Service in Toronto

I'm calling it official today. The service in Toronto is horrible compared to the United States. The most frustrating run-in with bad service came today at Best Buy where I was trying to buy a new digital camera. First they were out of stock of the first 3 cameras I asked for. And when they told me they were out of stock, the guy helping me had a good chuckle each time I asked for another camera they were out of, or only had in pink. I finally got another salesperson who decided to sell me a pink camera, telling me it was red while I was in the store. So now I get to make a trip back to the mall tomorrow to take back my new pink camera. I've also experienced horrible service at the furniture store, book store, Starbucks, clothing stores, and quite a few restaurants. It seems that if you aren't dealing with the owner of the stores, you are dealing with horrible representatives of these corporate chains. Somehow these companies haven't gotten the store management and training together like they do in the United States. The workers here seem lazy, uncaring, and rude. I'm just shocked that these people are employed, and how consistent this level of service seems to be (again, excluding small shops where there are only a handful of employees). Comparing these employees to those I have met in the United States, Mexico, Taiwan, and the Caribean, Canadian service ranks at the bottom. Sorry Canada, but you need to train your employees to represent you with pride.

UPDATE: I learned something this weekend that helps explain the bad service at restaurants compared to the U.S. Apparently, service people must get paid minimum wage, even if they work on tips. This differs from the United States, where there is a different wage minimum when workers are making tips. Anyways, I still think management is horrible here in Canada. Come on let's get some service going eh?