Sunday 20 July 2014

Free

This'll probably be a fairly mixed bag of short thoughts that don't all deserve individual blog posts. Bear with me.

First off, what do you do with your unwanted stuff? Toss it? Take it for recycling when possible? Swap meets? Here in this city there's a twice yearly event where people can take unwanted but usable stuff (all kinds of stuff), put it out on the curb, and put a free sign on it. At the end of the weekend you have to bring anything left back in, though. It's been working well enough that it's gone on for a few years now. I think it's pretty cool.

We have a similar, accidental thing in the student-filled apartment building where I live. People who are moving tend to leave things in the lobby with a note on them. I'm sure the management hates it, but it keeps a lot of things from hitting the dumpster. A problem arises, though, when people are too lazy to make it even to the lobby. For days now there's been an old CRT television sitting in the stairwell, free sign and all. No one will want it, and eventually (eventually... that's kind of how everything works with this management company) someone will get around to moving out to the trash. Not recycle -- that takes effort. I've seen the same thing happen with old printers, desks... move it to the end of the hall seems to be about as far as s fair number of people are willing to go. Sad, when there are options out there.

Kind of depressing about what it says about the average renter, too.

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And now, customer service. I had a couple of things that needed buying the other week, and had two very different experiences. I needed (yes, needed), a new remote and went to one of the electronics stores in fear of the usual up-sale. I was pleasantly surprised. As I was looking at the selection I was approached by an... associate, I suppose they're called... who was very friendly and quick to just accept that I'd found what I wanted. Well, she did make a joke about the $300 model that can control everything in your house, but it was so obviously a joke that there was no pressure in it at all. Sale? About $20. Oh, and batteries because I was out, but that's ok. Good job, big box electronics store.

Next, big box department store because I needed (yes, needed wanted) a silver chain that would better suit a couple of the new pendants I'd bought. I wanted actual silver because you know my feelings about plated fake jewellery. Well, I found what I thought I wanted in the locked case, hung around for a while... and no sign of anyone in the department. I looked around for someone for a fair while, but nothing. And no call button. The only salespeople that I noticed were probably in a different department, and were standing around in a group gossipping with each other and ignoring the customers in general. I finally gave up, found a costume piece that will do for now, and left. Sale? $6, and a package of nuts that I found in the grocery section. And yes, I went looking for the nuts. It wasn't an impulse.

So, big box department store? Lower prices + no service = when I do buy that silver chain it certainly won't be from you. Too bad, so sad. Well, not for me.

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And finally, tea. I haven't been keeping you up-to-date, so here goes. I've tried the Jungle Ju Ju, which is the guayusa-based one. It was pleasant and didn't give me the jitters, so that's good. I'd still go spicy over fruity overall, but I'll have no trouble finishing it. Next was the Mango Fruit Punch sample, which I made as an iced tea. I liked it. Apparently fruity is good when it's iced tea as opposed to hot tea.

Yeah, I'm weird.

Anyway, next up was the Cotton Candy sample, which I'd been dreading. It just sounded so gross. It turned out to be basically pre-sweetened rooibos, and was nothing like cotton candy. Probably a good thing, but I don't know what they were thinking with the name. And finally, today's offering was Saigon Chai. This is a good chai. Great balance of spices, and the hint of vanilla was nice. I'll be finishing this one up pretty quickly, I imagine.

So, my success rate (or, I suppose, the company's success rate) was pretty decent. Good thing, because that's way too much money on tea otherwise.

After all, I could have bought a silver chain.

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