Seminar a Rude Awakening in Retailing for Bubble Gum Set
As you know, there existed until just a few years ago a race of people who were of great social utility despite some annoying quirks.
True, they often seemed to fixate on small matters like making sure their offspring ate vegetables and wore clean underwear. But, in retrospect, they more often functioned as a maturing influence.
They were called Adults.
Just what happened to them is unclear. Maybe, on a prearranged signal from MTV, their children staged a cultural coup.
The disappearance of Adults has left a void. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the retail establishments that employ the Adult-less young as sales personnel.
You see it everywhere: the deli sandwich-maker who wipes her nose and continues assembling your ham on rye. The ice cream scooper who can’t keep her hands out of her hair.
The clerks who are determined not to make eye contact with customers. And always the discussion among them of hours and working conditions: Did you start at 10 a.m.? Are you working tonight? Can I take my break now?
Usually the store manager is no older than the employees. Hence, a self-enclosed system for recirculating rudeness.
Into this mass breach of etiquette steps Mark Rosenberger, a San Diego management consultant, former teen-age burger flipper and 36-year-old dinosaur who still thinks good manners are good business.
He has started Service University to train the young in things that used to be supplied by heredity or environment:
“I honestly think they don’t realize the impact that moping on the job has on the customer.”
He has a selfish motive: “I’d like to get some respect when I go into a store.”
With support from Holiday Inn and Domino’s Pizza, Rosenberger just held his first daylong seminar: for 3 dozen students from Mira Mesa High. More are planned.
So many teen-agers, so little time.
The War in San Diego County
Home front.
* Art and life.
The Persian Gulf War and the bombing of Israel have given new poignancy to the Old Globe’s production of “The White Rose,” the story of student resistance to the Nazis.
The opening-night audience Thursday broke into several minutes of applause when actress Natalija Nogulich (playing Sophie, a student organizer) spoke of the moral requirement to resist evil before it spreads.
* Camp Pendleton is getting phone calls from anti-war protesters. Some obscene, all anonymous.
* A joker at the CHP is circulating a traffic report for Baghdad: “Saddam Highway has heavy traffic from potholes that appeared overnight.”
* Miramar Naval Air Station has raised the number of ear-shattering practice takeoffs and landings since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August.
But noise complaints from nearby homeowners have dropped. “Saddam helped remind homeowners why we’re here,” says a Miramar spokesman.
Say What?
Wrong reply.
Jack Payne, 45, of San Diego, was going home on the bus one recent night. He got off at 44th Street and University Avenue to do the final approach by foot.
Two bad guys appeared. One spoke.
“Are you a cop?”
“No,” Payne said.
“In that case, give me your wallet.”
One of the bad guys pretended to have a gun in his jacket pocket. A scuffle. Payne took a hit on the head and was relieved of gym bag and his wallet with $5.
Next time he plans a different answer.
