One of the best deals in town is the $1.50 hotdog and soda special at Costco. I like mine with mustard. But that presented a problem last weekend. Both dispensers next to the soda fountain were empty.
I went back to the counter to tell them. “I know,” said the young man. “But we don’t have anymore.” A little frustrated, I sat down at a nearby table to munch on my less-than-complete lunch.” That’s when I noticed that every minute or so someone else would try to get mustard out of the empty dispensers, walk to the counter and be told that they were all out of mustard.
“Surely, there must be mustard somewhere in this store,” I thought. Sure enough, I found a pallet full of mustard containers on aisle 304. I was tempted to bring one up to the snack bar and leave it next to the empty dispensers. In retrospect, maybe I should have just to watch what happened.
When these kinds of situations arise, I begin to wonder about how simple decisions turn into obstacles these days. Problems that seem so basic can seem to stump so many people. Didn’t it occur to anyone behind the counter that there was a pallet of mustard containers on aisle on 304?
Grabbing one of these containers and placing next to the empty dispensers would have alleviated several hours of endless requests, not to mention disappointed customers. (Now it could be that this solution did occur to someone. But in this bureaucratic world, there might be some rule that forbids this fix such as inventory tracking or health regulations. If so, imagine how nonsensical that appears to those behind the counter.)
Sadly, stories like this are not confined to Costco. They abound in pretty much every organization. They irritate customers, confound employees, and impact the bottom line even if no one is paying attention. I named my company Common Sense Enterprises partially to encourage people to use their wits, in spite of nonsense policies and regulations that try to save us from maladies that will make one in ten thousand people sick anyway.
So, the next time you confront one of these situations, offer a solution. It might be a bolt of lightning to someone who can fix the problem. If they tell you they can’t because of some rule or regulation, encourage them to do it anyway. Life if full of little risks. None of us should get hung up on something that silly.