F the little guy.

Small business America sucks.

There, I said it. And you know what?  It's true.

It is no wonder that big-box businesses and publicly traded companies are trampling all over the little guys. My whole life I've been taught to frequent the mom & pop stores, to give THEM my business because it means something to them. If I go to the big places, it's a faceless corporation. Ideally, that sounds awesome...it really does. But in reality, it's not worth the hassle to go to the little guy. And this is coming from a guy who worked for a small family business!!

Time and time again I try to go "go local" and time and time again I get F'ed in the A with a big D. And when shit goes sour, it's like pulling teeth to get ANY kind of action/response from the little guy. You would think the opposite would be true, but I've not found that to be the case. You know why? Because there's no "quality control" and there's no recourse.

When dealing with the little guy, if that one person doesn't answer his phone, return calls or reply to an email...that's it, you're hosed. Period. No recourse, no higher authority to report it to, no where to turn to get the issue corrected, and you're out the time and effort invested in that one little place. With the bigger places, there is always someone else to talk to. You can get a hold of someone else to get help or information from, someone else to work it out with. You don't have to start from scratch every single time.

Now, I'm not a hard consumer to please. I'm not talking about having unrealistic expectations or making impossible demands. I'm talking about basic stuff, like:

*Not having moldy/rotten product on your shelves. And when you do, don't make excuses for it being there! (Actually happened at two different places!)

*Give a realistic window for delivery of goods/services and show up when you say you'll show up. Note: I'm not talking windows in terms of hours here, I'm talking DAYS! Oh, and don't drag your damn feet when trying to set a second multi-day window.

*Don't be an assuming D-bag, and blatently tell me I'm wrong without even CONSIDERING there may be exceptions to the norm.

So there it is. These recent experiences have left me with the decision to frequent retail giants whenever possible.

Had these run-ins (and many more that I didn't even bother to list) occurred with multi-layered organizations, I would have been able to straighten out the situation immediately with someone else and been able to move forward. But since they occurred with those already at the top of the chain,there was no where else to go and I was out the time & energy invested and had to start back at square one at another place.

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Ok, hold it now. I'm pretty sure I ruffled some feathers. While the examples given are absolutely true and from small mom & pop businesses, I haven't exactly given up on little businesses entirely...just yet.

I'm uber-frustrated from all of these things, but family-business is in my blood. For the most part, I WANT to do business with them, but sometimes they make it so damn hard. For those that are reading this that own a business, please take these sentiments to heart.

You NEED your customers whereas the big boxes don't. There are PLENTY of people who will spend their money at a retail giant because it's convienient and it doesn't take any effort. Not to mention, it tends to cost less too.

I'm not saying you have to be your customers whipping post, but good customer service goes a long way and can be what makes or breaks future income.

To end this on a "let's here it for the little guy" note,  I started frequenting one of the businesses mentioned above again (the one with the assuming jackwagon). Why? Because I was in a pinch and needed to go there.   And when I did, I got some great customer service.  Granted, it wasn't from the same individual but I cleared the air with the manager, and will give them another shot.

As far as the other examples go:
-I will NEVER frequent the two places that had rotten/moldy food again as that just skeeves me out.
-The delivery of services example is an ongoing debacle.  Hopefully it ends well......