Friday, March 02, 2007

Even the Aggies Give this Brilliant Idea a Thumbs Down

Postal Service fixes long waits by removing clocks | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "The Watson Post Office is one of the nation's 37,000 post offices in which clocks have been removed from retail areas as part of a 'retail standardization program' launched last year. The effort is designed to give the public-service areas a more uniform appearance, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in Thursday editions.

'We want people to focus on postal service and not the clock,' said Stephen Seewoester, Dallas spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.

At the Fort Worth post office, the hook that once held up the small battery-powered clock now protrudes from a plaster wall. The clock was taken down months ago.

A customer-service expert at Texas A&M University was not impressed with the decision to take down the timepieces.

'It's silly,' said Leonard Berry, holder of the M.B. Zale Chair in Retail and Marketing Leadership. 'I guess they think people don't have watches.'"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's just crazy enough to give new meaning to the term "going postal" -- as if they existed in weird time, or could make time stand still while one waits there. I'm a clockwatcher in the post office, and I'd just look at my watch if there was no clock.

What they need is a distraction, like a water fountain or an aquarium. My accountant has a salt water aquarium and the time there passes very quickly.

Unknown said...

Maybe they think they're like the casinos in Vegas. Or like Wal-Mart.

Brent McKee said...

if the Post Office were as entertaining as Vegas - or even Wal-Mart - they might be on to something, but what's entertaining about a Post Office besides looking at Wanted posters. And in Canada we don't even have those!