Bad LHS Experience and the Demise of LHS, Murder or Suicide?

[wetidlerjr]

 I wouldn't have been near as nice as the Original Poster was. He might have been out of line (slightly) for offering unsolicited advice but the reaction of the clerk/owner was inexcusable regardless of any excuses posted here to the contrary. I could care less if he was "having a bad day" or anything else that caused his outburst. If one is in the service business then one gives service. If giving service causes you a problem then get OUT of the service business.

I patronize two LHSs near me and at one, they couldn't be nicer but they discount nothing. At the other one, they couldn't be nicer but discount everything. At the first, I only buy magazines and at the second, I buy kits, parts and pieces. I guess I am a winner in that both places are a pleasure to visit because both know how to service customers.

[riogrande5761]

riogrande5761,
Bleh, bleh, yourself.  Just what is a customer in the "old school" sense?  I'm only 32, so you'll have to clue me in.  "The Customer Is Always Right" looks like a fairly basic statement.  It's wrong, but it is simple: Give the customer what they want when they want it, no questions asked.  That's what it sounds like to me.  Folks say that often enough, they start to believe it.  The sooner people figure out that the the customer is not always right (and everyone stops trotting out that ol' chestnut), the better off we'll all be.

BTW, what does "<>" mean, anyways?  Less than, greater than?

Paul A. Cutler III

I think Steve H put it better than I did so I'll QFT (quote for truth):

I beg to differ, IMHO the customer IS always right...if you want them to return to make more purchases in the future.

Your example is very much the extreme example of not at all related to the original post. You sight in your story that the woman WAS NOT a customer of YOUR store, but someone try'n to get over on you. You are correct that, in that case, the woman was wrong, and most likely committing a misdemeanor crime, BUT SHE WAS NOT YOUR CUSTOMER. You also sight yourself as trying to do the right thing, by making the "customer" happy, and refunding her cash BEFORE you realized her scam. Give yourself more credit, and be honest with yourself...you really do believe that the customer is always right, even if it violates "store policy".

Paul, maybe its because you have grown up in a different "era" full of shysters and con artists that "The Customer is Always Right" has a different meaning to you.  At 48, I grew up with it meaning that stores should provide courteous service and do everything possible to serve them in the capacity of a retail store.  I agree with Steve, anyone in retail can recite extreme examples of people who are basically crooks and not customers.  First of all, why not trying to consider that oft used phrase in the context of this post?  Anyway, try to consider the "spirit" of the phrase in its traditional sense.  Use a little imagination if you can't sympathize with the original poster (OP), think outside your box.

I see we have another guy who also took a few computer programming classes.  Yes <> is a computer and math abrievation meaning "not equal to".  All us old farts who are "old school" will try to edumacate you young whipper snappers!

Anyway, it is a shame that retailers have to be able to discern the difference between customers (who are always right) and crooks/criminals, who are what they are.  Obviously they aren't right because they are breaking laws or rules.  I hope we can put that whole issue to rest now.

 

[JulesB]

My brother managed a Software Etc. before they became Game Spot.

A doctor for a major league baseball team used to come in and buy Microsoft Excell or some other expensive software package. He would bring it back looking like the books were run over by a car, obviously the pages were spread out for photo copying. When he got wind of it he went ballistic. He told the guy NO more. The guy said I know Bill Gates etc. "The customer is alway's right", My brother told him not this time, or ever again, tell Bill I said so.

He had a shrink wrapping machine. But the books spines were so badly bent/cracked that nothing could make them presentable again.

The guy was copying every thing, discs, books, you name it. The guy is a millionare! He's also a cheap @%^$*&%>..

Jules

 

[The Old Man]

But you could potentially gain the respect of the owner by going back. Ever hear the phrase, "snatch victory from the jaws of defeat"? Maybe it was a bad day for the owner, maybe you could go back and start up your own conversation and see if he remembers you, mention that you were in there a few days earlier and might have gotten off on the wrong foot, but wanted to make amends and start over. Heck, he might even reward you for coming back.

