Ashes to ashes..dust to dust.
In recent weeks, PC Pharmacy is getting a face lift. The powers that be have decided to spruce up the facility and make it look nicer. Its been an inconvenience at the very least, and a total pain in the arse at the very most! Scheduled to last 5 weeks, we are currently on week 6 and by all appearances, have at least 3 weeks left. When it gets done, we will look very sleek and modern..if we ever get there.
Anybody who has ever undergone any type of renovation can attest that its a dirty job. No matter what you do, a fine dust will float in the air throughout the day and settle gently on every surface. Circle saws, drywall, electrical, HVAC…everything creates a mess. Every morning, PC and her beloved staff grabs a rag, wets it down and wipes off everything from the counter, to the computers, to the cash till…only to repeat it later in the day if need be. We even posted a sign ( as if we had to explain WHY) ” pardon our dust as we improve your pharmacy experience”. We fill a bag of rags each week, take them home to launder and bring back. Suffice to say that we spend a lot of effort trying to keep things looking clean.
Monday night, about 1/2 hour before closing this lady came up to the counter, and before I can make the appropro greeting she took her index finger and raked it across the counter. “Your pharmacy is dirty!” she said in her heavily accented english. FYI, if you want to endear yourself to somebody, this is not the way to have done it… Suppressing the urge slap her along side the head and point out the massive construction zone she had to walk thru to GET to the counter, I pointed out that yes, we are dusty at the moment but it will be all cleaned up in a few weeks.
This brief explanation was apparently not good enough. She just had to go on and on about our dust, as if it was some moral failure of mine. I felt like a broken record repeating myself. I finally asked the lady ” Have you ever undergone a remodel at your own home?” She replied that she had not. In the sweetest voice I could muster I said ” well, THIS is what its like…gesturing around…its dusty and dirty. These walls came down, new ones went up, and drywall makes a mess. We clean the counters twice a day, so I am really sorry about the dust but until everything is done, its going to look this way and we ask ALL of our customers to be patient as we try to keep this pharmacy open while all this is going on.”
I can only assume that in her own personal home, any speck of dust must flee at the mere sight of her entering a room. If that’s a skill she possesses, I would like to invite her back to the pharmacy at the completion of the remodel. That way I don’t have to waste anymore time cleaning the pharmacy for the Nth time.