and suddenly...

IT WAS THE WAFFLE THAT TIME FORGOT!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what is the point of running a business with little or no concern for your target customer? i'm asking rhetorically of course, the answer is money, but it's been shown many a time that that mentality and practice leads to nothing but ruin for finances and reputation both. not only that, but more often than not companies that are run with the utmost concern for their customers (and appropriate supporting processes, of course) have shown far greater success for a far greater period of time than those that are not. TAKE A HINT.
so here's the back story for this rant. my cafeteria. that's it.

no, it's not. first of all, aramark took control from chartwell's this semester. chartwell's was horrific. aramark is not much of an improvement. the food is pretty terrible, but that's to be expected in a college caf, as sad as that state of affairs is. what gets me riled and frisky (in a bad way) is the TOTAL lack of interest in their target customers...which also happen to be, you know, their ONLY customers. there are prices on nearly half of the items sold, the rest give absolutely no indication. that's aggrevated by the practice of never being told by the cashiers what they're charging you. the reason for that is, big surprise, the cashiers don't know the prices either, they just push the corresponding buttons on the register. we frequently are overcharged, and the only way to contend it is to watch the register while they're ringing the items up and ask what the prices are supposed to be if you think something rings up too high. of course, this pisses the cashiers off. oh yeah, and they never give receipts.
right now we're on spring break, so the caf has hours shorter than usual. on ordinary weekdays they close at 7:00pm, FAR earlier than college students with little or no other source of food downtown stop eating. they close at 5:30pm on weekends. right now, they close at 2:00 in the afternoon. on the plus side, they do have on the sign out front that the grill will be open until 3:00. still fairly useless for me as I generally work until 2:30 or 5:00, but that stills means I can get my omelet before going to work, right? wrong. regardless of what the sign says, the grill is only open for lunch. i found this out this morning, when i went in with the silly desire to acquire food. the first thing i noticed was there was no one there. no one. no cashier, no grill guy, nothing. so I stood in the middle of the damn place, set my bag down, and began looking around in confusion/disgust. mind you, this was in full view of the office window, behind which i could see three people, including the manager. not even a glance, though it was impossible for them not to see me. after a while a cashier sauntered out from the back, and informed me of the dire grill news. SO i opted for the only food there: the breakfast-like stuff under the heatlamps. i chose the 2 miniature waffles for $0.70 deal plus a few pieces of greasified bacon at $0.70/piece (no, no mistake was made...they really were selling a piece of bacon for the same price as two mini-waffles). i decided then to be a pain in the ass, and ask if it was possible to take some syrup with me (because I was on my way to work). i was pointed in the direction of the cups that I was allowed to use: the same that fast food restaurants use for in-house transport of condiments. yeah, those white, flimsy little paper cuppy thingies. when i asked for something with a lid, she politely informed me that "we ain't got ones with lids." so I stared at her for a few minutes, then pointed at the styrofoam cups and asked "what about those?" she said i'd have to pay extra for it. FOR A DAMN, SYPHILITIC, CRACK-WHORE STYROFOAM CUP!!!!! fortunately, i opted-in for the cup. without that syrup my waffles never would have softened enough to be cut with my plastic knife and my mere mortal strength.
i understand that it's a school cafeteria, and i know that margins are slim, profit or otherwise. even if nothing were to change in the products that we get, having a staff, especially a manager, that simply does not care is unacceptable.
the problem is one that's fueled my anger for many, many months: lack of competition. students have no choice but to eat in the cafeteria, therefore, no incentive to better the quality exists. i hate that. the same malady sickens the usps. while they do have competition (fedex, ups, etc.), being backed by the government insures two things: they can keep prices lower than everyone else, and they can hire complete jackasses that don't do their jobs and still thrive. and brazilians, of course.
i'm so mad right now, i think i need to go shoot a kitty with a pellet gun.