" tasting - more "earthy" - more "maple-y". I would have also preferred it a bit warmer. Everyone besides me liked it, but then they were quite hungry. 

MIA (missing & lost) was the coconut shrimp appetizer. We reminded our server three times and it finally arrived just before our dessert came. I don't get how or why that happened, but we shouldn't have been charged for it.

Although I was alone regarding the quality of the bread, we agreed the "new" sweet and "standard"

baked potato has shrunk considerably over the years. Didn't Outback used to season a really large potato then wrap it in aluminum foil? Or was that Cracker Barrel or Golden Corral? Anyway the potatoes were "weak" lacking any yummy or wow factor. The sour cream and chives - if that's what they were - were tasteless.

Three of us ordered sirloin. I still don't understand the difference between wood fired and original. My wife's steak was DOA - overcooked and dry. My steak, though, was amazing. I would have been happy with just that and my drink. Small annoyance, but my fork was all bent out of shape and I had to get a replacement. My son thought his meat was OK. His girlfriend who had trouble finding what she wanted on the menu (menu's) said she enjoyed her shrimp and chicken. 

As I said earlier, after we finished the meal, and after the third prompt, the coconut shrimp finally arrived. The Gulf of Mexico is about 8 miles away - maybe

the chef was down there trying to catch more. Seconds later my wife and I shared carrot cake - my son and girlfriend the Outback ice cream brownie "special" dessert. The cake's icing was sugary and creamy enough, but the actual cake was somewhat dry, almost like it was left over from the day before. I asked for a new spoon because the one I received was not clean. It was the second utensil replacement of the evening.

My son was kind enough to treat us so I did not see how much the bill was. And for the record, all of us eat at Outback frequently, but not inside the restaurant. We typically order take-out. 

Here's the bottom-line: I give the service a C+ because of the shrimp appetizer issue which was just dumb. Outback needs to "audit" their forks, knives and spoons and update their inventory.

The food I give a B because of the boring potatoes and the unfortunate incineration of my wife's steak. The experience overall rates a C+ and one can only hope if we return everything "flows" better. We also don't need 5 sheets of cardboard menu overload to decide what to eat. It's overkill, we get the deal and more time should be spent making the food properly and seeing that it gets to the guest when it should be.

Finally, from the "podium" up front where the

hosts/hostesses stand, a "thank you for coming" would have been a nice gesture. Ignoring guests as they leave just isn't nice customer service. 

6pm
April 5th 2014
Outback Steakhouse
East Bay Road
Largo FL

Note: the pictures and photographs do NOT represent the actual meal or people at the establishment and were used in this review for humor and reference purposes only.

WALMART STEAK REVIEWED...

You don't know how big a leap this was. Bringing in anything else but Publix meat into our home. I've seen the television commercials where "they" surprise restaurant guests and reveal the steak they were eating was really from WalMart. I've blogged and clearly stated that I will not purchase WalMart meat because I did not like the black packaging and felt it was (by appearance) not fresh. For 25+ years, I almost exclusively shopped at Publix.

But then Publix starting dropping the ball as far as customer service. Products that I regularly bought were consistently out of stock, a store manager that looked the other way and avoided customers and general lack of attentiveness that made myself and others feel uncomfortable. My wife and I are big London Broil fans and it seemed as though Publix was putting out for sale just not the same quality cuts as we were used to. As alternatives such as Albertson's and Winn-Dixie were closing, WalMart supercenters were rapidly expanding. As I write this piece, two new supercenters are slated to open within the next 60 days.

Relectant at first to buy groceries there, it was the freshness and availability of skim milk that finally prompted me to green light WalMart. I don't necessarily mind spending a bit more for groceries if the availability, service and customer responsiveness to problems and questions is present. As Publix was failing WalMart was winning me over. And, my grocery bill was shrinking. While Publix stopped regularly carrying "my" Lipton ice tea, WalMart offered (Arizona) a cheaper better choice.

