"Line up. Everyone line up. All four of you."

At the PinkBerryYogurt kiosk in Boston’s Prudential Center they have a theater-style barrier to direct the multitude of customers. The only problem is they never have a multitude, just a handful or more. Still those customers are required to be navigated through this maze that the retail has created. Of course every now and then a customer seeing the stupidity of this arrangement will slip under the strap, which usually receives a scowl from the clerks. Recently I asked, “Why can’t you shorten the barrier when you don’t have many customers.” The female clerk looked at me with contempt that I would question this system and not surprisingly did not give an answer. This is not a rare situation in many retail outlets. Employees have less and less skill at responding to a customer’s question whether it is a compliment or a complaint either out of fear of ignorance.  They stand there impotent and silent and often angry at their own incompetence. Also of interest there seems to be no awareness any more that to not supply any response makes the clerk seem  either moronic or rude, or both.