Way back then, companies actually employed a host of people to look after you.

Service was the key word and, even when you rang the biggest firm, there was always someone available to answer the phone.

Compare the banks, the oil companies and the major supermarkets of today with those of yesteryear.

Well, actually, you can’t because there is no comparison whatsoever.

Unfortunately, today just about everywhere you go you are forced to serve yourself.

Pity if you are getting old.

I can remember when you pulled up at a service station and a uniformed attendant filled up your tank before checking your water, oil and tyres.

The banks and supermarkets were the same, but that’s certainly not the case now.

Today at the supermarket, you serve yourself, then you pay for it yourself at the self-service checkout.

And don’t talk to me about the banks with their beaming concierge there to greet you.

All they do is point you in the direction to do everything yourself or tell you to wait and wait and wait.

What a joke it has all become.

Dare I say, I even remember the days of tea ladies and elevator drivers.

Talk about putting the shareholder before the customer.

Even the media companies have been hit hard.

I can remember when RVN 2 (now Prime) employed more than 100 people in Wagga – today there is a handful.

At 2WG in the 1980s there were more than 40 staff members for just one station, now there would be lucky to be a dozen to look after two.

This newspaper hasn’t escaped cutbacks in recent years, either.

Many Wagga government offices are gone, or at best they’ve been downsized, while insurance companies are mostly a thing of the past and Medicare is about to be merged with Centrelink.

My point is how did they survive all those years ago?

But they did, and most did extremely well, even though they put their customers before their profits.

Now don’t get me wrong, businesses have to make money, but at what cost?

It’s well documented that the banks make billions of dollars while Coles and Woolworths don’t appear to be struggling, either.

Now back to the phones, and I really loathe call waiting with a passion.

I hate having to press button one, two or three and then doing it another six times before I get to speak to someone who isn’t in Australia anyway.

Of course, all the while I’m being told just how important my call is to them.

Yes, it’s now a computer-generated world and we can only wonder how on earth we ever got along without them ... mmmm wonder indeed.