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What Do You Do When Your Local Businesses Suck?
You might think I'm lucky to have a video store twenty feet away from my apartment. I barely have to put on pants to rent a movie on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It would follow that I should be upset that it's closing after 20 years, but I'm more interested to see what comes in to take its place. You see, this video store sucked. It could quite possibly be the worst video store I've ever been in and yet I kept coming back only because it was so damned convenient. There's another video store three blocks away, and it too is a prince in the court of Suck. The next closest option is a Blockbuster (8 blocks) and after that a really excellent hole in the wall (16 blocks) which is where I've been renting my videos ever since I decided it was worth the half hour round trip. I don't even consider the Blockbuster as an option, but I can say that because I live in a place with a plethora of video stores. My question to you is, what does somebody do when they only have one local choice and it totally sucks?
Another example in my neighborhood is the local FedEx/UPS/copy/fax shop. Horrible. They don't answer their phone and they barely answer you when you're standing right in front of them at the counter. They're overpriced. They're painfully slow. And rude. Etc. So I go 20 blocks out of my way to the UPS Store because they don't fuck up my packages. And they're nice. And they help me. I would always rather patronize the local shop, but sometimes that's such a terrible customer service experience that I would rather go to the big guy. Anybody else have similar stories? Laments?
Posted by Matt Ransford on 09/08/2005 | Permalink
Comments
I force them to change by pummeling them with suggestions and threats of taking my business elsewhere, for example, there is a taqueria around the corner from my house that i will frequent occasionally because of it's close proximity, usually however, i will walk an extra 5 blocks to get to my favorite taqueria, but on my way home i will always step in the doorway of the close taqueria and announce that i once again walked 5 blocks because they don't have a serve yourself salsa bar or the menu choice i want.
well guess what, they do now. a few more adjustments and i may just turn them into the most popular taqueria around and all i ask is to have it my way.
Posted by: merkley??? | Sep 8, 2005 5:41:03 PM
I give the local shops first choice, then I hit the chain stores. As much of a lefty as I am, I think there's still something to be said for capitalism and commercial (and only commercial) Darwinism.
We put importance on "local" because the label IMPLIES better service and better business dealings, and that it will offer what the big chains can't.
But if the local owner is a lazy rude SOB then forget it; I won't waste my time there. I'll go to the big store. And who knows - the manager of the big store might be a nice, progressive person also (look at CostCo - big chain with very generous employee benefits and compensation)
Posted by: N | Sep 9, 2005 9:09:25 AM
Just coming back from the island of Kauai, this reminds me of the Kauai Wal-Mart. Being a relatively remote island, a smaller retailer buying in small quantites has to mark up their prices to cover the shipping from the mainland. In fact, just keeping things in stock seems difficult. Our family there is partly glad to see stores like WalMart and Home Depot arrive because they have products in stock, and generally little or no mark-up for shipping costs on an island that seems to require 2 to 3 jobs just to survive. They know WalMart and Home Depot are 'bad', but how do you argue against that?
I think that makes it more important for those of us who are lucky enough to have a choice to do so.
And I also reccommend trying to help local businesses by making suggestions and explaining why you want to shop there, but don't. In the most friendly way possible.
Posted by: Steve Lambert | Sep 9, 2005 5:28:38 PM
I think what we need to do first is ask ourselves "how much do I really need?"
We spend so much money on crap we don't really need, we keep the big guys in business when they are only selling us stuff we will only use once or twice anyway. 'And when 2/3rd's of the universe is starving', do we really need a brand new weber bbq grill with side tables from Home Depot when we could get by with a hibachi from Joe's hardware down the street?
Posted by: goddessa | Sep 10, 2005 8:40:30 PM
One way to fix this problem would be to start a local video collective. There are many paths you can take to create one. Me and my friends just pooled are videos together then spend $10 a month each twords adding new videos. There are no late fees and we have a collection of movies that are unique, and many people to discuss them with.
Posted by: Thomas | Sep 11, 2005 4:14:34 PM
I use netflix, cuz you can get almost any movie you want and you don't have to go anywhere cuz they come in the mail!
Posted by: Kyle Stoner | Sep 21, 2005 6:45:54 PM
If a business screws up majorly (or screws up minorly one too many times) they are off the list, no matter how convenient it is to me. I make it a point to patronize good businesses even though they may be farther away or aren't open as late.
Dry-cleaning is a perfect example. There is a dry cleaners 8 blocks away (2 min drive) but they lost one too many pants, put one too many holes in my shirts and lost too many buttons. I simply refuse to go there anymore and instead go the dry cleaners in my old neighborhood 5 miles away since they are good and did not screw up my orders in the 5 years that I went to them. The time and extra gas $ is the price I'm paying for good service.
I make sure to tell my friends and neighbors about bad experiences at various establishments. Sure it makes me sound like a crank. I don't care!
Posted by: BHTampa | Sep 21, 2005 7:45:53 PM
Some small businesses are small for a reason.
Posted by: Mina | Sep 24, 2005 8:28:02 PM
Hey,
Are you in Park Slope? They have the worst video store ever on 7th Ave. so I wondered if you were talking about the same place. A couple of years ago if you were a member they updated their system and if you didn't have a credit card they took you out of the computer. I went to rent a video and they said you're no longer a member. I told them I don't use credit cards and they begrudingly put me back in the computer. They hate me because I only rent the childrens videos which are one dollar, thats it. I can't stop watching Petes Dragon.
Posted by: herman | Oct 1, 2005 6:58:09 AM
You know which business I hate? That eyeglasses place on the NE corner of 7th Avenue and President. The guy who owns it once talked me into getting some overpriced frames (my fault, yes I know...). I called the next day to cancel the order and he said he'd only refund part of the money, keeping a $50 "restocking fee." (The frames had no lens in them; they had just been ordered from a distributor...) He was also a real jerk.
I mentioned this to the glasses place down the street (Eyes on the Slope) and they said the restocking charge was a joke; they said they ordered frames from the same distributor and there was no fee. (This place allowed customers to return frames without any problems.)
Posted by: carrie | Oct 1, 2005 11:58:51 PM
The cd store "Sound Track" is the creepiest store on the block. They seem very paranoid.
Posted by: PlasticMan | Oct 5, 2005 12:02:34 PM
