No Soup For You! (Bad Service.)

One of the most common questions I'm asked on my quest to buy indie/local for 365 days comes in some form of the following:

"If you get bad service somewhere, do you still go there just because it's local?"

The answer to this question is no.  Yes.  Sometimes.  Maybe. Always, if it's the first Tuesday of a blue moon month that falls in the middle of winter.

Look, if you're a business owner, chances are you're working your tail off to take care of me, the customer.  You're spending money to figure out what hours work, what products work, and how to get me to come through the door in the first place.  So if I come in and look around, you or your staff are going to give me unforgettable, personal, and knowledgeable service, right?  I'll walk out of your store or restaurant with a lighter wallet, a satisfied need, and plans for a return visit sometime in the future.

If only this were the case every single time any of us entered an indie business.  

Sometimes, though, we're treated rudely.  We're ignored, slighted, or even insulted.  Sometimes service comes extremely late, if at all-  and the product is sub par.  Maybe the shop is dirty or unkempt; or maybe it just looks like it hasn't been updated since AOL was invented.  There are a million things that can constitute poor service. 

One of the advantages of shopping indie/local is that usually I can talk with the owner of the store and get all of my issues resolved immediately and to my full satisfaction.  On the rare occasion that this has happened, the owners were unaware there was a problem, and apologized profusely and made amends quickly.  In the likely event that this is the outcome of an encounter at that business, I'll absolutely make a second trip.  

Still,  there is always a business owner who truth be told probably shouldn't be in business to begin with.  They have somehow managed to hang on despite their inability to either stock their shop correctly, hire reliable staff, or give even remotely passable customer service.  You know these folks because if you approach them with a problem they become defensive and lash out at you. This doesn't happen just once; the next time you're in there, you receive similar treatment.  

It absolutely blows my mind that this ever- EVER- happens, but it does.  If it's happening to you, it's happening to others, and they're telling others who are telling others...and I have no idea how the shop is still in business. 

 In those cases, I will absolutely not return to their indie/local business for any reason.  Even during this year of attempted exclusive local buying, I'd go look for either a franchise that's locally owned, or another community that would have an option.  If there wasn't one of those, I'd be hauling tail to the nearest chain that carried the item I needed.  (Yes, I'd confess my chainsgression on here, without identifying the original business owner. )  

We all work hard for our money, and we deserve to be treated well when we spend it.  In my experience, indie/local New Albany businesses have been top notch in getting me the items I've requested or needed, and I've had few bad service experiences.  The few I've had may not even notice that they haven't seen me in awhile.  One day, they may realize they haven't seen much of anyone for awhile...and hopefully, they'll step up and do what they should have done all along. 

The First Fall: Greenery

A couple of months ago, I promised that I would fail.

I wasn't sure when, I wasn't sure for what item...but, I knew I'd fail- and I even mentioned that when I did, it would be part of the ongoing conversation.

All has been going well, really.  I've adjusted into a routine of planning what I buy, and where I buy it, and buying indie/local has become second nature.  I can tell you where to get just about everything, or a workable substitute.

I found this item about a month ago at Rainbow Blossom, after having a heck of a craving for it.  After not seeing it at Save A Lot, I was thrilled that I'd found a source that would work for me, since this particular item is not in season until late winter/spring, so it's not available at the Farmer's Market right now.

But last week, I stopped at Rainbow Blossom, and the clerk politely told me they were out.  Their shipment comes in on weekends, and I should stop by on Saturday.  Due to the nature of life, kids, sicknesses, and other perils of motherhood and familydom, I couldn't stop by until today, Monday.

They were out already.  On top of that, they had no chicken, which was the other item I was looking for.

This is going to be really, really anticlimactic.  You're going to roll your eyes and say, "REALLY???"

What drove me to Kroger tonight was fresh baby spinach.

Yes, the green stuff.  I love a good spinach salad with almonds, mushrooms, onions, fruit, feta, and on some days, chicken.

