Maybe you're right. I never expected customer service reps to provide us with idle conversation. They're supposed to do their job. It's more about the nobility of being human and having to relate with other people rather than having all the answers provided to you in some ready-made database that doesn't require any thinking or social skills.
Their job?! You're just reducing them to some mundane representative! You've been waxing poetic and talking about how I should see them as people, but I don't treat random people I meet for the first time as if they should provide me info on something.
I keep talking about the last question you had answered at a department store by a human being that they absolutely knew the answer to. Is there one? I go to make my purchase and leave. I don't generally need questions answered about jeans or socks or tee shirts, other than how much they cost, or perhaps something on the label. If I held up a blouse to a wandering associate, and asked if it needed ironing, you do realize they would most likely refer to the label? If I want to know the price, they will do a price check at a register --- that mirrors the little "price check" scanners at many mainstream stores. That is what I mean by not caring about the in-store "customer service" angle of this article, about this store.
Banks? You should have oodles of questions for any financial institution. That is where service comes into play, just as I talked about with food. The difference here is that it's highly unlikely you are going to find a clothing expert in JCP's clothing section. You absolutely should demand an expert at a bank, and people who actually know where your food comes from are invaluable at small farm stands and markets. Of course, maybe you don't want that; that's why the option should exist either way.
Making the jump from my not having any questions an associate/rep/whatever can help me with when I go shopping, to accusations that I don't see customer service reps as people, is an astouding contortion.
As for the camping, it is an example of something you do that requires quite a bit of time. If I'm still navigating the local department store patiently listening to every employee tell me things I already know about products I do not want, I'm not spending time camping. I'm spending time at the mall. "Convenience" means you have time for other things; it's up to the individual to decide the costs.
