I was simply blown away by the self-service at FedexKinkosKFCTacoBell yesterday.  I needed to print out a letter because my printer was on the fritz.  I jumped onto Google Maps to find the nearest copy shop/office supply store.  Of course, it being Sunday, and me being very close to Twin Peaks, everything was closed.  The closest place was the FedexKinkos all the way down on Sloat.  So dreading the usual copy shop experience, my wife and I hopped in the car and drove out to the avenues.  I don't know if your mileage varies but for me entering a copy shop is usually an unpleasant experience.  No one working there ever knows anything about technology and the ones that do have that smarmy self-important attitude that makes dealing with them suck.  It always take about 5 times as long as it should, you end up paying too much for a simple freakin' copy and the whole experience depletes you a little bit.  Not yesterday.  I walk in the door, the only guy on duty says, "Hi, how can I help you?"  He says it first.  I don't have to go hunt him down or get his attention or wait patiently in line while he and another customer talk past each other for five minutes about a $.89 cent transaction.  I say, "I need to print out a letter from a Word doc." 

"Do you have a USB?"

"Yes, I do."

"Help yourself, the instructions are on the machine," gesturing toward the bank of copiers.

One slot for a credit card.  One slot for a USB drive.  Swipe card , insert flash drive. Bang! There are my files on the little screen.  Select the number of prints, click "OK".  15 seconds, two copies of my letter come out the copier.  Reciept comes out the machine.  The whole transaction, from opening the door to the store to walking out the same door took less than 1 minute.

Fedex Kinkos KFC Taco Bell has their act together in the retail experience department.  Kudos.

UPDATE:  Welcome Fed-Ex Employees! Checked my web logs today and noticed some significant traffic from Fed-ex Kinko's corporate IPs over the last 2 days.  This tells me that that Fedex Kinkos listens to their customers as well as delivering a superior self-service experience.  With that kind of customer focus, I'd buy FDX stock but it looks as though it's already experienced significant price appreciation. I wish I'd walked into the store at the end of January, I might have decided to invest then and participated in some of the uptick.