Men Just Don’t Get It (and other general ramblings)

This afternoon at around 3 o’clock I went outside to move my car to let someone out of the car park (parking is limited at my office and we have to cram in to the available space). It had just started to rain. I came back into the office and announced that it was raining and that this was a Bad Thing as I was wearing fabric shoes and had to go to Tesco. The chap who sits next to me looked slightly bewildered and said “Fabric shoes? So? How are they different to any other shoes?” I was all, well duh, they’re fabric, they’ll get wet if it’s raining. He countered that everything gets wet when it’s raining and yes, I’ll give him that, it does. But he couldn’t see that fabric shoes would most likely get ruined in a rainstorm. Fortunately, by the time I left at 4pm the rain had passed over and so all was well with the world.

When I got to Tesco I did my shopping and as I left the checkout I checked my till receipt. You should always do this in a supermarket as things can get put through twice or discounts get missed off. Today I spotted that a 3 for 2 offer had not been correctly applied so I went to the customer service desk. I queried it with the lad there (the shelf ticket said 3 for 2 on packs of Cadbury’s chocolate so I had picked up 2 packs of Dairy Milks and a pack of Wispas). It transpired that the offer was only on the Dairy Milks but as the shelf ticket didn’t say that, I argued (politely) that it wasn’t clear what the offer was and that the ticket was misleading. Evidently the lad agreed as he gave me a third pack of Dairy Milks so that I could be refunded the £1.50 for the offer, and then gave me the pack of Wispas for free as I had been inconvenienced. Now to Tesco £1.50 (the price of the Wispas) is nothing but free chocolate had me smiling as I left the store and has generated this post on what excellent customer service Tesco had on this occasion. Many other retailers could learn from this as a little bit of service doesn’t cost anything and goes a long way to enhancing the status of the company in the mind of the customer.

The third thing I wanted to share is my new-found love for chips made from sweet potatoes. They are so much tastier than chips made from ordinary potatoes, and are so simple to make. A large sweet potato is plenty for 2 people. Peel and slice it into chip shape chunks and place on a baking tray or in a roasting tin. Drizzle with olive oil and brush to ensure each piece is covered with oil. Then roast for 30 minutes at about 200°C. And voilà! Delicious chunky chips!