Voting with my Wallet

I’ve tried getting into shape on several different occasions this year and ended up in the hospital as a result every time. My expeditions to the emergency room were all due to complications relating to ten pounds of tumor mass in my abdominal cavity.

In an attempt to find a form of exercise that was less hazardous to my health I sought out a community swimming pool. How hard could that be in Florida? Well living on a fixed budget with next to no disposable income it’s harder than you’d think. I basically had two option, the YMCA and one other community pool.

I would’ve liked to have joined the Y, but it was about $150 over priced for me and that is with a 30% discount. So I joined a community pool for a total of sixty hours. I spent $220.00 on a year pass to a community pool, the equivalent to a month and  half of disposable income. So on August 1st I bit the membership bullet, and on August 3rd I canceled it.

I showed up fifteen minutes before the pool was supposed to be open on Sunday the 2nd. There was no sign of anyone there, except one other swimmer who was waiting too. I decided to go for a short jog/walk while I waited for the magical moment of the pool’s opening ceremony. To my surprise the gates were firmly secure at 12:06, six minutes after the facility was supposed to be open. The skies were overcast and there was a slight drizzle, so I sat in my car till 12:30 checking for lighting with my phone, there was none. I finally went home and stared at blue skies from 12:50 to closing time at 3 pm.

” Were you open yesterday?”

“No.”

On August 3rd I went back and asked the manager if they were going to be open because it was another rainy day. She told me to call back at 1 pm; there was lighting in the air, only one strike forty miles off shore, I checked. I came back at 1 pm, the gates were open, I signed in and went for a swim. One of the life guards asked me to come sign some paperwork after I was done with my swim, and I obliged.

“Were you the one that was here earlier?” inquired the manager.

” Yes.”

She handed me a sheet with times on it.

“You’ll need this,” she said with a touch of attitude.

With an equivalent amount of resentment I asked, “Why didn’t you open yesterday?”

“There was only two people here, and it wasn’t worth it to me to open for just two people.”

“I’m canceling my membership effective immediately.”

I’m canceling my membership because you stole one day of my life. If I was her boss I would have fired her on the spot. She stole from customers because she felt inconvenienced. Had I been a member for a month or more it might have been a different story, but she couldn’t bother on day two.

I could understand it being difficult to find a pool in say Idaho, in the dead of winter. It shouldn’t be a challenge to do in St. Pete, Florida unless you have a manager who really just doesn’t give a damn, like the one I dealt with. When you do find someone who doesn’t give a damn about you as a customer you have to vote with your wallet, it’s the only power we Average Joes still posses.

 © Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.