It's not the economy, it's lousy customer service, stupid

You'd probably have thought about this more than once. Whenever you go to a "information age" store (the big IT supermakets, or any wireless phone service provider) or even call a 1-800 service, have you not left, or hung up, with a sensation that you deserved better attention and better information? Don't you find frustrating when you have a question or need something and there is nobody around to help you? And how about, when you finally get hold of someone and this person, who almost invariably never smiles, is either "cold" in a a rude sort of way or plain clueless, or both? I've experienced this more than once and throughout the years, and I do not believe, for  a moment, that it's because I live in a self-centered and in-your-face city like New York. I know this is a national phenomenon. Let's face it. Customer service in the U.S. sucks. I have one simple explanation, rooted in corporate greed: cheap labor. It's not, mainly, the economy. Cheap labor entails hiring low skilled people, paying them minimum wage (or less!), a work force ill-prepared to help people, with an attitude that says loud and clear "I don't care", and who most of the time are young people, who are longing to punch out the clock the minute they start their work shift. I don't blame them, they are nickled and dimed every day. Remember CompUSA? I witnessed their demise and how it was rare to find genuine help. The same fate befell Circuit City and it will continue to be like that for other giants. I believe, for example, that Apple stores have been successful also because their employees are focused and willing to help, in spite of low salaries... The root of this bad customer service situation, more a consequence than a cause, is corporate greed, where big selfish, self aggrandized honchos, refuse to share their wealth. What's a few million dollars to hire, train and retain, sterling customer service in the big scheme of things of a company that have even billions in profit? They're shooting themselves in the foot... Provide good customer service and expect repeat business. This simple truth apparently escapes many a CEO who thinks the bottom line is only about sophisticated "business models" and Excel charts and business jargon and Wall Street... Only in America?

We are already 7 billion, and yes, still in the PC era

Today, according to the United Nations, will mark the day when the world population reaches the worrisome figure of 7 billion inhabitants!  "Occupancy by more than 7 billion inhabitants is dangerous and unlawful" should read a big sign visible from outer space. Seriously, this piece of news that cannot pass unnoticed, brings many thoughts and conjectures about the availability of resources. I want just to point to the fact that the PC, that marvelous invention of the 20th century, is here to stay for many centuries to come. Think about this: the automobile, no matter how sophisticated has become and will continue to improve, specially in the energy consumption department, is already part of the tools that mankind uses to function on a daily basis. By the same token, the PC, sort of the second invention of the wheel, will continue to be part of our daily tools for centuries to come. I totally disagree with what some "analysts" wrongly call the "post-PC era" just because the inroads PC tablets (iPad and the like) are making. Undeniably, computing activity has moved from the desktop to the mobile realm, but it does not mean it is a substitute for the personal computer on a desk or even a laptop computer. That would be tantamount to saying that the sandals represent the "post-shoe era" or something to that effect. Nonsense. There is a lot of people that needs to be catered with computers and, no, people won't be productive just tapping on a screen with their fingers. Keyboards, mice and other input devices will continue to be around.

"IL CIBO: necessità primordiale e piacere infinito"

I just discovered Eataly, in New York City, today at sunset time, and I had the most incredible experience in this shrine of gastronomy, savour, design, lust for life and everything Italy encompasses. I know I will come back many more times, but this first time I only had a luscious cremespresso as a epilogue to my poetic encounter not only with the whole venue but with the book that holds the story of Oscar Farinetti, the founder of this Italian gourmet emporium. His biography, Il mercante di utopie (roughly translated as "The merchant of utopias") tells in a most poetic, romantic and with journalistic precision, his extraordinary story and how against all odds, from the ground up, even from a place of doubt, Eataly became the great success is now in all over Italy, Japan and New York (opened in autumn of 2009). You have no idea how much I cherish the Italian language and the Italian culture and, of course, il cibo (Italian for "food, meal", and everything of family, and intimacy and coziness it entails) which is "a primal necessity and an infinite pleasure" (a statement taken from one of the pages of the book, which gives the title to this post. [Incidentally, I noticed they use W7 in their restaurants].

New York in 2011, back to the 1980's? Authorities off the map?

This is an MTA bus stranded in the middle of an important Queens street (not a "tertiary" street) for two days during the recent snow blizzard. It was "abandoned" there, like hundreds of other public buses in the city, some time on Monday 27 December 2010 and removed from the street only on Wednesday 29, time enough for graffiti vandals to stamp their signature... this could only happen in New York, a city I heard more than once  being called the World Capital of the Third World... But we still love this little town blues... Happy New Year!