May the Work Force be with You

We’ve noticed on many occasions throughout our trip that there seem to be an overabundance of people working. It’s like there were too many people that needed work, so they made up unnecessary jobs to occupy folks. For example, in Wal-Mart there is an associate in every aisle, and many times one at both ends of the aisle. All they do is help you pick out the products on the shelf. When I bought laundry soap the other day, I had two different employees assisting me in the selection process. Of course, they spoke no English and my Mandarin is lacking, so it wasn’t super successful for anyone.

We’ve seen the same with other stores, too. In the official Olympics stores, purchasing processes have made buying quite a hassle. Products are arranged on shelves or walls or in display cases. If there’s something you’re interested in, you find an associate and have them take it down for you. If it’s clothing, you tell them if it’s “too big” or “too small” or “need bigger,” and they bring out another size from the back. Once you determine the appropriate product, the associate writes you a hand-written ticket for each individual item. Now take the ticket to the cashier (or shop around for more things, and thus, collect more tickets) and pay for each one. Then you make your way around to the products, show the receipts, and gather your goods. For each of these steps there are 2+ employees helping/assisting/watching. It seems sometimes like these extra steps have been created to keep people busy and give them something to do.

XOXO