The kids eat 1.5 vegetables:  Both eat broccoli by the pound, and my 8 year old girl also loves fresh spinach.  We had discussed the meal on our way to Rainbow Blossom, and she had her heart set on spinach salad topped with chicken.  I think she was more miffed than I was at the lack of spinach.

She informed me that we would pass Kroger on the way home, and by gosh, they have spinach- and she could tell me exactly where it was.  My other option was to drive another 15-20 minutes to Thriftway in Georgetown to see if they had it. We were already on the other side of cross country practice and coasting towards dinner time...so, I caved.

I bought spinach and their free range chicken breasts, as well as another salad mix.

For some reason, Save A Lot doesn't carry anything but iceburg mixes or iceburg heads, and that's just not a satisfying salad.

I never thought that spinach would be the first fail.  It's getting its own column on the excel spreadsheet- and at the end of the year, I hope we can count on one hand the times I fail.  It really irks me.

As they say, that's the way the feta crumbles.

What Will We Tell The Children?

Recently, yet another study has emerged that shows the impact on a local economy of buying at an indie, local business is roughly four times the impact of shopping at a box store- depending on what type of establishment.  One of the more interesting things to come from this study was the fact that local retailers return an average of 52% of their revenues back into the local economy, while chain retailers only return about 14%.  Restaurants are even more remarkable.  If you go out for date night to an indie local restaurant, they'll recirculate approximately 79% back into your local economy, while chains average around 30%.

So the above paragraph is impressive, yes?  I mean, it shows that you, resident of Yourtown, Wherever can really and truly have an impact on your town and its quality of life by choosing wisely where you spend your money.  Heck, it got me so excited I went out to my favorite New Albany running store and clad my family in the best running shoes for their foot types.  Hey, everyone DID need new shoes, and though we're on a tight budget, we are overall spending much less money than pre July 1, 2012.

Yeah, I'm overly proud of these shoes...

But no matter how much this makes sense to me, and how much I preach the value of buying local and indie (always with the caveat that if somewhere has an inferior product or crappy customer service, you do NOT have to patronize them solely because they're local), have you ever tried to explain this to an almost 9 year old and a 6 year old?

I've tried, and that went over like medium rare filet mignon at a vegan convention.

Bear in mind, my strategy has been that we try to find a local option first and branch out from there.  So, for example, if we wanted pizza, we'd try an indie local pizza joint.  If there wasn't one, we'd buy a locally owned franchise pizza joint.  But, we have a ton of eateries that are both in New Albany;  so, I've not had to make this decision.

REAL mozzarella.  

At least thrice weekly, and sometimes more, I'm having this conversation:

Kids:  Mommy, we want Subway.
Me:  Subway's not local.
Kids:  So?
Me:  Well, more of the money we spend goes out of the area, rather than helping our fellow community members by supporting them and their businesses.
Kids:  ...
Kids: ...
Kids: ...Little Caesar's?
Me:  Not local.
Kids:  McDonald's?
Me:  Not local.
Kids:  WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US???
Me:  FINE.  Hing Wang it is.

Hing Wang is one local eatery that all four members of the family- and presumably also the dog- can agree on, mostly because they have noodles and dumplings.  They're seeing a spike in business from our house on nights that we need a quick dinner, despite warnings to the kids that they'll turn into noodles if we eat it any more often.

But in all seriousness, trying to explain what the New Albany 365 experiment is and why we're doing it to two elementary school aged children has proven to be one of my biggest challenges.  Of course, when they go to Grandma and Grandpa's, all bets are off and I'm pretty sure they take a tour from Burger King to Taco  Bell to WalMart to Toys R Us...but most of the time, they're living this with me, and they are fighting it.

I can only hope that as they get older, they're able to better understand what I did, and why I did it, and though they may not embrace it wholly, if I've caused their buying as teens and adults to shift even 20%, I've had a positive effect on whatever communities they decide to call home.  That's a better reward than some imitation cheese pizza that filled a temporary need because it was cheap and readily available.

Right?