[FRIAM] Friday AM

[glen]

Interesting tangent. As always, I only post when I feel like I have something to disagree with (or fine-tune in a way that might seem contrarian). I feel like the closing on whim or choosing hours that may be inconvenient for a population is how we *should* do business. There's nothing more inhuman/inhumane than, say, shopping at Safeway at 2am because you *know* a multinational corporation is trying to squeeze that last blood from the market (and its employees).

Convenience is one face of the Janus. Another is the optimized self ... e.g. tracking your footsteps to make sure you get them all in for the day ... or counting calories ... or Amazon-style, Taylorist "quantified self". *In*convenience is life. Attempts to avoid it are akin to suicide. And inconvenience is also pro-social. There's nothing more inconvenient than providing social support for a fellow human, sick puppy, or diseased ecosystem.

So, when I see a "gone fishing" sign on a local business, I get a bit of a dopamine kick. Good for you, dude.

On 12/30/22 12:16, Steve Smith wrote:
> 
>> 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.
> 


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