Thursday, March 28, 2024

AWRIGHT DEN!: Can do better

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On my way to my mum’s home on Tuesday morning, I decided to stop by Sheraton Mall to have a coffee and some breakfast. I decided to take my laptop with me so I could work on my article for this week and finish a project proposal I had earlier started.

On entering the food court just around 9 a.m., my heart was troubled based on some observations I had made. There were no plugs at all anywhere in the food court where I could plug my laptop and do some meaningful work while enjoying the delicacies being sold. As I pondered this sad reality, I was immediately taken back to my many travels overseas and the times I sat in Starbucks as well as food courts for hours working or in business meetings. 

To my knowledge, the mall opens at 9 a.m. but I found it quite alarming that most of the delis were closed and nothing would be ready until after 10 a.m. I approached five different delis and not one single of the staff seemed warm, welcoming or enthused that a potential customer had entered. Actually, I felt as if I was bothering them. Maybe it was just me; maybe my view of being “warm and welcoming” is irrelevant to this culture.

Coming from the direction of the bathrooms, I observed a security guard assisting a man who was hunched over, holding his stomach and showing signs of intense pain. Think of a person walking with a limp and their back is parallel to the floor. The security guard escorted him into the food court, gave him directions to somewhere outside the mall and left him.

The aged man could make it no more than eight steps unassisted and sat in a chair. About 40 minutes later, after standing and taking a few steps, he screamed out in the food court in pain, startling two ladies and stumbled out the western exit. I needed to help this man, so I packed my stuff and went outside looking but couldn’t find him.

Immediately I asked myself, is there a sick or medic bay in the mall to deal with any potential illnesses of customers or can administer some level of care until an ambulance arrives? A mall would be a perfect place for a general practitioner’s office or even a paediatrician, nutritionist, dermatologist or a dentist. Maybe there is, one there, but I don’t know.

I was still concerned that most of the delis were closed, so I spoke to a person working in the mall and it was communicated that the mall officially opens at 9 a.m., and the food court and outlets and stores in the main mall would be fully ready by 11 a.m.

To me this made no sense, so I asked another staff person who communicated that it was just how it was around there. Why advertise a mall to open at 9 a.m. but customers can’t be adequately provided for until 10 or 11 a.m.?

Directly behind me was a pastry outlet. The booth had tons of counter space around it but the only thing on it was a transparent display case with about 25 pastries. How could a business owner be satisfied with this? Who advised them? Nothing else to attract customers? How is this approach profitable or sustainable?

You may not understand why these things bother me so much, but I have travelled the world and have received excellent customer service and experience from staff who aren’t as privileged and educated or schooled as we are. Better can be done because others are doing it elsewhere. I am sorry and I make no excuse for saying this, but if I were a tourist, I wouldn’t be encouraged to leave the grounds of my hotel. Hopefully the service there is excellent.

What I find ironic is that we are a tourist destination and our economy is heavily driven by the tourism industry, which is sustained by the products we offer and the services we provide. My goodness! How could excellent service of all things be foreign to our culture?

 My heart burns for my country.

 • Corey Worrell is a former Commonwealth Youth Ambassador. Email coreyworrell@gmail.com.

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