El Paso Keeps Moving From Full Service To No Service

Pretty soon, we'll be doing our own dental work.

Once upon a time, when getting gas, you never got out of your car. As recently as the mid 90's/early 2000's. there were still a few, full service gas stations left. You drove up, a guy came out and you chilled while he took care of everything.

He'd also check your tires and oil level, then clean your windshield. If you needed air or oil, he'd put that in for you too.

Those days are gone now. Rain, snow, sleet, hail ... come hell or highwater ... you pump your own gas.

I believe losing these stations was the beginning of the end for "customer service".

Next, we lost some restaurant services with buffet style places like Golden Corral.

They just hand you a plate and leave you to your own devices. There once was a place in town called Panchos, a Mexican food buffet, (born in EP), that met you halfway.

You served yourself but, when you wanted more of something, you raised a little Mexican flag on your table and a server would come tend to you.

At one point there was a steakhouse in El Paso on Airway, where Ojos Locos is now, called "Cook's". Just as the name implies, you cooked your own steak. (I wonder why that place didn't last.)

Grocery stores have totally embraced "self checkouts". Sometimes convenient, sometimes annoying AF but, sadly, here to stay.

Even convenience stores, the last bastion of direct, clerk to customer relations, are taking the self checkout road.

Circle K meets us halfway. The clerk's there to watch and chat but we do the scanning, bagging and paying. How did the the clerk make supervisor over me? I guarantee, I've been there longer than him. (Wait, I forgot, I wasn't a candidate. I don't work there.)

What's next?

• We administer our own covid tests. Will machines help us perform our own minor surgery?
• We have places where you salvage your own car parts, will garages soon just guide us through fixing our own cars?
• Self Serve or Buffet Bars? Surely, no one would be foolish enough to let me back there but they may try it on you.
• We already brush our own teeth, I guess with some electronic gadgets and a suction device we could do our own cleanings too.
• 2 words: "Citizens Arrest".

Seriously, it's getting crazy out there. Kids are freaking teaching themselves at home.  It's not just El Paso either. Texas and the entire country are on the same path.