By John F. Di Leo -
As we shop this week, we should remember:
We are all suffering the same problems this year. Big stores and little stores, your family and friends, and you and I.
We all suffer from supply chain holdups… Biden-Harris era inflation… irritability after two years of ridiculous, often unconstitutional changes to the American way of life.
American retailers, both big and small, are often terribly understaffed because of two years of stimulus checks and unsustainable minimum wage hikes, mask mandates, impossible social-distancing rules, and a thousand other things that have just reduced the number of people who answer help-wanted ads, across the board. Your understaffed stores aren’t happy about being understaffed; they’ve tried to hire seasonal help, and in most cases, they just couldn’t find people.
As a result, there will be long lines at the store this week. There will be shelves that are already out of the things you want, because other shoppers got there first, and also because some of the goods that the stores ordered six months ago are still stuck in a railyard or seaport somewhere.
As tempted as you may be to lose your temper, please give your retail sales clerk a break. None of this is the retailers' staffs' fault; they are just trying to get through the day, processing orders as quickly and efficiently as they can.
Basically, this is going to be a rough week to shop. The roads to the malls, and through the parking lots in particular, will be busy. Allow extra time so you're not in a hurry. Nobody needs spilled bags or fender benders to make a hectic day even worse.
Remember:
Is your workplace having trouble getting some parts in? Well, so is their store.
Is your workplace understaffed? Well, so is their store.
Does your computer system go down sometimes for the most irritating reasons? Well, so do their cash registers, when the stores are at their busiest.
These are the problems that every company faces; they’re not alone, and they probably can’t do anything about it.
You'd be surprised how many rude people are chewing off the ears of cashiers and store managers this week, for things that are completely out of those employees’ control. These cashiers are just trying to do the best they can, in the hardest week of a bad year. Please be nice to your local cashier this week.
And if you spot some other patron shouting at a minimum wage sales clerk or making some poor teenager cry for things that aren't even their fault, please help out the store, and all the other customers in line, by supporting the clerk and embarrassing the jerk into apologizing and seeing the error of his ways.
This season, after all, is about Christmas, a beautiful and critically important holy day for Christians of every denomination, and frankly, also a joyful secular holiday throughout Western Civilization for non-Christians as well.
Let’s remember the reason for the season, and stay cheerful and supportive as we finish our last minute shopping this week.
And as for the reasons why we’re suffering terrible inflation, an employment crisis, crippling tax increases that make it harder for us to afford our Christmas shopping… well, we have an election year coming up; let’s concentrate on de-fanging the Biden-Harris regime in 2022. In the meantime, we can sing Christmas carols, enjoy the Christmas lights, and be cheerful ambassadors of the season, while the season lasts.
Copyright 2021 John F Di Leo
John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based trade compliance trainer and transportation manager, writer and actor. A one-time county chairman of the Milwaukee County Republican Party, he has been writing regularly for Illinois Review since 2009.
A collection of John’s Illinois Review articles about vote fraud, The Tales of Little Pavel, and his 2021 political satires about current events, Evening Soup with Basement Joe, Volumes One and Two, are available, in either paperback or eBook, only on Amazon.
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