[FRIAM] Friday AM

[Steve Smith]

> OPT Cafe is closed as well. What a way to run a business this is peak 
> Family dining out Time.

A new phase of customer service seems to have emerged after COVID.   I 
have ambiguous feelings about it.   Previously I was a little offended 
by various examples of businesses not catering well at all to their 
customer's needs/desires/convenience.   Los Alamos as a community is 
somewhat famous for this...  the "captive audience" and the myriad 
flexibilities of LANL employees lead to things like retail businesses 
only open from 9-5PM M-F such that anyone who can't get away from work 
at a whim simply not being able to do business there... or restaurants 
that are satisfied with a short M-F lunch hour and/or closing early (by 
urban standards) and leaving business on the table.

With the hammering that service personnel took with COVID (in spite of 
the myriad relief programs) as well as small-business owners (which can 
include franchise operators) I have been pretty sympathetic with 
businesses unable to return to the (sometimes generous) hours and 
services they kept before COVID.    I would certainly *like* to see the 
rich range of available services out there return to "normal" but also 
appreciate that the most vulnerable folks aren't out there 'hurting 
themselves' to meet my whims.

The implications of spiking minimum wages and prices and corporate 
usury, disaster profiteering are all over the place for me... I think 
there will be a lot more "ringing in the system" left to be experienced 
in the aftermath of COVID.

In any case, I'm glad to hear you guys found a venue.