JOANN SCHRAUTH, WRITER FOR THE FOND DU LAC REPORTE

Joel,

Have to share this. I talked with a local guy a couple of days ago who said he read the Tuesday article and shopped at CBS this past week.

He told me, “You know, they DO make eye contact with customers and smile – I guess I never noticed that before reading that article.”

The day after I was at CBS for that article, I stopped at one of the “big box” hardware/lumber/grocery/etc. sales places. I had a question, but walked up and down aisle after aisle, not finding anyone who could give me an answer. I found everything except what I was looking for. When I finally found what I wanted (an item CBS doesn’t carry), I stood in a long checkout line, eventually starring at all the “impulse” items next to the checkout. As I waited, the checkout “associate” never looked up, but mumbled over and over: “Did you find everything okay? Have a good day.” At one point, her customer had walked away and she was mumbling “Have a good day” to the next person in line, followed with: “Did you find everything . . .” I stood there thinking of how CBS customers and vendors were greeted and treated while I was in the showroom. I got out to the car and wrote the opening for the article.

From the earlier comment I heard the local guy, I guess I’m not the only one who noticed the difference.