Have you ever noticed that something that should be like something else is not? I know, that's about as obscure a statement as you could find, but let me explain.
We used to go to a restaurant and really enjoyed their food. I won't reveal the name except to say it included a day of the week that wasn't Friday and it has since closed and been converted into another restaurant. The first inkling of trouble came when they changed their decor to something, well, outlandish. We couldn't figure why they did since the demographic of the diners seemed to be our age, which is to say not given to outlandish decor.
Soon thereafter they cranked up the volume of the music so that normal conversation was not possible. We asked the manager every time we went if they could turn the music down. Their response was to move us so we weren't sitting under a speaker (didn't) help and to say that the music was to create an attractive ambiance. Attractive to whom? Not to the over 50's in the place. I wrote the headquarters and got the same answer. We decided that if they wanted to have their ambiance they could have it without us.
The thing is, we have since been to other restaurants in this chain and the volume of the music was not enough to cause bleeding from the ears. You'd think there would be a consistent policy from place to place in the same chain but apparently not. Someone suggested that it depends on the manager and maybe it does. I know I drive three extra miles to go to a grocery store (name means a very large person) that is better stocked and cleaner and better staffed that the one nearer where I live.
Why these differences? I wish I knew. Everything does not have to be consistent--I love idiosyncratic places like Rice's Hardware and the Klein's Freeze on 28, but where it counts, I could use a little consistency, please.
I had a district manager that honestly thought that louder music equated to more sales. So we'd turn the music up in the Barn while he was there, and turn it down when he left.
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