The Illusion of Preparation

I've taken to liking this fleeting idea of writing down things I witness in public. I've had a lot of occasion lately to work from various public places.

Today, I'm at a tire shop.

Preparation Isn't Always Efficient

I just listened to a person be less than polite to the man at the front counter. Because they were being so loud about their opinions and didn't seem to be satiated by any answer, they made it very clear to everyone what their grievance was.

Apparently, a set of new wheels and tired were ordered and an appointment was made. When the appointment was made, it said it would take 45 minutes to an hour to complete.

However, an assumption was made that the tires and wheels would be mounted, balanced, and ready for installation upon arrival. As that wasn't done, it came to be quite a shock (apparently) that the wait time was going to be as scheduled.

Why weren't the tires mounted?

I can see this is a somewhat fair question, but I don't think it takes much to move past it if you're willing to.

A tire store doesn't really carry huge margins on physical goods. A lot of their margin is in services and installation. This is the truth for most automotive companies and service providers. I think this is an important foundation to have going forward.

Another important piece of that foundation is understanding the nature of "new" vs "used." Once you mount a tire to a wheel, both are immediately considered "used." Again, this is just the nature of things. There are times a mark is made on the wheel and for (what I'm sure are) legal reasons, the dealer now has to sell those as used.

All of those things considered, it would make sense why they wouldn't be mounted in advance. Someone orders wheels and tires, makes an appointment, and then something comes up and they need to cancel the order. The tire store is the one that takes the hit, not the customer. Maybe there's a restock fee, but there's now the overhead of selling something "used" at a discount.

The deeper question.

A failure to plan on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine.

I think about this a lot, just in general, but I think it's extra helpful in this context.

This person was told an hour wait, they assumed something different without any background knowledge, and then were upset that the wait was an hour. At no point did anyone in an official capacity, at least as the story went, tell them otherwise. There wasn't really a lot of wiggle room or shrugs in the explanation.

So why would you make that assumption? Why would you then expect someone to live up to that assumption?

I think there are probably all kinds of theories that come into the social/psychological sphere.

But I realize I don't know as much about that as I do about tires, so maybe I'll just leave it there.

I will end with this though:

Of each other, we should be kind   
While there is still time.

- "The Mower" by Philip Larkin