Customer Shedding - Rosebank

You can't blame load shedding for everything. Sure, your lunch break comes around and you want to shed the confines of the building in favor of the walkways and fresh scenery, a few flocking frocks. While you're there you might as well spend some moolah on some feel good factor. But business with the power out business is pretty unusual. It doesn't work so lekker. Some fast food joints cook up a few burgers beforehand (like Steers) but over a period of time they go stale. Other retailers jot down transactions on a pen and paper, with a calculator on standby. The problem is that it's a lot slower. And the movies shut down completely (as happened to me last weekend).

Even with the power on, Rosebank's cinemas operate at a snail's pace. I'm talking about Ster Kinekor Classic and Nouveau. You can stand in a line for 30 minutes with just 5 people in front of you, and when you leave the queue to operate the machines, they don't always accept your cards. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Popcorn and coke is worse. Last night, rushing to catch Cloverfield, I had 5 minutes before my movie was about to start. There were 3 groups of people in front of me. It took half an hour to take their order. This is for popcorn coke and snacks, not ribs and starters at the Spur. I walked into the movie 25 minutes late and it took another 15 minutes to cool down and try to start enjoying the movie. Not lekker.

The guys behind me were saying: "If I didn't have nothing else to do I'd be somewhere else." Another guy said: "This is called 'Customer Shedding'. Indeed. The next movie I watch will be on DVD, and I'll make my own popcorn. It's cheaper, it's faster, and if the power goes out, you're home and you can just relax.

For a cinema that trumpets itse;f as one of the 'best' in the country, Rosebank's service at both terminals is shocking. The technology may be in place, but sense and sensibility in terms of dealing with customers is somewhere else.

From now on I'm only going to head to the cinema for the super-blockbuster, and if I can't find a date, then I won't even go to that.