I still went to Publix for meat, deli sandwiches and my prescriptions. But the other day I was in WalMart and an associate was wheeling out a cart of "fresh" meat in white packaging. I decided this was the time to buy meat there and save my self a trip to Publix. I purchased a T-Bone steak. $8.98 per pound - two pieces at 1.60 lbs - total $14.37. I figured what the heck and after all it comes with a 100% money back guarantee.

I do all the cooking in our home, but I chose not to tell my wife where I got the steak until we both tasted it. Along with the steak and few other groceries I purchased a small gas grill for about $25. The only thing I added to the steak was a very very small dab of lightly salted fresh butter and a light sprinkle to both sides of McCormick (Grill Mates) Montreal Steak seasoning. I served fresh sweet corn on the cob on the side.

The steak was incredible. The steak was delightful. The steak came off the bone with just a fork. It brought back memories for the both us of marvelous steaks we've had in the past. The steak that we were served on the (cruise ship) Carnival Dream in their speciality dining room was amazing, but this WalMart T-Bone slighted edge ahead of it. When I told my wife where it was from, she just stared at me in amazement.

Trust me on this one, if the steak from WalMart was anything less than perfect, I would tell you. I have criticized both WalMart and Publix in the past. The articles are available on this blog. But this "experience" was everything the WalMart commercial claims. Kudos to them. My only recommendation to WalMart would be to brighten up the meat area and completely eliminate the back styrofoam packaging for white.

** this was the US19 Old Coachman WalMart Supercenter in Clearwater FL. The Publix is located in Largo FL at East Bay Drive in the TriCity Plaza.

WHY CAN'T A NON-PROFIT BE MORE LIKE A PROFIT?

It's very simple. The goal of any organization is to best service the client. That applies to both non-profits and for profits. And in case there is any confusion about what the definition of a client is - that means the patients, customers and yes, even the volunteers. It also means that management has to best service their employees by giving them the best tools available to service and communicate with their clients.

Again, very simple, right? No. The entire concept I just described sadly falls short of reality in the non-profits that I have personally investigated and done volunteering for. From what I've experienced, if you look at five non-profit organizations, there are few who run their operations similar to a successful growing for profit company. I see non profits make classic avoidable business errors that damage their credibility, image and reputation.

There is a tried and true management concept called MBWA or management by walking around. I've also heard is referred to as "wandering" around. I believe it began somewhere with HP - Hewlett Packard and described by consultant and author Tom Peters. In my forty years of business experience in a wide variety of industries, I used MBWA both extensively and successfully. And to be clear, MBWA doesn't mean a few 360's around your office, it's means your entire facility. If your patients, clients or customers are elsewhere, MBWA includes the elsewhere.

I heard something the other day which prompted me to write this article. A large well-established church is "stuck". It's losing younger members to more "with it" newly formed congregations. "Light" religious programs that also feature learning English as a second language, drug and alcoholic recovery programs, day care, VPK K-5 schooling, weekend and evening social activites and even skateboarding ramps are what are now available to the community.

In a classic for-profit mistake, the well-established non-profit church's "management" failed to listen to and respond to its "clients" needs. I learned that the "head" minister was seen walking around into the attached school that was the last "money-making" operation that was keeping the church's lights on. It was a rare thing - him being outside of his office or "his" adjacent chapel.

He walked up to one of the teachers and asked "Who are you?" She replied by identifying herself as an employee of the church for over ten years. The director of the school who was standing nearby quietly laughed and shook her head. She couldn't recall the last time the senior minister had seen "his" school. He never interfaces with his "employees". Let's say that his practice was one of MBA - management by avoidance - rather than MBWA.

This is NOT an isolated event. I have looked into the Tampa Chapter of the American Red Cross, the local "Literacy" Council, the ESL Program at the Largo FL library, Big Brother Big Sisters of Pinellas County, Suncoast Hospice, AARP and others I chose not to identify. Some are religious organization ie: churches, temples and "ministries". Some are national while others have just a local focus.

