SERENADE2SENIORS
When a young person needs service and enters a store, service is almost always accompanied by a broad smile. But, when a senior needs the same service, now that is a different story. It takes longer, there are hardly any smiles and quite often, the salespeople are surly. Probably because some young people associate seniors with a combination of health problems and/or dementia.
I am a grandma and when my smartphone started giving trouble, I had occasion to take it for repair. As I entered the store, the sign said; Type in your phone number please, which I did. As’ I started tapping in my number, a young assistant snapped; ‘I’ll do that for you, madam.’ ‘No need, thanks,’ I replied. ‘I’m perfectly capable of doing that on my own,’ and just then, a slip of paper slid out of the machine with the number 604. “Do you mean to tell me that I have to sit here and wait for all those people to be attended to? All I need is to hand in my phone for repair,” I murmured to the sales assistant. “That’s our system, ma’am. Take it or leave it.”
I needed my phone so I sat it out. Eventually, when it was my turn, for the young man to serve me, I knew right away that I should have brought my daughter with me. She would have made the painful process faster and far more pleasant. Reluctantly, I left my phone with them and rather ungraciously took the old one they offered me in its place. “We will send you an sms when it is ready,” he added.