Am I dreaming?

Shopping at Tesco today left me bewildered and amazed.

I have long held the belief that Tesco is due to go the same way as British Airways. 25 years ago, BA really was the world's favourite airline, good planes, great staff and a class about them that no one could quite come close to.

Then they started to believe their own publicity and ended up being run by a refugee from a bucket shop airline. Now they have the cheek to charge high end prices for a very down market product. And this is mostly because they thought they'd become more important than their customer.  They now have knackered planes, miserable staff and are a parody of a once great airline.

Tesco, for about five years now, have started to fall prey to the "we are the best, the rest are idiots" syndrome. They now treat their customer like he/she is an unwelcome interruption to their perfect world of profit making. Never more so is this true than in the Larkfield store, where the staff are invariably gloomy (bordering on rude) and disinterested in the extreme.

Today, I experienced an event that made me wonder if I have not been a little harsh.

Same routine, shopping trolley full of stuff, enough to fill the belt. I present myself all ready for the usual silliness at the checkout and the woman metaphorically whacks me with the proverbial wet cod. She scanned my product visually, judged I'd need about 12 bags, gave me twelve opened bags very quickly and said that should I need more just to shout.

At this stage I wondered if I had, having been out until very late the night before, somehow got confused and done my shopping in Waitrose instead. But no, I checked all around me and it was the Larkfield Tesco that I so love to hate.

She scanned my product, helpfully waiting until I had filled a bag before she scanned more stuff so as not to hurry me and when I was done and paid, actually smiled at me and wished me a wonderful (yes she used that word) afternoon.

Her smile was that of a person smiling, via the eyes. Anyone who has taken a BA flight recently will know that BA staff bare their teeth at you with eyes deader that pieces of coal. BA, that is not a smile, it is scary.

And her suggestion that she'd like me to have a wonderful afternoon contained a warmth that made me believe she actually meant it. Unlike in the US where "have a nice day" means quite the opposite - unless you are in Arizona where they really do mean it.

So my conclusion is that there is someone in Tesco who gives a shit, I suspect she will not last. If she does, local management should hunt her down and make her head of training.

Thank you woman, you made my day.