At one point I thought one might be different - better - than the other. But what I found were highly disfunctional groups infected with employee frustration, pettyness and jealosy. Yes, they were doing some amazing things upfront, but their "back" office operations were very damaged.

I want to clearly point out that as an experienced manager I have always had "mountains" to climb to attain the goals I was either assigned or I determined were necessary for the organization to grow. I overcame obstacles not diminished operational or communications excellence because of them.

Not unlike non-profits, the for-profit businesses I worked for had employee shortages, budget-cuts, cut-backs, lay-offs, legal and governmental issues, taxes, training and motivational difficulties - everything that a typical business experiences both in reality and in business school case studies. Non-profits tell me "we lost a grant" or this or that excuse - well, it's the same as a for profit losing a large customer or a key performer to a competitor. You deal with it, continue to provide superior customer service and move on.

There is NO excuse for a non-profit to make excuses because they are a non-profit. There is no excuse not to respond to client (and volunteers) requirements as would any superior for profit business. We have too much to do and too many cases does not cut it. We are all overworked and stressed. A local library director doesn't read or acknowledge her "clients" (that would be the people who pay for the library aka taxpayers) e-mail comments or suggestions.

You cannot survive as a non profit service organization if you don't have volunteers to assist. You can't have a church without members. If your "group" requires donors and grants, then you must create the necessary top notch methods for obtaining them. If a non-profit cannot effectively c-o-m-m-u-n-i-c-a-t-e and multitask in the volitile economy that we are seemingly mired in then they will not survive.

Every "breath" of operating a non-profit should be geared toward being on the cutting edge of EVERY aspect of your operation. I have seen too many vital things "fall through the cracks" because non-profit highly educated professionals don't have the simple business skills to see them through effectively. A Ph.D or Master Degree in Social Work or other related field does not translate into the necessary "street smarts" to manage a non-profit, coordinate volunteers, obtain donors or service clients.

The worst case is a non profit that doesn't realize they're in trouble, but it is very clear to an "outsider". Not a MBA theory, but "Alligators Up To Our Asses" or perhaps more apropo "Can't See The Forest For The Trees" certainly applies. Time to seriously regroup and seek clarity of purpose. Many cases of non-profit organizational "Cancer" can be cured with a serious rethink. Tom Peters would recommend an outside consultant be brought in to evaluate. Not a bad idea.

Let me wrap this up. I have seen first hand how non profits operate. I was shocked, amazed and disappointed. I was expecting a better - more braver environment. Their problems are obvious and simple. I see more problems with non profits than I do with profits. Non profits make more excuses for non performance. I've experienced more unsettling arrogance with non profits concerning listening and change. Non profits because of their purpose take longer to fail, but they do. Non profits need to look at their for profit partners and seek to model the best operational, communications and customer service practices.

WalMart Neighborhood Market - Review

I have been highly critical - rightly so - of Publix grocery stores and I'm constantly searching for better alternative businesses to shop. I have moved most of my supermarket shopping to WalMart supercenters, which in my area, there are many and many more soon to come. However, there are also WalMart "neighborhood markets" which "supplement the vastly larger supercenters. I went into one today for the first time. It is located right off US19 in Pinellas Park, FL.

First off, I would tell whomever runs this division of Wal-Mart - and this applies to the grocery section of the supercenters - to change everything that is black to white. That's the ceiling, which makes the interior look dark, dismal and somewhat creepy and most definitely the meat packages. For me and others I've talked to, there is something negatively psychological about black meat packages. That is the #1 reason I do not buy WalMart meat. At this WalMart neighborhood market there would be no exception.

The one item that I still buy at Publix is their meat. The quality is excellent and all the packages - meat, chicken and fish are white. The coolers are white. It is bright, airy and everything looks fresh - which it is. This is not the case with either Wal-Mart or the neighborhood market I was in. I do not want to sound dramatic, but some of the meat at WalMart market was disgusting. Discolored and (way to) bloody were the two black packages I saw and decided not to get any closer for health reasons. If I could have called a health inspector to come down and see what I saw, I would have.

