I feel like I'm constantly dealing with some corporate octopus that is reaching into my purse with one arm, charging my credit card with another, checking what's in my cart with a third, sending me spam with a fourth, and bitch-slapping me with the last three.

Take Acme, my local grocery store. The lines are always long and only about half of them are for large orders. Of those, maybe one has a bagger working, maybe not.

So what does Acme do? They create self-serve checkouts as a high-tech alternative to their crappy service. So now not only do I get to bag my own groceries, but I get to ring them up, too! And every time I have used this "service" out of desperation, the sappy female computer voice that announces the price of each item and reminds me to swipe my Acme card suddenly changes in to a threatening masculine voice accusing me of theft. This always brings around some spotty-faced teenager to do some magic to get me through the checkout process. (He or she should be ringing up and bagging groceries, IMHO.)

As a result, I am now a customer of Trader Joe's. They actually ring and bag groceries and the lines are never long no matter how many shoppers are in the store. And they're pleasant! They actually look you in the eye when they talk to you instead of glazing over and looking aimlessly at their shoes while mumbling "Have a nice day."

Acme be damned. And on a tip from another blog I tried Trader Joe's frozen pizza. Man... It is really good. Better quality products, lower prices, better service. Let's hope as Trader Joe's reaps the rewards of their superior business model that they don't lose sight of what made them great to begin with: Customer Service.