I swear I could have written this exact post two weeks ago. Vakar has been to my building and pro shop when its busy. We have 4 rinks under 1 roof. That means every 90 minutes or so, 8 new teams(15 skaters/team) roll into the rink. Doing the math, that's 120 players. If only 10% need their skates sharpened, that's 12 pair right there. I want to get one of those clocks that we could set up the hands up to say "if you drop your skates off now, they will be ready at ..." I got railed on two weeks ago by a travel dad at 12 noon on Sunday when I said the wait was 40 minutes for sharpening. "You're never helpful. Can't you move my skates up." I said sorry. He went out into the lobby with a scowl. After a few minutes I went out to say Look I am sorry if I offended you but there are skates ahead of you. He wasn't buying it so I had to say how would you like it if I let somebody jump ahead of you in line? Would that be fair? He still didn't care and I moved on. The other day: A guy I know comes in for a sharpening. "How long?" "About 20 minutes." "10 minutes." "20 minutes." "10 minutes." "No, 20 minutes." In the end it took 25 minutes because he had rolled over his edges from stoning his blades so much. The next time I'll offer the 10 minute sharpening and leave it at that. "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on our part." That's a great quote! Working retail isn't the most gratifying experience at times. Unfortunately we have become a society of instant gratification (nothing new there) and as a result a country with lots of self absorbed people who think they are the gift to the universe and should be treated as so. I think the 'currently in progress' (soon to maybe become worse) downtown in the economy will change a few attitudes....