Monday, January 16, 2006

Big-Box Bowling

Wal-Mart and Target are big-box retailers. The big-box retailer has come to bowling in the form of the Brunswick Zone and AMF. Just like many big-box retailers, the personal touch is missing.

This bowler joined a late league at one of these national chains. I know that sometimes the early leagues run behind and your league will not always start on time. The early league in front of us kept running up to forty-five minutes late. After a month, I was fed up and called the manager. This is when the true adventure started. I was asked if I was a league officer. When I replied “No, just a bowler” I was told “I can’t speak to every bowler. This has to come from a league officer.” I was floored.

I also bowl at a small regional chain. I bowled in a late league for a year. The following year I joined the early league in front of it. The year I bowled in the late league, we never started late. I did not know until about three years ago that the early league was told to be done by 9:00PM for the late league. The secretary of the early league made sure the league stayed on schedule. The big-box manager was shortly replaced by another manager who still could not get this early league to finish timely. The big box center did not nothing about the lateness and lost many bowlers including my husband and I.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Put Down the Cancer Stick and Bowl!

In many cities and states across the United States, a debate about smoke free work places rages on. Your local bowling center is one of those work places that the government is trying to make smoke free. I think it is about time. Many smokers feel their rights are being stomped.

It’s my right to be able to bowl in a league and not come home smelling like an ashtray. I do not have the right to run around the bowling center spraying bowlers with perfume. Why should my car smell like someone smoked all night it because I left my bowling equipment in it overnight? I do not have the right to place a dead fish in their car.

Besides the smell, there is the health issue. Why should one group of people be allowed to jeopardize another group of people’s health?