Fry's fry's fry's....

I went to Fry's today to return something, obviously, and also to buy a card reader. The line for the return was fast. By fast I mean my friend "Jay" and I stood where a line would be if anyone else was in it while a pack of Fry's employees stood by the first register doing I don't know what for a minute or two until the pack broke up and one of them could help us. Mighty white of that guy to help us, I was beginning to think it was a self return register where I took care of the process on my own.

Anyways, he did as much of the return as he could, until he had to yell out, "need a key" then another guy had to come down and push some buttons on the register. A minute of button pushing and talking amongst themselves later, the second guy called out "manager" to which a third guy came over and pushed a few buttons. I didn't buy weapons grade uranium. I didn't buy that hardcore porn that is not legal in most states. I didn't buy an exotic pet. I bought a gig of ram and then returned it. Still in its package... That took 3 guys.

The goings on at Fry's I find extremely interesting from a business point of view. I am not a business genius, so Fry's business practices are a bit foreign to me. It's to be expected, I got a BA, not a BS or MBA. I would think that a business would want to have easy methods for accomplishing daily menial tasks. 3 employees needed for one simple return of a common product seems....excessive. I would love to see a flow chart for this kind of process. I am sure at Fry's they refer to them as "Process Labyrinths"

I purchased my card reader, which I can't hardly wait to return. "Jay" purchased some blank DVD's. On the way out, the guys who are there ostensibly to check receipts didn't break there conversation. Obviously the discussion of the guy's dad's pants was too important. My receipt checker didn't look at the product in my bag, nor did he bother to even look at me. I wish I could see the pants they were talking about, those pants must be more glorious then 3-way sex.