AKMA’s Random Thoughts

Inured to Deception

Last night I stopped at Jewel-Osco after dropping Josiah and his friend Ben off to see another friend perform in the ETHS production of Ragtime. I picked up the odds and ends of grocerosity and as I headed out of the store, my eye lit on the sign that they’d posted about a year ago.

The signs read, “For Your Convenience/Para Su Comodidad,” and go on to explain that the grocery carts have been equipped with special devices that will prevent the wheels from functioning if they pass the boundaries of the parking lot.

Now at no point in the pondering, planning, implementation, or publicizing processes did anybody think that Jewel was doing this “for my convenience.” No one had complained to them, “It’s so inconvenient that, when I parked on the street instead of the lot, my grocery cart can roll right up to the car!” No one even vaguely imagined that we would find this arrangement more convenient. The closest one could say would be that this device helps Osco keep their prices down, but anyone who’s pushed an oversensitive cart too close to (but not “over”) the faded yellow warning line, only to find herself with an immobile mountain of groceries, will have known that “convenience” was not what Jewel was after.

Jewel lies to its customers with impunity, and everyone knows they’re lying, and I’m not aware of any groundswell of outrage at this transparent deception. It reminds me of the Bush administration (and, to be fair, of what Spinsanity indicates about the Democratic presidential campaign as well).

Posted by AKMA at April 25, 2004 09:53 AM | TrackBack