Op-Ed: Staffing Shortages AND Empty Shelves

Amazingly, Columbus Georgia has a tendency to think it's a Lone Ranger in the world of politics and economics until ...

(a) It admits it needs federal money to continue to survive (what some would refer to as "socialism"); and

(b) Whatever is going on around the world and across the nation happens here.

In visits today to Piggly Wiggly on 13th, Winn-Dixie on Macon, and Publix on Macon - the bone-chilling fact shows up live and in 4D that Columbus is not a 'stand-alone' town or a town that floats on an island that is disconnected from the rest of the country, or the world.

To hear some people tell it, as long as whatever it is in the news "isn't happening in Columbus," we shouldn't be discussing it.

Yet ... 

Whatever it is always seems to show up here 'some kind of' however.

Locally, store shelves are emptying, ringing phones are going unanswered, and stores are closing early or not opening at all due to staffing shortages.

It is a stark reminder that Columbus is not an entity unto itself in a land that seems to be slowly but surely settling into over-arching themes of mediocrity, confusion, and self-defeatism.

One elderly man and his wife approached me at CVS Pharmacy on Hilton and said "You call 'em on the phone and nobody answers, then you get down here and six people are standing behind the counter yapping it up with a ringing phone sitting on the counter right next to them."

True enough, I've called other places of business and experienced the following ... 

1) No answer; 2) Extraordinary wait times if someone does answer; and 3) Someone yapping in my ear about some personal matter that has nothing to do with me as I waited too long for the person who picked up the phone just to say "Hello" or "May I help you?"

Here's a thought: If you're just going to continue a private conversation with another party after you pick up the phone, just don't answer it at all.

But back to the subject at hand: 

Walking into a store that is obviously not short-staffed where the phone is still not being answered makes me wonder why it is some places seem to have too many employees while others don't have enough.

Did any of them have any training in customer service or are service stores just staffing warm bodies in case something goes wrong?

What is really going on? 

And putting people's shopping items in garbage bags? C'mon, Family Dolla-dolla... Guess we don't realize how much we take for granted until it isn't there any more. Thanks for the extra garbage bag, though ... every penny helps.

1/12/2022 - Grocery Bag from Family Dollar, Cross County Plz

_If you go to Publix or Piggly Wiggly and they are putting your groceries in plastic garbage bags, you know all hell has broken loose somewhere in the world._

Many have said President Biden shoveling money out of the White House made a lot of people too lazy to work, but the truth is he didn't shovel enough out to make anybody rich enough not to have to work -- just enough to take a short break from being wage slaves working too long with too little return on the investment of time and money.

Yes, it costs just to keep a job. Always has.

Could it be some folks were just smart enough to use the excess funds to get themselves self-employed so they would no longer need a full-time job?

Oh, well, we said that one day those billionaire fatkats with car elevators, ten homes around the world, and penile protrusions crafted into spaceships were going to have to get off their butts and actually work for their own money - maybe that day is right around the corner.

Can't wait to see Jeff Bezos picking, pulling and packing and loading trucks just to keep his income coming in.

#LOL#