I found this hilarious, and this one will very rapidly descend into Pitdom, so I just went with it.
The short verison is that the shop owners started up a pricey boutique store selling very expensive (and grossly overprised by my count) store. Ok, if that works for you go for it. Well, after 6 months it kinda failed. OK, that happens.
One of the ownrs or managers had a few things to say about it:
“Don Otto’s Market wants to say we had few customers that understood customer loyalty and its importance to our business.”
“If you came in only for baguettes, the occasional piece of cheese, the occasional dinner . . . you can not tell yourself you were a supporter of our market.”
“People don’t understand their purchases make a difference, and that by buying something that wasn’t exactly what you want, it gets you closer to what you want. It’s an investment.”
Allow me to respond.
Before reading the article, I pictured the store owner as someone who had run a neighborhood place for 50 years and struggled to avoid closure. The cranky twenty-something who was actually involved isn’t nearly as sympathetic.
+1 to the laughter. I had a similar reaction when a Hare Krishna restaurant closed down in my hometown some years ago, griping that the town wasn’t ready for a vegetarian restaurant.
Dude. It was Carrboro. You know, Chapel Hill’s hippie liberal little sister?
The town wasn’t ready for a snooty preachy cult restaurant with mediocre food, you mean.
There was a lot of similar whining when an overpriced gourmet food store went out of business. It was, of course, because Des Moines isn’t sophisticated enough to support anything but the Wal-Marts and suchlike, not because of being overpriced and underwhelming.
The actual problem was that they were in a ridiculously huge space, filled sparsely with overpriced products that were, in most cases, already available at local food stores at a significant savings. The unique and decently priced items did sell a lot – like their gelato – but not enough to cover the huge space (part of an expensive new development next to one of the largest malls in the country). They had a large area set aside for wine and spirits, but had inferior selection to main grocer in the area, and much higher prices. They were also directly opposite a Costco which carried a lot of their products at even deeper discounts. They had made poor decisions, like investing heavily in a chocolatier area when we already have a fantastic established local chocolatier with several locations throughout the area – and making an inferior product to theirs while charging about three times as much.
I don’t miss them now that we have a Trader Joe’s. I also did extremely well for myself during their frantic final days of selling everything that wasn’t nailed down.
THIS guy doesn’t seem to understand. When I (and, I suspect, many other people) shop, items will be rated on how close they are to what I want, and how much they cost. If I find an insanely cheap deal, but it’s not exactly what I want, I’m somewhat likely to buy it. If something is insanely expensive, it had better be EXACTLY what I want, or I’m not buying it. Customers are generally not looking to invest in a store, they just want to purchase a product. And to say
Actually, if someone comes in for the occasional item, yes, that someone IS supporting your market, and you have the opportunity to sell more items to this customer, by offering EXACTLY what s/he wants, at an attractive price. Yes, offering quality items is expensive. But if people don’t have the money, they don’t have the money.
Hippie meets real world with a side of entitlement. Ouch!
That shop-owner’s goodbye note reminds me of the hippy festival in Oz that Kambukta(?) attended, explaining in the most cringeworthy fashion why patrons weren’t going to get anything back despite its cancellation. It’s all about the paradigm, man.
I’ve eaten in a Hare Krishna restaurant. Just the once. It was bland beyond measure. WHY NO ONIONS OR GARLIC!?! Stupid religious dietary exclusions.
On a more sensible note, and I’ve said this before, I want to support small local businesses. There’s a butcher’s shop near me. I like to buy my meat there - it’s more expensive but better quality and it’s an independent store in a world of chains. But he closes his store at 5.30 every evening! I work until 5.30 at the very earliest, sometimes later than that. I’m doing my best to shop there, but meet me halfway, Mr Butcher. I admire your traditionalism, but the world has changed. I’d like to help you survive in this new world, but you really need to acknowledge that not everyone these days has maid or is a housewife, and nobody works 9-5 anymore. If his store goes under, I’ll be wistful but unsurprised.
Yep, I live outside Boston, and I read the story. These people were clueless-in a down economy, they launched a very upscale food shop. Eggs @ $8.00/dozen, beef at $28.00/lb. So what did they expect? Did they do any market research-to see if the area could support such a business?
Or, when their sales were not what they expected, did they cut prices?
Small businesses ARE very risky-and these people learned the hard way.
The weird thing-the husband ownded a successful business (snoboard shop) which he sold-one would have though he would have some business sense.
Like the old saying goes: “experience is a hard school”.
Well, the owner (not husband yet, according to the article) didn’t make the outlandish comments, the manager, fiance, did. Sounds like a pet-project that the owner set up for his fiance, who then ran it into the ground. Not uncommon.
In fairness I would like to note that I have had some awesome Krishna food. So it’s possible. They do use spices; the absence of onion and garlic doesn’t have to leave it bland.
Aside from that, I’m vague on this idea of how buying things I don’t want will make a shop become something I do want.
Isn’t there quite a bit of competition in that area? I haven’t been down that way in years, but memory tells me there are a few similar gourmet-type shops around there…
That was my take on it, too - that the customers were at fault for not holding up their responsibility to buy from his store, no matter what they offered or at what price. The sense of entitlement is breathtaking.
The lady sounds like so many of those owners and chefs on Kitchen Nightmares. It’s all the ex-customer’s fault for not fitting the owners idea of what they should be.
I also did extremely well for myself during their frantic final days of selling everything that wasn’t nailed down.