I think your response was excellent, except for the above.  Why should he go back to any retail store where he was yelled at? I wouldn't.

 

[riogrande5761]

My brother managed a Software Etc. before they became Game Spot.

A doctor for a major league baseball team used to come in and buy Microsoft Excell or some other expensive software package. He would bring it back looking like the books were run over by a car, obviously the pages were spread out for photo copying. When he got wind of it he went ballistic. He told the guy NO more. The guy said I know Bill Gates etc. "The customer is alway's right", My brother told him not this time, or ever again, tell Bill I said so.

He had a shrink wrapping machine. But the books spines were so badly bent/cracked that nothing could make them presentable again.

The guy was copying every thing, discs, books, you name it. The guy is a millionare! He's also a cheap @%^$*&%>..

Jules

Again, your example deals with a criminal.  Your brother was shrewd enough to recognize criminal or theiving activity and put a stop to it.  Again, customers <> criminals.  This is an obvious distinction that we should draw and it shouldn't invalidate the spirit of the time honored saying.

Ok, now lets educate the young folk:

The customer is always right

Meaning

The trading policy that states a company's keenness to be seen to put the customer first.

Origin

Several retail concern used this as a slogan from the early 20th century onward. In the USA it is particularly associated with Marshall Field's department store, Chicago (established in the late 19th century). The store is an icon of the city, although it is set to lose its name in 2006 when, following a takeover, it becomes renamed as Macy's. In the UK, Harry Gordon Selfridge (1857-1947) the founder of London's Selfridges store (opened in 1909), is credited with championing its use. The Wisconsin born Selfridge worked for Field from 1879 to 1901. Both men were dynamic and creative businessmen and it's highly likely that one of them coined the phrase, although we don't know which.

Of course, these entrepreneurs didn't intend to be taken literally. What they were attempting to do was to make the customer feel special by inculcating into their staff the disposition to behave as if the customer was right, even when they weren't.

The trading policy and the phrase were well-known by the early 20th century. From the Kansas City Star, January 1911 we have a piece about a local country store that was modelled on Field's/Selfridges:

[George E.] "Scott has done in the country what Marshall Field did in Chicago, Wannamaker did in New York and Selfridge in London. In his store he follows the Field rule and assumes that the customer is always right."

Whether the phrase was coined by Field or Selfridge it is fair to call it American. What we can't do is credit them with the idea behind it. In 1908 César Ritz (1850-1918), the celebrated French hotelier is credited with saying 'Le client n'a jamais tort' - 'The customer is never wrong'. That's not the phrase that people now remember, but it can hardly be said to be any different in meaning to 'the customer is always right'.

Anyone who takes just a few seconds with google can learn a great deal! 

[steinjr]

Ok, now lets educate the young folk:

The customer is always right

Anyone who takes just a few seconds with google can learn a great deal! 

 Indeed. Try to google "Gordon Bethune" And "from worst to first" and see what Bethune says about customer care vs "customer is always right".

 Of course you try to be service minded, polite and help the customer (and potensial customers - someone who walks into your store is a potensial customer, despite some disingenious attempts at redefining jerks as "not real customers" in order to not having to deal with the fact that the world isn't quite as simple as some people seem to think it ought to be).

 But not at any cost. If a customer (or potensial customer) is rude and out of line, tell him so - in a polite but firm way - if you can afford to lose that sale.

 If you are so poor that you cannot afford to lose a single sale, then you may not have any choice but to sell your self respect along with the goods you are selling - beggars can't be chosers.

 If you read what Bethune (who turned Continental Airlines around in a very bad spot) says about the subject, you get straight talk instead of oversimplified slogans:

 We run more than 3 million  people through our books every month. One or two of those people are going to be unreasonable, demanding jerks. When it's a choice between supporting your employees, who work with you every day and make your product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free ticket to Paris because you ran out of peanuts, whose side are you going to be on?