On the other side of the store, in between where the shampoo is located, there were a cart of returned chicken "defrosting" in the aisles. The boxes were discolored because of the defrosted product inside. At this point, I almost walked out. I needed milk and a few other items that were far off from the meat area - I could not find packaged frankfurters - located them then checked out. I was curious if this "neighborhood" store is a separate division from WalMart, but the cashier said they were one in the same. She was very pleasant and like many other WalMart employees did her job well.

The prices here were somewhat lower than Publix or other places I've been. The shelves were well stocked, everything else appeared fresh and checking the dates on some items, nothing was past it's sell date. The brand of dog food I purchase was higher prices than other stores and they did not have the canned version. If you are a regular shopper here, finding certain products, like the hot dogs, is probably easy, but I gave up confused in the overly large (and dark) frozen food section.

The meat thing is the closer for me. Unless that changes, actually completely revamped, I seriously doubt I would return to this store. I would also not buy meat, chicken or pork at the larger WalMart supercenter. I typically go to Publix - and will continue to do so - for a large london broil (11.99) which I BBQ and chopped meat (about $13) once a week along with different varities of fish. I am not a fan of chicken. Quite frankly, I don't even know where fresh fish is sold at WalMart and it is not on my list of things to find out. I have purchased frozen fish there under the Sam's label and it was good.

So, in terms of recommending a place for meat, Publix gets five stars - WalMart doesn't even get one. They just have to clean up their "meat" act - that includes drastically improving the freshness and appearance of the products they sell. Again, I dispise black packaging. That's fine for just about anything other than meat, sausage, chicken, etc. And, the more labels WalMart sticks on the packaging - the more I have to read or think about the purchase - the less I like it. Keep it simple. Sure I care about the price, but the freshness, its appearance, the sell by dates and the overall quality of the "presentation" of the product is what makes me want to put the item in my shopping cart.

I certainly hope someone at WalMart listens.

Pesky Annoying Pill Bottle Cap - Publix

Clearly, at the top of the list of mistakes any business makes (New Coke) is not asking customers what they think and want first. Once again, the supermarket chain Publix enters into the picture. They introduced some annoying coupon integration into their check out payment system. Nobody wanted it or could figure out how to use or why and senior regularly got upset that they were somehow being "shorted" by the confusing "service". It lastest about 90 days before they changed it and it made some sense. A lot of customers were angry about this.

Here we go again. So look at the photo. I'm comparing side by side two pills bottles and the tops (caps) used by their pharmacies. On the left is a fairly "standard" WalMart cap. It is relatively easy to twist off and on. On the right is the absurd Publix cap. I'm not quite sure where to begin describing this "device". It has two sides - flip it and it's (I think) a child resistant safety cap. Flip it around and (I think) it's not. I really don't know which side is for what and I shouldn't have to. A standard cap is a 1/4" high. The Publix version 3/4" high - the increased height adds no value to the cap.

This is Publix way of being clever - stupidily clever. One cap for (I think) two purposes? All while - as one side says and not the other - please keep our planet "green" by recycling this container when empty. The cap has a child warning along the top (???) edge in both English and Spanish. The WalMart cap is a simple pill bottle cap - very straight forward. It makes sense to me and is not making any political statements about recycling or warning children (none in my home) in two languages.

Along with the other things I do, I am a Hospice volunteer. As a disabled person I also take about 10 medications a day. So you might say I'm surrounded by pill bottles. I also listen a great deal to what people say and think about lots of products and services. My 88 year old mother lives in a "senior" community and, yes, talks to lots of older people. Guess what? Nobody likes the Publix multipurpose bilingual recycleble pill bottle cap.

