American Efficiency

You don't know what you got til it's gone.


I never would have been the one to champion American way of life as better than another. But living here in Thailand for a month now (and the Philippines for a month before that), I've come to miss how we do things in America.

1. When it comes to service in restaurants, I haven't found better service than in the States. Even when it's Denny's or Sheri's -- they are always coming by to check on you or refill your glasses. Here (even in nice restaurants) they give you the menu and stand there waiting until you are ready to order (which makes you nervous so you speed up and pick a picture that looks good); then they bring your meal and your drinks out at the same time. Never again will you see them until you ask for the check. That's right, they won't bring it by a half hour later for your convenience. When bringing out the food, they set it on the table in front of the person closest to them and expect us to pass it down to the right person -- they don't memorize who ordered what like in the States.

2. When it comes to service in stores/department stores there is probably one worker per customer there (even though we both know that they are standing around doing absolutely nothing on their cell phones), and with them hovering over you in an effort to get the commission of your sale, you get too frazzled and can't actually concentrate on what style of clothing you like. Either you refuse to touch something because you know they'll try to get you to try it on, or you pick up the closest item on a hanger just to look like you are interested; never mind the fact that it's about two generations too old for you and a size 2. As a customer, you don't want to look disinterested, so you become fascinated in everything. I hate being that person. I hate even more the incessant hovering. All I need is a "Hello, welcome to _____" at the door, then leave me alone until I need you.

3. Ever heard of a return policy?? Yeah, they don't care so much for that here. I bought a curtain to use as a room divider on a Sunday, realized it was the wrong size, so I tried returning it the next day and they would not refund me my money. I know I can't expect the whole 90-day return policy most of America is used to, but it was the next day, and they still refused to give me my money back. I offered them my next option I was willing to accept (yeah....I totally was not in a position to demand anything at this point): in-store credit. I tried exchanging the purchase, but they were actually out of the size I wanted, so I told them I didn't mind doing in-store credit so I could come back and get the proper size once they restocked. No can-do. They only thing they offered me was to find something of the same monetary value to exchange. That way, money wouldn't be swapped either way. At this point, I wasn't even interested in anything in the store. I would have been if they were more cooperative, but no, I wanted nothing to do with them. So I wandered around the store for 20 minutes trying to cool off and decide what I actually needed so I could spend that money wisely. Long story short, the whole exchange took at least 40 minutes and 3 workers before I could leave with the purchase I wasn't even happy with. It was quite evident that their store policy was not customer-oriented.


America, land that I love, thank you for caring about me. Thank you for allowing me to criticize you openly in an effort to improve life.

I miss your healthy habits in which valuing the customer is a priority.