 The store owner in the original poster's story behaved like a rude idiot, if there is any doubt whatsoever about that. I haven't seen anyone really try to defend this store owner's bad manners.

 What is being disputed by a few people is this simpleminded insistence that the customer is always right, and that people in stores have no right to do anything but to kowtow and take it in good cheer no matter what the customer says or does.

 Grin,
 Stein

 

[SilverSpike]

But you could potentially gain the respect of the owner by going back. Ever hear the phrase, "snatch victory from the jaws of defeat"? Maybe it was a bad day for the owner, maybe you could go back and start up your own conversation and see if he remembers you, mention that you were in there a few days earlier and might have gotten off on the wrong foot, but wanted to make amends and start over. Heck, he might even reward you for coming back.

I think your response was excellent, except for the above.  Why should he go back to any retail store where he was yelled at? I wouldn't.

The only reason to go back is for the original poster (OP) to confront his fear that the owner will act the same way again, the only way to know is to try again. The OP has nothing to loose but a few minutes time and a few breaths in his lungs, but the owner has already lost a customer. I am a peace maker, and don't like to hold a grudge or foster ill will within myself, so if I were in the OP's shoes I would go back and try to set the whole thing straight. And if the ower acted the same way then I would know in my heart and mind that the guy really has no business being in customer service.

Again, it is a opportunity for the OP to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

[concretelackey]

"The customer is always right" may hold water 100% of the time in the customer's mindset BUT he/she may not be CORRECT. It is all a matter of being informed. More than once I walked into a store looking for "part ABC" thinking, no, KNOWING that it will mate with "part DEF". Only after having the store employee/clerk/specialist explain or demonstrate did I realize that I was mis-informed. Whether that mis-information came from a bad source or from my failing to interpret the information correctly, I was incorrect. So IMO responsibility for a satisfactory sale on both partys means that both the store rep and the buyer needs to admit that someone is incorrect when needed.

With that said, proper and professional interactions need to exist with both partys.

Sorry for straying from the discussion of attitudes.

[Mr_Ash]

I work as a security guard at a big production plant / warehouse and I have to deal with Employee's, Contractors and dozens of dozens of truck drivers and a couple trains coming in for pickups or deliverys or all sorts of product every day and everyone is in a bad mood. I'm not required to be "Nice" to any of them, but I am and it goes a long way.

Truckers take alot of crap from people and in a sence they are my customers, I go out of my way to make sure there paperwork gets done and they get directed to whatever dock they need to go to quickly. Some of them arnt the brightest folks and some of them arnt the most polite but when you treat them all good and they can see your going out of your way to make things easier for them they are happy to come back and less likely to cause problems because there having a bad day.

Now like the OP I used to be into HO and it was LHS employee's who caused me to give up on model trains.(obviously im back now, also in large scale!  ) I used to walk down to the hobby shop every sunday after church and look around and my dad would allways come and pick me up 20 minutues later after he finished helping count out the collections and what not (he was incharge of depositing the weekly church collections in the bank) anyway my dad would allways buy me a train car or somthing small like detail parts or somthing and sunday was the only day we went to the hobby shop. Anway I never touched anything I would watch there D&RGW LGB layout for 10 minutes or so and go pickout whatever I came for that week before my dad got there. They allways followed me around watching me the whole time I was ever there and a few times told me to leave if I wasnt going to buy anything and one of the last few visits told me not to come in without my dad and that was when I was like 13-14yr old and had been going there for a good 5-6 years

Anyway one day while we were there at the checkout my dad picked up a Walthers catalog tossed it on the counter with the rest of my stuff and the guy at the counter questions my dad why he was buying it like my dad has "Idiot" stamped on his forhead or somthing and my dad said "So we can call and have you order what we need?" and the guy yelled at him saying "If you want to order anything we have a catalog right here on the counter!"

