Taking the bus up Jay street last night I saw “The Loft,” a new meeting/event spot at 727 1/2 J St. That half makes all the difference. A smart move would be to open up “Lofties” next door at 727 1/4 J st., and sell your wares to confused event attendees. I’m glad to see “the loft,” the alternative music venue, make a comeback, even if it is as a completely financially unrelated venue not intended for alternative music.

And since any mention of “the loft” must be accompanied by an unnecessary insult, I should add that one time when I was at “the loft” some cockroaches set up a civilization in the mouth the drummer of visiting band “Monad Nomad.” The roaches were discussing universal health care by the time anyone noticed due to the poor lighting.

(I should officially no longer wonder why people hate me so much.)

I don’t know about you folks (why don’t I start every post that way?) but I’m pretty excited about Avid Reader and “Records” moving in to the former home of the dearly departed Tower stores on Broadway. (Can I get a RIGHT AWN!! to Bob Shallit zinging the departed Tower chain’s lackluster employees? Gutsy.)

To me, the only thing cooler than a corner anchored by “Records” and Avid Reader would be a “Meet the cast of Battlestar Galactica” kiosk inside an authentic Philly cheesesteak joint, but I digress. Here’s hoping that a couple of independent secondhand stores can succeed where a worldwide retail music chain could not. But seriously, good luck.

I had a rough experience the other day at my local gymnasium. I needed to drop an add-on feature from my account. I wasn’t using this feature and therefore felt my money was being thrown away each month. A simple request, right? You would think. I was told by the front desk employee that this wasn’t a simple request and I would have to meet with a sales representative at their convenience (they work from, uh, 9 to 6, fancy that, so do I!). I am sure you see where this is going so suffice it to say that when I finally sat down with the sales rep I was none to pleased to find out I was going to be charged $10 to make a simple notation on my account via a keyboard stroke.

I wanted to go home and rant about this on the Sac Rag, but alas the customer service Gods saw my dismay from up above and threw me a celestial bone. A few days later I visited the Jack’s Urban Eats restaurant at Loehmann’s Plaza as I do enjoy me a Jack’s salad. It was a crowded evening (I know, shocker) and we were dining with another couple so finding a table was imperative. As such, I sent Mrs. TopofIt to scout out the scene. She left me with specific instructions as to the type of salad she prefers. The list of ingredients is a simple one, but it all hinges on the salad dressing. Short story long, I finished up my order, paid, and sat down with my party salad in hand. My wife took one bite and quickly realized that I had chosen the wrong dressing.

Continue reading “Customer service sighting in Sacramento” »

The foreigners are coming.  The foreigners are coming.

The Sac Bee reports today that the Sacramento International Airport is finally becoming worthy of its name:

Sacramento International Airport landed its second foreign carrier Tuesday when Air Canada announced it would begin two daily nonstops between the capital and Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning June 15.

Apparently, this is a coup for the airport, who has been courting Air Canada for years to create more links up the Pacific Coast with Vancouver: 

Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, who helped lobby Air Canada to start the service, said he expects an enthusiastic response.

“I think there’s a huge interest here in traveling to British Columbia and vice versa,” he said. “That is an area people love to visit. And there are a lot of people up there interested in coming this way.”

Continue reading “Foreign invasion” »

Interesting item in the News&Review regarding the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce’s decision to award a contract for its Web site redesign to a non-Sacramento company — without ever giving the locals a chance to bid:

Meet Don Linville, a partner in the local Web developing firm Black Dog Studios. Back in 2005, Linville received an inside tip that the Sacramento Metro Chamber was planning to redesign its Web site in 2006. Like most chambers of commerce, Sacramento Metro’s mission is to facilitate local business. Linville, a dues-paying member, waited patiently for the Web site upgrade project to come up for bid, fully expecting the job to be awarded to a local firm.

Except that never happened. The project never came up for bid, and Linville recently discovered it had been awarded to Chamber Weblink, an Indiana-based vendor that specializes in providing technology services to chambers of commerce. In a word, the job had been outsourced.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that Black Dog has done some of my Web work — because I do support local business whenever I can. So, I know Linville and I know Henry, the handsome retriever who is the J Street firm’s official Black Dog and also its VP of Public Relations and Marketing.

But still, I gotta wonder: If an entity like the Metro Chamber that’s supposed to be supporting area businesses can’t be counted on to do so, what good is it? Linville is still wondering, too.

Henry, for his part, had no comment.

OK, so we’ve discussed our disdain for how certain establishments have their customers line up to make purchases, small-talk made by cashiers, the virtues of carrying exact change..I thought we’d covered every topic imaginable in terms of retail.

And then I went to Raley’s today. Continue reading “Stop movin’ my bread around!” »

I had occasion the other night to order food for pick up. It was a basic transaction. The bag of food was sitting on the counter with my name on the receipt. I waited for someone to greet me and when they did I pointed to my bag and said I was here to pick up a to go order. I handed over exact change (Runnergirl, wink wink) and said “Thank you.” As I got into my car I realized that I was “supposed” to tip in that situation…or was I?

So I ask you, whether it’s Domino’s pizza or California Pizza Kitchen, what’s the general rule on tipping with “to go” orders for pick up?  And, yes, Reservoir Dogs quotes are highly encouraged.

I’d like to give special recognition to the woman working at the Del Taco on near Howe & La Riviera who did not question my giving her an odd amount of cash to cover my Chicken Tacos Del Carbon (a high protein, lowfat meal) for today’s dashboard dining.

Wow, someone who actually knows how to make change — this calls for a special posting on the sacrag! 

Continue reading “Be the change you wish to see” »

It’s been a while since we’ve discussed the pros and cons of the current queue system at the Lyon Village Peet’s Coffee.  Since then, a few of us (namely, Sac-Eats and RonTopOfIt, and I) have conjured up our ideas for improving the process flow at Peet’s, including sketching out how we’d change up the store to make it more customer friendly during the very busy parts of the day. Continue reading “What would you change?” »

The sleepy little town of Roseville announced plans to expand it’s quaint little shopping area recently. The “Galleria” as it is known to the locals will grow from a modest 1.1 million square feet to 1.5 million square feet when all is said and done.

To expand, the Galleria needs the Roseville Planning Commission to OK a modification to its major project permit; a separate permit for the architecture of the new buildings; and the City Council to agree to amend the city’s lease agreement with the mall.

What about consulting local business owners?

At any rate, perhaps now the city will finally get a few of those “chain” restaurants we’ve been hearing so much about. Oh, and for you sports lovers out there, Roseville was also recently named the home of the Sacramento Capitals and will play seven out of fourteen games at The Galleria. This, of course, means they won’t be playing at the wonderfully accommodating Sunrise Mall any longer. Sigh.