Originally Posted by
david58
I worked in retail: my family had a business when I was a kid When exactly was that? I'm admittedly far too young to have any personal experience in the retail world before big business dominated the country, but three of the managers I've worked for have been in retail for 20+ years each & they all claim that the business has changed significantly since they first started working., and my wife and I did for a number of years whilst raising our kids. We had Customers come in and ask tons of questions and even take pictures of our work, so as to go out and make it themselves or buy it elsewhere. We did our best to treat everyone as a valued Customer, even if they were total jerks. But the number of jerks was greatly outweighed by the number of genuinely good folk. I have a tendency to exaggerate..in my area it's probably 1 in every 20 or so that I would label a bastard.
I pretty much buy most everything from my LBS. In some cases, when I don't want to spend the gasoline to drive I will internet shop, but in the end the treatment I get (courtesy, patience, real assistance) has me spending money there. And if I am just shooting the breeze with a worker there, I cut the conversation and step back (I physically step away) so they can turn to the person that just came in. I love cycling, the folks that I like to ride with, and try to carry that attitude to the shop. They give me a 10% discount from being a local club member, and in the end that makes my internet shopping only a small amount better price wise after shipping. And in the mechanic shop, they go WAAAY beyond the call of duty - a bike fit, seat post, stem, front and rear hub rebuild, and derailler adjustment cost me $96. And in your time in the retail business, you never once wondered why it's so hard for other customers to treat their shops with the same decency of simply treating the LBS employees fairly?
And there is that other, bigger local shop up the street. I won't spend my money on discounted merchandise there, I'd rather pay full $ at the shop down the street.Small businesses everywhere thank you for that. Well I assume they do. I work at a 5000+ store multimillion dollar corporation, so I can't exactly speak on their behalf.
As to the Bastard population in Georgia, could it be, El Guapo, that just maybe your Bastard Detector is more a self-fulfilling prophecy kinda thing? And to "take criticism" from someone that only works in an auto shop? The needle is starting to move on the Detector, but I wonder why? Could be, I do have quite an ego. Could also be that the combination of working in a low-income area at an over-priced drug store at which I have virtually no power in merchandise pricing or giving customers discounts, as well as having a piss poor district manager who complains if we don't enforce corporate policies but will still write us up & suspend people from work if the customer files a complaint about it, has temporarily crushed my spirit.