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.