Rants from a Mall

Well, not exactly from the mall itself, but from the parking lot:

Having stop signs for traffic trying to get out of the mall, while having no stop signs for traffic getting in is dangerous and stupid.

Trying to brand a mall with the developer name, like SIMON, is idiotic. I don't care who manages the mall as long as the stores are there and the location is good. Perhaps their idea of branding a mall that you can associate it with cleanliness and safety, which fails spectacularly with McCain Mall in North Little Rock.

Perhaps they want to sell more dumb gift cards. I returned a package of really poor quality and finish socks to JC Penney. I had a gift receipt. I got $6.75 on a gift card. They supposedly could not give me cash.

Gift cards are stupid, too. They make no sense (Will pointed this out to me). You lose them and you can't get the money back. You can only use them at the one place (or mall, in the case of SIMON gift cards), and they usually expire. How is this a gift? Now I have to keep track of $6.75 that I cannot unchunk and put with my other money.

I thought I had gotten all of the giftcards out of my life with Hastings (where we sell you overpriced CDs and have a lousy book selection - did we mention that we package used DVDs so that it looks like new ones for sale at what should be new DVD prices?).

Best Buy, Office Depot and Circuit City all lost sales tonight. Best Buy because of the relentless offers for help. (Meanwhile, I heard what help meant; not having any clue about their laptop selection. I would have helped but I am not going to be party to a HP or Compaq purchase. They are stupid and heavy.) Office Depot lost a sale because some really high pitched noise kept going off in the middle of the store. Circuit City required me to physically plug my ears while in the store so that I was not pummeled by bass from their car stereo area. (Yes, the entire store).

I came down on this trek to get the hole in the Civic's exhaust replaced, only to find out I need new tires, and that the Honda dealer does not sell them. Which means I have to get new tires at a tire dealer and then take the Honda back down to Sherwood/North Little Rock to get the car aligned, because no tire dealer has the brains to align the Honda correctly. One once asked, was this car in an accident? No, you have no clue, I almost said...

Combos at Back Yard Burgers cannot include lemonade as your drink choice without an extra charge. Nowhere is this on the menu. Plus, it is inconsistent. Last time I was in there, they were friendly and accommodating. This time, they were indifferent, inattentive and not too friendly. At least the sandwich was good.

Back to JC Penney for a moment. I hate the escalator scheme. You have to walk around and around to get to the right one because they want to dump you in the back of the store as often as possible so that you have to shop your way out. I would have gone postal with that and the gift card if not for Calling Elvis playing on the ever present department store music system. Why couldn't they have at least played that at Circuit City?

Back to Compaq...Almost everything they sell is called iPaq. Lowercase "i". Please, get your own original marketing gimmick.

Netgear...What the hell were you thinking? Your new hubs and switches have the ports on the back. They used to be on the front. How are you supposed to mix old and new hubs and switches? Also, these new hubs & switches seem to have fewer informative status lights, than the old one. Look, don't change it unless it is going to actually improve things, OK?

Last one. Why can't I buy a digital video recorder (or PVR as it has been termed) without some kind of ridiculous subscription? You would think that companies would create a killer entry level device so that they could upsell into the service. I just want a digital VCR, minus the cassette. I want a big chunk of storage that I can just record, play, delete without having to mess with tapes. Build in VCRplus as well so I can program it with my TV schedule that comes in the paper. All these companies want some kind of lock in. Why would I lock into a service that I don't want with a company that isn't even profitable at a price that is almost the cost of the recorder itself? They have no idea where the value is.

Enough already. Time to go to the airport.

Comments

[Bob]

I think you need to do your homework before dissing on Simon. As a Simon employee that sells Simon/Visa gift cards, they can be used ANYWHERE VISA is accepted, including restaurants, gas stations, etc. Our gift cards are replaceable if lost or stolen given the person who purchased it still has the receipt. Thank you very much and have a wonderful night! Buy Simon Gift Cards!