[riogrande5761]

I work as a security guard at a big production plant / warehouse and I have to deal with Employee's, Contractors and dozens of dozens of truck drivers and a couple trains coming in for pickups or deliverys or all sorts of product every day and everyone is in a bad mood. I'm not required to be "Nice" to any of them, but I am and it goes a long way.

Of course those in security and law enforcement are in a completely different position than a store owner or sales clerk.  Security/Law Enforcment people are all business or even heavy handed with those they come into contact with because it's their job.  I was driving from Washington DC to Philladelphia the day after Christmas and trying to get out of the way of fast agressive drivers yet get around slower trucks in the middle lane.  In the process, I got pulled over by a plain marked police car who warned me I made an unsafe lane change - never mind the unsafe tailgaters!  My daughter commented on how mean the guy was but I've been around long enough to know that is part of thier job, and I know they deal with real jerks and low lifes alot too.  (he did only warn me - so he could have been meaner).

Of course you try to be service minded, polite and help the customer (and potential customers - someone who walks into your store is a potential customer, despite some disingenuous attempts at redefining jerks as "not real customers" in order to not having to deal with the fact that the world isn't quite as simple as some people seem to think it ought to be).

But not at any cost. If a customer (or potensial customer) is rude and out of line, tell him so - in a polite but firm way - if you can afford to lose that sale.

If you are so poor that you cannot afford to lose a single sale, then you may not have any choice but to sell your self respect along with the goods you are selling - beggars can't be chosers.

I would argue that the spirit of "the customer is always right" puts the clerk or owner in the position of swallowing their pride and putting up with rude customers. 

I worked in a bank IT department for 4 years and for a while my desk was up in the book keeping and customer service department.  I can't tell you how many times I heard employee's treating the bank customer with the "customer is always right" spirit, even though the person on the phone was often a jerk and being rude.  The poor employee always was polite and said the most helpful things they could without breaking the bank rules, policies or law, but when they hung up the phone I heard alot of explitives!  LOL

Lets draw the line at illegal behavior that Paul Cutler and others have raised as objections to the slogan.  I still argue that if a customer acting as a criminal by trying to steal, or borrow a product, use it and return it as if it was still new, or some other conduct which breaks the rules, etc, they move from being a customer to a criminal or something close to it.  Any store owner has a right at that point to take proper action - firmly and politely perhaps.  Certainly firmly.

[selector]

But you could potentially gain the respect of the owner by going back. Ever hear the phrase, "snatch victory from the jaws of defeat"? Maybe it was a bad day for the owner, maybe you could go back and start up your own conversation and see if he remembers you, mention that you were in there a few days earlier and might have gotten off on the wrong foot, but wanted to make amends and start over. Heck, he might even reward you for coming back.

I think your response was excellent, except for the above.  Why should he go back to any retail store where he was yelled at? I wouldn't.

 

It is poop simple.  He was the first to transgress by assuming that his advice, tendered via interjection into a conversation to which he had hitherto not been a part, would be welcome. Social faux pas, and not a smooth move in a place of business.

Wrong was matched for wrong by the proprietor, but it did not negate or neutralize the first in the sequence.  Each act in this scenario stands on its own merits...as wrong.  Tit for tat (if that gets past the software censor).

So the advice to return and attempt to patch things up, first by expressing regret for butting in in the first place, would be the grown-up thing to do.  What the proprietor ought to do in return is to forgive the first offense, and to offer his own sincere regret for his poor behaviour.

Poop simple.

[riogrande5761]

It is poop simple.  He was the first to transgress by assuming that his advice, tendered via interjection into a conversation to which he had hitherto not been a part, would be welcome. Social faux pas, and not a smooth move in a place of business.

Wrong was matched for wrong by the proprietor, but it did not negate or neutralize the first in the sequence.  Each act in this scenario stands on its own merits...as wrong.  Tit for tat (if that gets past the software censor).