My suspicion is that some idiot in Lakeland (Publix corporate headquarters) ordered thousands - perhaps hundreds of thousands - of these evil annoying pain in the ass "screwy" tops. I can also with say with much confidence that Publix never checked with - asked - or demonstrated this "thing" to either seniors or everybody else that has to take medicine on a regular basis. I even asked the pharmacy employees at three Publix locations and "they" don't like them either. So I have to think that Publix never even asked their own employees about this horrid pill bottle top.

This is why Publix in a desperate attempt to do better than WalMart is losing customers in large numbers now to - guess who - WalMart! I've written before about unresponsive Publix store management, their high prices and now these ridiculous caps. This is how a business makes costly errors when they get "stressed" about the competition. If you are saying, why is he focusing in on something as small and inconsequential as pill bottles?

My response to that is think about how many MILLIONS Publix pharamacies contribute to their corporate bottom line. Personally, both my brother and mother have moved their prescriptions over to WalMart. One of my patients has moved their presscription from Publix to Target. I'm next. If you don't listen or ask or react quickly when customers complain about the "little" things, they think you don't care and go elsewhere. It's not like I have to go out of my way (same with thousands of others in my neck of the woods) to shop somewhere else - as just one example - WalMart supercenters in Pinellas County FL are popping up EVERYWHERE.

In the past if I wanted to purchase aspirin along with a gallon of milk and bread, my first choice would be to run over to Publix. Not any more. I now have WaWa, 7-11, CVS, Walgreen's, Hess, Exxon, Shell, Racetrak, Thorton's, Circle K, Dollar General, Rally, Kwik Mart and many others to purchase those three items AND leave the store satisfied with my purchase. With all those choices, why does Publix elect to "piss off" their customers?

Publix - get rid of the arrogance - get rid of the ridiculous pill bottle caps - keep those shelves well stocked with inventory - keep prices fair and make sure your store managers are kept out of hiding in their offices and in the "back" - make sure their up front interfacing with customers - asking and listening about the service and products. I used to really love Publix, now I don't. It's where "shopping used to be a pleasure". Not any more. It's all their fault.

for my Spanish shoppers -

Publix - deshacerse de la arrogancia - deshacerse de las tapas de las botellas de píldoras ridículas - mantener los estantes bien surtidos con inventario - mantener los precios justos y asegúrese de que los gerentes de las tiendas se mantienen fuera de su escondite en sus oficinas y en el "nuevo" y más interfaz frontal con los clientes. Me encantaba Publix, ahora no lo hago. Es el lugar donde "shopping solía ser un placer". Ya no más. Todo es culpa de ellos.

THE ONLY THING CONSISTENT ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE IS IT'S INCONSISTENCY

Going out and doing business anywhere, you need to always have your "shields" up. Pardon the "Star Trek" reference. If you go into any retail business and your guard is down, buyer beware, you will somehow - someway get screwed. I can guarantee that. Sad but true.

There is always something wrong with the service, employees, the product, the store, the restaurant, the food, the waitress, the clerk - something and/or someone. Customer service - any customer service - is rare these days. In fact when you get it, you're amazed, astonished, need to Tweet or Facebook about it and walk around with a smile on your face, usually temporary until you go to your next stop.

Have you had just one day when everything was in stock, on sale, just what you wanted, the clerk or salesperson knew the answers to all your questions, everything functioned properly, it was just the right size, just the flavor you wanted, the dish came and looked just like the picture on the menu or when you checked out everything went though just like the commercial promised? Did someone help you so amazingly that you were sorry you had to leave to deal with someone else elsewhere?

When I walk out the front door of my home, I make sure I have my consumer armor on. I have to mentally and emotionally deal with what is surely about to be the stupidist moments of my day. For when I leave my home and get into my car and drive to the grocery or hardware store, bank, barber or beauty shop, restaurant or anywhere else that services the public, if I don't every second think about what I'm doing, the mallot of dreadful customer service will most assuredly hit me right over the head. I then feel completely stupid, but I remember I should have expected it.

