Tuesday, November 11, 2008 Covington: Citi Hardware By Gary Covington Looking In
I'VE been doing chores around the house, stuff that doesn't need a permit -- changing a light bulb, painting a wall -- and so on Thursday I visited Citi Hardware Bajada to buy a couple of lengths of wood.
The store's a wondrous place, a galaxy of hardware, everything a DIY enthusiast might need but, alas, also boasting what must be the slowest checkout in town.
The problem lies in the number of staff, platoons of them, all falling over each other to lend a hand. They're neatly turned out in handyman dungarees but there's just too many. On Thursday I counted eight hovering around the two available tills. Two cashiers and six others who were, um, well, fumbling things along.
Paying for and checking out one item small enough to fit into a plastic bag doesn't seem to be a problem but woe to the customer who's bought a cartload of stuff or a mixed bag of wotsits, thingummys and doodahs.
Every item has to be checked against the till's receipt before its bagged. The queue steams.
There's a further problem if the wotsits etc are all too much for a regular Citi Hardware Dungaree. A senior person is summoned -- no dungarees, obviously a superior person -- and the doodahs and wotsits are checked yet again against the till receipt. Okay? Senior person signs the receipt with a flourish. The queue inches forward.
I'd purchased four laths of wood -- eight foot long but only the width and thickness of an old-style wooden ruler -- but Citi Hardware provides a Dungaree to hold these for me. There are other Dungarees to push trolleys. Still others to heft boxes of tiles. I was quite happy to hold my laths but no -- protocol demanded Dungaree hold them. I handed them over, the cashier read the barcode, up came the amount due and my Dungaree vanished. Off to the right where there is an 'unwieldy item tying and checking once more station'. I waited a bit longer. Finished? Not quite -- there's Desperate Dan at the door, brandishing a pump-action shotgun (in a hardware store!), demanding to check my goods against the receipt for the third, fourth or it may have been the sixth time.
I have the receipt in front of me now marked with a red squiggle, a black squiggle, a red tick and a circular blue rubber stamp. What a performance. Too many cooks, Citi Hardware?
It's been a lean week for Covington pickings but I couldn't help noticing the ongoing did they or did they not pre-sell debate.
The gist of the matter is that a developer, according to the Housing and Land use Regulatory Board, has been 'engaging in pre-selling activities' -- selling lots -- before all the necessary permits have been approved, signed sealed and delivered.
No we haven't, countered the developer, we've only been accepting "letters of intent to buy".
What a load of hogwash. If there is a letter of intent to buy (and, apparently, earnest money put down) then there must have been something offered for sale.
For crying out loud -- why doesn't someone do the unthinkable, set a precedent, stand up and say we were wrong.
