Went to take Zandra's Lexus in for service a week or so ago, and when I went to pick the car up, noticed something new in the lobby of the dealership -- a cash register by the food in the Waiting Area. Previously, it was nice to pick up a free bottle of water and maybe even a small snack when picking up the car. I was a little surprised by the food charge.

I mentioned this casually to the cashier while paying, and she said, "Oh, if you're hungry, just go over and get something on the way out and show them the receipt for the service. In the future, if you come in and want something, just have your service advisor walk over there with you -- it's all still free for customers." When I asked what the cashier was there for, she said, "Oh, believe it or not, we had people walk in off the street because they knew we had free food, and clean the fridge out. By 10am, there was nothing left." Wow. And it's not like the local Lexus dealer is on a main street -- it's quite out of the way and not near walking distance of anything.

Another interesting sign of the times -- on my last work trip, I noted that I had actually gotten what I reserved at Avis 6 times in a row -- a Ford Focus. In the past, you got whatever was on the lot and it was rare you actually got your compact car. The last Ford Focus I got actually had over 31,000 miles on it -- they used to retire rental cars every year or at 30,000 miles I think. At least, this was the oldest rental car I had ever gotten from a major rental company.

My luck did change on the last leg of my trip -- I got a Ford Mustang, breaking the streak at 6.