You consider it a trangression for a fellow customer to offer advice into a discussion happening a few feet away?  I'm sorry, but by common social standards, I don't agree it was rude or transgressive.  I've had people do this to me upteen times in my 48 years, and never felt put off, or I've offered suggestions myself to others and never received the reaction of the OP.

It was both socially rude and extremely bad business practice for the shop proprietor to YELL at one of his customers.  By all common social standards this is how it is.  It's so obvious that if this shop owner acts like this often, he will lose more customers and his sales will drop off until he has to close his doors.

So the advice to return and attempt to patch things up, first by expressing regret for butting in in the first place, would be the grown-up thing to do.  What the proprietor ought to do in return is to forgive the first offense, and to offer his own sincere regret for his poor behaviour.

Patching things up is a noble suggestion, but a customer is NEVER obligated to do this when offended by a shop owner in these circumstances.

Poop simple.

Not.

It would be interesting to hear the advice or commentary from a professional social and ettiquette advice expert - and not the rank and file of old men like us who like to play with trains!  :P

[PASMITH]

And I always thought there were just two sides to every story. If you are a model railroader and live long enough you can do a lot of learning.

Peter Smith, Memphis

[selector]

...It would be interesting to hear the advice or commentary from a professional social and ettiquette advice expert - and not the rank and file of old men like us who like to play with trains!  :P

My only terms of reference are my upbringing and nearly 56 years of living.  I have walked in large circles socially, being a university professor, soldier, mediator, counsellor, psychologist, and expert on human conflict (my area of study).  I have performed workplace assessments to find underlying conflict when the leadership couldn't put their fingers on the problem(s).  In most instances, ineffectual, inept, or purposefully aggressive communications were at the root of the ills in these places. 

I don't see a substantial difference in this scenario. We only have the one version to this incident, after all, and I have long since learned to withhold judgment until both sides of an issue are revealed and understood.  In this instance, I accepted what the OP has offered as fact, chiefly that he interrupted a conversation.  I learned the required custom and courtesies related to that when I was a child.  So, I'll stand by my assessment, and I guess we'll just have to accept that we disagree.

[riogrande5761]

Alrighty selector,

Sounds like you have me beat in the professional training and social environment department.  I only have 2 university degrees in science (BS & MS) and experience working in Engineering firms and IT departments.  Two sisters are lawyers and not "counselors" in the sense you mentioned.  Wife was a social physchology PhD candidate but hey, we never got along and are divorcing but I don't think she practiced what she studied.

I can only say from my lessor 48 years of experience in social circles (and minimal social psychology training) I don't see entering into a conversation in the context of the OP to be offensive or invasive.  When I am in public settings like this, occasionally I will join in a conversation of interest to me and when I do, I usually try to be polite about it - I do have some "social monitoring skills".  I will grant that some sensitive folks might consider it a minor invasion in some contexts, but in a hobby shop where recommendations etc are being discussed, it seems potentially rather the opposite.  To be safe, one can always say, "excuse me but I couldn't help noticing your discussion on ....  or ...  pardon me for saying but I'd like to offer .... yada yada yada".

I was in a Sears store before Christmas where an employee was attempting to discuss Ipod to a mother thinking about buying one for his daughter.  The employee's knowledge was obviously limited so I politely asked to join in the conversation and offer my experiences with the Ipod since my daughter has one and I was very familiar with the models and how they worked.  This did nothing but help the customer understand the product better and all were appreciative of it.  I didn't monopolize the conversation and kept it fairly brief.  Was I transgressing?  You be the judge I guess.

In the context of the OP, I do feel the Onus (sp?) is on the shop owner to treat his customers with basic respect and politeness - period.  Maybe I'm just more old fashioned than some.  The pressure and responsibility for having a successful and well patronized shop is on him and his employee's.  I don't know, even without all the professional psychology training etc, it seems like good ol common sense here. 

