The retail reopening in Ontario this last week prompted my wife and I to go shopping for new mattresses given our decade old ones were a little worse for wear. We went to one of our local “big box” furniture stores in Thunder Bay. There are only three here so as a skill testing question, if you want to know the one we purchased at, its name translates into Italian as il mattone. It was a pleasant experience and efficient and unlike some of the other purchases we have made over the last few months, this product did not appear to be stuck on a container ship in the Suez Canal and arrived within a few days.
The delivery people came while I was out foraging for food, and my wife took the delivery. The delivery people were polite, quick and efficient and took out the old mattress and box spring for disposal. We were told in advance we had to place them into the prepared bags provided. The large heavy-duty plastic sheeting provided was reminiscent of the crime programs where a serial killer planning a nefarious murder lays out the material on the floor in order to dispose of the body, but I digress. In any event the delivery went smoothly, and I actually arrived as the delivery people were leaving. Upon entry, I found the new mattress and box spring were still wrapped, and we were required to unwrap everything – providing us with a new supply of heavy-duty plastic sheeting for any future crimes – and then put everything in place. Which we did.
My point? My wife was surprised the delivery people did not unwrap and place the new mattress and boxspring when asked – as was I. The reason? As she was home alone, she expected the delivery people to do so. There is a delivery fee after all and the instructions we had on a sheet dated March 2021 that were provided with the bill of sale even stated:
“Mattress & Boxspring will be unwrapped and placed in frames or on bedroom sets.”
Moreover, after checking, something similar is also stated on the company’s web site. And yet, the delivery people stated that due to COVID-19 precautions they did not do set up of mattresses as part of their delivery. The salesperson at the time of sale did not mention this was not done. You can say we did not ask but really why would you?
My wife and I are still able bodied and given that we had to wrap the old stuff up for removal, we were quite capable of unwrapping and placing the new. That is not the point of course. My wife was on her own at the time and could have used the help. As for COVID-19 precautions as the excuse, the delivery people apparently arrived without masks on and inquired if my wife would like them to wear masks before entering. It was nice of them to ask but so much for not setting up the mattress because of pandemic precautions. They were obviously quite willing to work without masks if you allowed it.
In the end, if policy has changed on delivery and removal, salespeople need to state it at point of sale. Of course, one understands reasons why not mentioning it might be an optimal business strategy. After all, once mentioned we likely would have checked out a few more stores to see if they did full service when delivering. Everyone wants a sale. And during COVID one suspects a lot of companies like delivering with minimal effort because it saves money during a tough time. They will probably continue doing this because it saves money. This type of behaviour does reduce sympathy for all the businesses who have been clamouring for assistance, complaining that the pandemic has hurt business.
However, this is also not the real point. The problem here is the following. If my wife had been a little 80 year old widow, they probably would have done the same thing – drop off the mattresses and leave her to her own devices. Which brings me to the real point of this story. There is an aging population and not everyone has a lot of young able-bodied friends or children living nearby to help out on a lot of personal services. Even if you do, it would help to be told in advance you need to do something like setting up furniture on your own especially when a reasonable search of company documents says they are going to do it. And even for the non-aging population, there are a lot more people on their own these days. The single largest household type in Canada now is a single person rather than a more traditional two partner household.
I find the general lack of accountability a lot of businesses practice once they have made their sale pretty deplorable. The long-term implications are pretty stark. We are often told about how we need to have more home care and aging at home strategies and remain longer in homes by paying for services. However, it turns out that there actually is not a lot of commitment to personal services in Canada and the few that there are tend to be quite pricey whether it is assistance with personal care, home maintenance, lawn care, snow removal and now by our experience, the delivery and installation of large heavy bulky furniture. The problem will likely get worse. Personal service is labour intensive and the pandemic seems to have made growing labour shortages worse given the substantial disincentives to work provided by easy government cash.
Of course many will counter that this is just the rant of a privileged boomer with multi-million dollar real estate assets who just wants more. However, I have always found demographic stereotyping of this nature rather odd because my demographic timing at the very tail end of the baby boom always seemed to give me more in common with the bust generations of the latter 60s and early 70s than the duck-tailed front end of the baby boom. Whether it was job opportunities or housing or access to programs and services for the kids, it always felt like getting to a wedding reception at about 11pm. Sure there was dancing and a buffet but the substantial main course had been served a while ago.
And as for the real estate, well I like a lot of other people do not live in Toronto or Vancouver. If I liquidate my real estate, the assets are enough for a ten percent down payment on something equivalent in one of those cities. And, good luck generating income to pay for services from any assets in retirement given the low interest rate policies being pursued which have essentially created a landholding aristocracy in major urban centers. But there is always a silver lining. Given the rather lack lustre defined contribution pension my university has, I suppose upon retirement, I may have a future providing personal services as an old family retainer to some suburban aristocrat in the GTA in return for room and board and a little cash for books.