Why just today, right before I wrote this blog piece, it happened. I was not only NOT surprised, shields up - armor on. I was ready for it and, agin, expecting it. I went into Home Depot to replace a quart can of custom paint for one of my bathrooms. Simple enough, right? I brought it up to the paint counter and interfaced with one of the "paint" people. Of course, they were out of quart cans for that brand of paint. How the heck can such a large store run out of small paint cans. Maybe they should run down the road and find an Ace Hardware and buy some.

Part of customer service in 2013 is that most everything is "out" just about everywhere. What used to be the model - the North American logistics system (recall "JIT" - just in time inventory management) everyone around the world looked up to - is gone. Inventory control is as dead an art as doing math on an abacus.

My mother used to tell me when I was growing up - you should see "vats" it like in Russia - sometimes she would substitute Africa or even China. I didn't have a clue what she was talking about until I actually went to those places and saw for myself the empty spaces on the shelves. Just like a WalMart or Lowe's now in this country.

The paint person and I made a "deal" where she would give me a gallon of the paint I wanted for the quart price. That was $11.98 which I thought was already too high, but then I was not about to wait until the Fortune 500 mega-box so-called discounted hardware billion dollar warehouse chain store managed to get some more quart cans in from wherever it comes from. She wrote a large note on the top of the can for the cashier instructing him to charge me the quart, not the gallon, price. Already I knew there was trouble ahead, because the typical 18-24 year old employee can neither read properly or think beyond what keyboard choices are available to them. Thank goodness, most transaction are done with plastic not requiring the Dead Sea Scrolls practice of "making" change.

Remember, I am self-trained to expect the expected stupidity when proceeding to the next step. Again, shields up! Straighten up my armor. I purposely kept my mouth shut. I get the usual mumbo jumbo jive from the cashier about did I find everything OK? Yeah, yeah. "That will be $34.95", he says. $34.95??? That my friends is one expensive quart can of biege bathroom paint. Some "discount" store. I'm hysterical inside my head. I ask, "Why so expensive?" I could have been really mean and say "Can't you read?".  But then, as I said, this is the norm not the exception - bad customer service.

The poor cashier looked positively confused. His brain wiring was clearly overheating. All this customer service inspired technology at his fingertips and he's been - actually the system has been - foiled by a hand written note from the paint person. She single handedly has brought down millions of dollars of advertising and marketing about how great Home Depot is - their prices, availability and the ease of going in one of their stores and going out with a smile - and saving money. It's all smoke and mirrors folks - bottom line, pure B.S.

I ask the young man, who reminded me of the "Raj" character on the CBS show "Big Bang Theory", d-i-d  y- o-u  r-e-a-d  t-h-e  n-o-t-e? Now comes the part of the transaction where he must try and refocus his 1984 George Orwellian store brainwashing (training) away from the BARCODE to the actual note. He then, and this is like a wood chipper that is fed a steel pipe, has to (OMG) make a decision as to how to void out the higher price and substitute the newer lower one. Oh the horror of it all AND people are waiting in line.

You get my point. What happened in this instance happens to you and me just about everywhere and everyday. It is unavoidable. Go to my last blog post about the USPS and there's another perfect example. Where does the fault lie? At the foundation our present education system deserves plenty of blame and higher up in the chain it is just poor management by managers and supervisors who are clueless about logistics and customer service and what business is really all about - us.

What to do about it? I'm afraid it's pretty much a lost cause. You must point your business to those places that do understand what customer service is and offer a superior product. Hopefully you won't have to pay much more for what you want. And, avoid those establishments that annoy you. In the case of a Home Depot or Applebee's or the USPS - the post office - you can go elsewhere to Lowe's, Chili's or Fedex, but chances are that the stupid stick of lousy inconsistent customer service has made it over there as well.

