The very messy debut opening of Arena Plaza was not limited to the "public" areas of Budapest's newest and most monstrously huge shopping mall. Similar chaos was also seen on opening day in the 10,000-square meter Tesco housed in the mall, where I and at least 1,000 other frazzled shoppers were left idling for more than an hour while no more than 30 cashiers slowly checked us out.

Sure, there are always glitches on opening day, and the good folks at the big T might not have anticipated the throngs. But it's not like the Big T is new to this business. Plus, nothing can excuse keeping a customer in line for as long as it would take to watch most of a feature film at the mall's (still-under-construction) multiplex. For example, why was the woman in front of me - who was buying just a four-pack of toilet paper, some tampons, frozen pizzas and milk - not steered to an express lane, rather than being forced to wait with those of us loading up for winter?

If nothing else, the managers could have taken the opportunity to show their concern by passing out cans of Red Bull energy drink teasingly piled up in coolers next to the check-out lanes. On the other hand, that might have just rattled the nerves of everyone stuck in line; far better to do like at the Praktiker across town, and serve up some nice frosty hardware-store check-out counter beers.