Anyway, hobby shop owners can't rely on their customers being well trained in the art of social conflict resolution such as you selector.  They deal with the broad spectrum of society who are laborers to doctors, and their actions have financial consequences on their business, hence the title of this topic.

[Cheese]

Hmmm,

Yes, it does seem that unfriendly conduct is ruining LHSs everywhere.

However, my LHS has a very frirendly proprieter, who is the very definition of "Southern Gentleman".

I have made many purchases there, and I plan on continuing to do so. This gentleman has always been kind and patient with me and my youthfull ignorance, and I have learned a great deal from him about model and prototype railroads. So this is one LHS that is not commiting suicide.

Cheese

[selector]

...so I politely asked to join in the conversation and offer my experiences with the Ipod since my daughter has one and I was very familiar with the models and how they worked.  This did nothing but help the customer understand the product better and all were appreciative of it.  I didn't monopolize the conversation and kept it fairly brief.  Was I transgressing?  You be the judge I guess.

In the context of the OP, I do feel the Onus (sp?) is on the shop owner to treat his customers with basic respect and politeness - period.  Maybe I'm just more old fashioned than some.  The pressure and responsibility for having a successful and well patronized shop is on him and his employee's.  I don't know, even without all the professional psychology training etc, it seems like good ol common sense here. 

Anyway, hobby shop owners can't rely on their customers being well trained in the art of social conflict resolution such as you selector.  They deal with the broad spectrum of society who are laborers to doctors, and their actions have financial consequences on their business, hence the title of this topic.

RG, you are, if I am to take what you claim at face value, a skilled and mature communicator who knew that he had to extend to the party engaged in the conversation the courtesy of asking if his potential contribution would be welcome.  It worked out, and I say kudos to you for acting as you did...with due deference and sensitivity to the circumstances of that conversation that you knew you didn't completely understand....except that you might have been able to enrich it with some information.  You covered yourself, and left a way out for everyone, by acknowledging first that you were offering something that might not be welcome by both participants, each of whom should have been free to reject your overture.  This was not the case here...so no courtesy extended in at least that respect to at least one of the conversers.  You got it right.

It is a responsibility of all persons present in a social setting to conduct themselves with courtesy and respect for the others present.  Should one's social status or professional circumstances be a good or a poor predictor of civility when many are gathered?  It turns out that only the two engaged were "gathered", and that the third person desired to act unilaterally to impart what he felt should be a worthy contribution to the exchange.  Once again, neither of the two engaged were asked if the intrusion were convenient to their purposes in the exchange.  It was, therefore, presumptuous of the OP to act as he did.  At a basic level, presumptive social behaviour is not without risk, as we have seen.

For the last time, the shop keeper ought to have tempered his behaviour as befitting someone in a leadership position in the setting of the store (Leadership and Ethics is a course I teach to Canada's junior military officers).  His behaviour is inexcusable, if understandable.  Will it result in the loss of patronage in the long run...very likely if it persists and is generalizable from day to day.  Would the right thing to do for the OP be to return and attempt to engage the owner in a civil discussion about the impression that the incident has left for all in earshot, and what that could mean in terms of future sales?  Sure, it couldn't hurt, unless the store owner digs in and acts as his possibly weak character dictates, in which case the fallout is predictable.  Could the event be used by a well-meaning, if hurt, patron to educate the store owner about the ramifications of his hostility in public?  Would it be worth doing, both from the point of view of a humanitarian exchange and from the point of view of keeping a viable LHS nearby?  Yes, I would say so.  How would we find out, either way?  Return to the store and attempt the process.

Thanks for our exchange here.

-Crandell

[riogrande5761]

Cheese,

Its a mixed bag, but it happens often enough to get alot of attention in the forums.  I've lived or traveled and shopped at many hobby shops in northern California, Indiana, Alabama, New York, Rhode Island, Florida, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Texas and many places I've long forgotten.  By and large, I've found most shops were fine - and the issue was more - did they have the items I was looking for, or were they full MSRP vs a decent discount etc. 