Personally just knowing - sadly - that customer service is dead in America - that the only thing consistent about customer service is it's inconsistency - about the only thing I can do is have some fun with it. Good luck with that.

POST OFFICE STUPIDITY

I just thrive on reporting stupidity, inefficiency and bureaucracy. The best aspect of using the post office is the "automated" ATM type mailing - postage self-service machines. These "kiosks" make the other aspect - the worst aspect - of using the post office avoidable. That being having to interface with the lazy morons who sit behind most of the "service" counters in most of the post offices around the country. For this piece, I focus in on the postal employees of the Clearwater, FL - Belcher Rd. - branch.

My wife, aside from her regular profession, makes custom cards - sort of Hallmark stuff on steroids. She has an entire room of our home "cordoned" off for this purpose alone. Well, there's also the sewing, rubber stamping, scrapbooking and quilting "operation" concurrently going on as well. Anyway, she had a small box of "cards" ready to be shipped off to Kansas for sorting to our troops serving on military bases overseas. I took it to the post office and found out that when the "service" counter inside the post office is open for business you (apparently) cannot use the self-service machine -  at least not with a small box.

There were three post service employees (civil service unionized workers) sitting there at roughly 1:30pm on a Saturday with a (as in "one") "customer" just leaving. I was greated with a friendly smile by an older (50+) heavy set female postal "worker" person. I handed her the box and said - "whatever the cheapest way is, please". She asked: "how about delivery by next Friday?" I replied: "OK". She asked me if there were any drugs, firearms - I don't recall the rest of the (FBI generated) intrusive list - and I replied in the negative.

There is a payment card "terminal" right there at the counter and I slid my wife's card and "it" said to enter a pin number. I asked: "how do I run this as credit". She said I would have to give her the card. I handed it to her, she read the name and asked me (now with a drivers license bureau clerk attitude) "who is this?". I told her and she said "you" cannot use "this" card "here" as a credit. "It" must be used as a debit. The price of postage, for the record, was $10 and change.

I very calmly asked for the box back. She ripped off the already applied label and postage and handed it to me. I turned, said nothing and walked out. Also, for the record, I use this card everywhere - at the grocery store, restaurants, Wal-Mart, gas stations - everywhere - never having a problem. I always put it through as a credit. Nobody ever asks me who is "this" when I use the card.

So, I tried once more to use the self-service machine 15 feet from the "service" counter, but it declined to process a small box. I decided to head over the nearby UPS (United Parcel Service) office, but decided that - just as matter of principle - to go to another local post office. The "service" counter there had closed an hour earlier and was not far away.

I put the box on the self-service scale - entered the zip code - answered a few simple questions - and pressed process. The machine said it would be $12 for delivery MONDAY! I would receive a convenient tracking number to follow it's progress. I slid my wife's credit card though the slot - it asked if I want to use it as a credit card - I replied in the affirmative. Out came the label and postage - then  a receipt. I put it on the box and shoved it in the appropriate door and off to Kansas it went. God bless our troops!

The postal employee, the space she occupies, the chair she sits on, the rubber mat she occasionally stands on, her salary, her benefits and her stupidity - all are a complete waste of money. She has NO purpose. She is a dinosaur. She has been replaced by a machine -  a far more efficient and faster alternative for the postal customer - but yet she (and thousands of others) still remain on "our" government's subsidized dole. That is clearly a mistake. It's pathetic. It is indicative of the bloated bureacracy that is the "United States" post office.

Can I take this "story" to someone at that post office branch for explanation? No way. That probably would be the "postmaster" but then it would be easier to talk to a member of Congress. Besides, you and I know it would be a complete waste of time.

* The YouTube video I'm sure is copyrighted by the USPS - United States Post Office

** The two folks that regularly deliver my mail are totally exempt from this story and any of my comments - they're probably the only two postal employees that possess any common sense and do an outstanding job. Thank for both for all your efforts. 

*** This is NOT an isolated incident - it is a culmination of YEARS of post office inefficiency.