Merli Column: Awaiting the rush

Now that our off-year, off-the-wall election season is finally over and the fall leaves are starting to peak in Prince William, it’s time to concentrate on what will occupy many of us (either on purpose or
involuntarily) for the next several weeks: holiday shopping.

I’m not sure I’ve ever used the terms “store clerk” and “be kind” in the same sentence before in this space, since complaining about customer service is a rather safe and popular pastime. But if we were
to gaze down upon Prince William and vicinity from Google Earth or some other satellite service, we’d see some of the densest retail/outlet shopping sectors on the Eastern seaboard right here in our
midst — including Potomac Mills Mall and its mile or two of spin-off merchants encircling the main sprawling facility.

I got to thinking about how many of us seem to view shopping (holiday or otherwise) as a patriotic duty — and, in fact, we’ve had political leaders of all stripes dating back to the 1950’s encourage us to
shop as a way to help the economy and, thus, America. This coming holiday sales season, which supposedly officially begins the day after Thanksgiving on Black Friday, will be buffeted on two fronts
this year by differences that could directly affect our in-store experiences at Potomac Mills Mall, Manassas Mall and other local retailers: 1) the swine flu; 2) and a lingering lousy economy.

Last weekend I ventured (somewhat bravely, in my view) into Potomac Mills Mall amid all that gloom and rain that engulfed us to visit a popular cell-phone store that mercifully was within only a couple of
hundred feet of a convenient exit. The store was crowded (which is a good thing, all things considered) but it also was obviously understaffed (which was not so good).

Fortunately the sales people in this instance were good-natured and well prepared for lots of silly customer questions (“How do you turn it on?” “What exactly does the ‘i’ stand for?”) and far more patient
than should be reasonably expected of any sane human. The sales staff shortage, we were told, was the result of a couple of people (that would be half the sales force on this day) having called in sick
with the flu (probably the swine variety, since that’s what seems to be going around in Prince William right now).

This brief mall visit was probably an omen (albeit hardly a dire one) of things to come. As the holiday sales season intensifies, so, too, might flu symptoms accelerate among sales folks and customers if
the medical experts are correct in their general prognoses. And for Potomac Mills and all those dozens of strip malls throughout Prince William, a looming sporadic shortage of sales personnel coming at
the busiest and most vulnerable time for many retailers could spell serious trouble when it comes to the fine art of human civility.

Even outside the holiday season, a lot of retailers in our region typically have relatively high turnover for a variety of reasons. And while several big-box outlets such as Target, Best Buy and Walmart have
been often cited by the media and other sources as generally providing very good orientation classes for new employees (often conducted in a single day or less), the days of store clerks knowing a lot
about their own merchandise can only be found with any certainty these days in old Jimmy Stewart movies.

Judging from some of the reader feedback on the Web site of the News & Messenger, not to mention nearly everything else around us, society has become far coarser and intolerant of others in recent
years. Partly, I suppose, it’s the result of the unknown future, as well as a growing mistrust of government (some justified, some not). But partly it’s also the result of intellectually lazy, basically intolerant
people who somehow still feel free to express their frustrations for the rest of us anyway. Shopping online from of our own computers has it good points, but that trend it’s mostly bad news for Prince
William’s legions of retailers, especially the small ones.

Whatever the core reasons, let’s hope our societal coarseness doesn’t seep over into those face-to-face exchanges necessitated by in-store holiday shopping that already will be hampered by flu-induced
sales-force shortages and, in many cases, sales clerks with very little experience who need the extra cash.

E-mail John Merli at .