In the many shops I've darkened a door in, I've only come across a few with offensive conditions.  One was Rochester NY near where I lived, the guy there was grumpy from the moment I walked in and I just quietly browsed.  I don't recall the issue but when I purchased something there was something negative that happened - it was 19 years ago.  There is a LHS where I live now that I had a negative experience that was entirely not of my making - the guy there spied on messages I posted on a forum and I (*gasp*) admitted to buying items at MB Klein.  I was chastised for that, and told I didn't patronize the shop enough to justify him consigning merchandise (which all sold BTW and he made a profit on, and I used the profits to buy more stuff at his shop).  Once again an attitude problem and I rarely visit there anymore.  I don't burn my bridges by any means.  I'm just like anyone else.  I try to be polite and treat people with basic respect, and expect the same in return.

Anyway, its a tough business and I suppose the moral is low among many who try to make a few bucks selling model trains.  I understand why and sympathize to some extent.  But I don't see it as a charity situation where I'm morally obligated to spend alot more to support a LHS just to help keep one in existence near where I live.  I'd rather help out a needy person, which is what have done this year.

By and large, though, far more hobby shops have been pleasant places to do business than not.

RG, you are, if I am to take what you claim at face value, a skilled ... communicator

Actually, despite my outward claims, I am not all highly skilled at communicating.  I have a good education, and feel I can recognize most basic social situations and hopefully react we a modest level of appropriateness.  This hobby shop scenario is basic enough for me to feel comfortable and confident with what is reasonable and appropriate.  We may not have a 100% complete account of the events either.

It is a responsibility of all persons present in a social setting to conduct themselves with courtesy and respect for the others present.

I agree completely.  I do feel from what little we know, that the apparent transgression of the OP was IMHO minimal, and certainly didn't deserve the apparent reaction it received.  Yes, we are all responsible for our behavior and actions and should try to do our best to be polite and courteous.  The out come of the original scenario is that the shop owner is risking his lively hood by talking to his customers in the way he did.  From a business practice stand point, I still stand by the spirit of the old adage.

[Midnight Railroader]

   One was Rochester NY near where I lived, the guy there was grumpy from the moment I walked in and I just kept my mouth shut and browsed quietly.  Might have purchased a kit or two. 

Might that shop just happen to be located in an old station?

[riogrande5761]

   One was Rochester NY near where I lived, the guy there was grumpy from the moment I walked in and I just kept my mouth shut and browsed quietly.  Might have purchased a kit or two. 

Might that shop just happen to be located in an old station?

No, that place was the only decent shop I remember remaining in Rochester.  No problems there.  It was located in a train station near Webster NY and right next to the Conrail, now CSX mainline.  The old shop I went to with the "wounded water buffalo clerk" was near the 19th ward of Rochester not too far from the Airport just inside the 490 loop.  Its long gone.  It think it closed before I moved away in 1989 to go to grad school.

[Phoebe Vet]

Don't you think we have flogged this dead horse long enough?

[riogrande5761]

Don't you think we have flogged this dead horse long enough?

no no!  I want to analyze this case all night long!  :D  Maybe I could use this as a seed topic to start a PhD study, quit my job and go back to a university where I can really flog this mule to death for oh, 6 or 7 years!  The social phsychology of hobby shops!

Phoebe Vet,

Of course therer are some topics you can just avoid!  One of the ones I never step into is that Track Side diner.  Isn't it just another never ending topic where people have nothing to say?  :P

[SteamFreak]

I feel like I'm trapped in an endless Seinfeld episode.

[riogrande5761]

I feel like I'm trapped in an endless Seinfeld episode.

I've noticed that about this particular forum! 

[andrechapelon]

I feel like I'm trapped in an endless Seinfeld episode.

You are.

No soup for you.

Andre the soup Nazi

[tstage]

I think this topic has been adequately discussed and then some.  Since the OP left this thread half way through page 4, I think we should all do the same.

Tom