Nothing Beats Chains for Institutionalized Incompetence

(Aired on May 12, 2010)

Forget oil spills, plane crashes and houses sinking into the earth.  Forget political scandals, drug busts, and the Harmonized Sales Tax.

The biggest story of the past few months has got to be the fact that Kamloops is getting a Burger King once again.  Kamloops This Week this week reported that the new fast food restaurant would be popping up in Valleyview, and that the person behind the King wants to find a second location in Kamloops as well.

Burger King's website lists the Triple Whopper with cheese as packing 1240 calories and an artery-busting 83 grams of fat, numbers I think we can agree are both magnificent and completely horrifying.  If lawyers chase ambulances, this is where they'll find them.

And while I sincerely do welcome more choice in our restaurant market, not all of the big franchises are demonstrating they are wonderful corporate citizens.  Home Depot announced this week that it has been charging Provincial Sales Tax on all sorts of items that are supposed to be PST-exempt.  That means if you have some Home Depot receipts lying around, it's probably best that you scrounge them up and head on over to Hillside Drive for a refund.

You can do it, and they can help.

The point of me bringing this up is, sometimes the chains have their place.  After all, if I had grown a taste for the 1830 milligrams of sodium known as the Mushroom and Swiss Steakhouse Burger back in Winnipeg, I'd have been quite sad not to find a Burger King in Kamloops.

But there's another side to that flame-broiled patty.  A big box store is the only place you'll be able to find large scale institutionalized incompetence like charging PST on items that are supposed to be exempt.  It's a whopper of a screw-up, and one that the store won't easily repair.