Handout to Mouth

Handout to Mouth

The other day I went to the Apple Store at the North County Mall near here. Let’s start by understanding that I am not at all a Mall Rat. In fact, I stay as far away from Malls as I possibly can. I have a problem with consumer inundation and the specialty of big department stores and, indeed, malls overall, is to inundate the consumer with choices. I’m always amazed when I go to malls at the number of people wandering around. I find myself wondering if they wander to wander or if they are in search of specific purchase items. While I’m sure its a blend of both, I find myself thinking that shopping as a form of entertainment is what’s mostly going on. As for my experience with Apple Stores, I have always been impressed with the way in which they organize their product display and manage the customer flow with an abundance of knowledgeable and helpful clerks and specialists. They seem much more on their game than the other stores in the mall and their level of traffic is always steady. And in the post-COVID retail environment, Apple seems once again to be on its game.

I was going to the store to try to fix a problem I was having with my new iPhone 11. I gave up on being a bleeding edge Apple guy years ago. It was probably when I bought a first version of the Apple Watch and not only found no use for it, but literally had trouble giving it away. Since then and mostly because the Apple iPhone so thoroughly satisfies my mobile device needs, I have found that the marginal utility to me of upgrading has not been worth the bother. Apple has been very smart by making the switch from an old device to a new device so seamless. Now you can buy it online from Apple, choose all the features you want and get it delivered (most often direct from China) in a few days. It comes ready to absorb all your personalization and apps/data just by setting it next to your old phone. This is brilliant and effective marketing that overcomes the biggest hurdles for any product, that of brushing aside the upgrade barrier of tech hassle. But my iPhone 11 has been less seamless than prior upgrades. This time some passwords didn’t transfer over and we all know how annoying that process can be. But the problem I was having was more about seemingly new features or toggles that somehow rendered my basic calling function (specifically the ringing and answering process) suboptimal.

The Apple Store in North County Mall was easily the busiest store I saw in the mall and even that is deceiving because it must have been 10% of the pre-pandemic activity. Apple had a private security guard to maintain social distancing rules and keep the lines organized and properly distant. The Apple geniuses came out to the spaced line and asked if our needs involved a physical fix for our device. That was all they were handling in the store. Imagine that, not trying to sell stuff, but reopening under tough conditions to service client needs. Since my problem was likely a software or setting problem, the genius did some iPad research while I waited outside the store. He then told me to go into settings and reset the network setting (something I don’t ever recall needing to do with prior iPhones). And voila! The phone was fixed.

I celebrated this minor tech victory by deciding to go to Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Since Kim and I had once picked up an order while the lockdown was in full effect, I was pleasantly surprised to be offered an ability to dine-in. I took up the opportunity and noted that all service people wore masks and gloves and there was sanitizer everywhere. I was seated at a table in an area with six tables, three of which had sign tents indicating that they were not to be used for social distancing purposes. None of this is surprising or illogical, but it is eye-opening to see it in practice. I found myself wondering about the lives of the servers and how this pandemic has impacted them. It may have been my imagination, but they seemed friendlier and more pleasant. It is again to be expected that a few months of no work and half the table density might be enough to make servers more accommodative. I projected on them that they were just happy to be back at work, knowing we were all evaluating whether dining-in is worth it after all this. Remember these tip-earners were disproportionately harmed since restaurants were more impacted and unemployment and stimulae (public or private) doesn’t make up for lost tips.

These servers were largely marginal workers who likely lived hand-to-mouth before any pandemic disruption. Now these people must be in debt to someone and more behind than ever. I am not a foodie and if someone told me I would have to live the rest of my life without dine-in capability, and thus a world without tipped servers for the most part, I would be disappointed, but not devastated. So this concern I am about to express has little personal desire attached to it. But what I do care about is the struggles of honest hardworking people who have had the rug pulled out from under them. My long-term advice to them would be to retrain themselves and find a new line of business. But in the short-run that sort of advice is only modestly helpful.

In the movie My Blue Heaven, Steve Martin plays a mobster in the witness protection program. He tries to tip his FBI handler, played by Rick Moranis, and is surprised that Moranis finds this absurd. He feels it’s necessary to explain to Moranis that it isn’t tipping he believes in, its over-tipping. That is such a great line written by Nora Ephron that I have used it many times since first seeing the movie. I too believe in over-tipping, but I like to think it’s less about what it can do for me (as it was for Martin).

I feel like my personal budget has been considerably lightened by the paucity of dining costs, not to mention the benefit of moving to Escondido and the dining costs here versus New York City. It all works to make me inclined to over-tip more than usual. I hate to think of pleasant and seemingly earnest people trying to make ends meet in difficult times and being dependent on the kindness of strangers like me. While I also give money to people on the street if they are polite and non-confrontational, I am even more inclined to over-tip as my small way of helping people inordinately impacted of late. These people need dome help and I can afford this small form of handout. If it helps with their personal hand-to-mouth problem, I am pleased to help in this small way.