God bless the small-shop man

Last Saturday, I was driving all around town trying to locate an item for a client.
The item is not necessarily rare, but the specific colour is.

Lock the doors, customers are coming!

My experience that day was an interesting one.
Firstly, I am not a regular Saturday shopper so it never bothered me that most stores closed their doors at 12?
But seriously, which business closes it’s doors only after being open for half day on the day when most people don’t have to go to work? That is the day when they can come out to shop. When they can come to buy that book, dress, shoe or whatever it is they planned to get during the week but didn’t have time to, because of work commitments.

Before I go off on a tangent, back to the story. I checked all the obvious places. Bigger stores, bigger inventory – they must have it.

Excuse me, do you have any grey poupon?’

>> No we ain’t gah da
>> No!
>> Wha?
>> No we don really get da!

As the time drew closer to 12 (midday) the sales people in the stores appeared more rushed (some even hostile)
They probably wondered why I wanted to come in so close to closing time to bother them?
I walked into a store on Church Street and went to the back.
>> Do you any grey poupon?
>> No, we ain’t got da.

As I walked to the front of the store one of the salesgirls leaned over to the guard and whispered, “is near one a’ clock, lock de front door”
I looked around the store – the placed was almost filled with people. Some customers had several items in their hands and appeared to be looking for more merchandise.
There were even some white people in the store!!!! Seriously!

Anyway, I eventually found the item, tucked away in a corner of a small shop – I think the shop’s name was “Hole in the Wall Shop Inc”. They trade on the stock exchange as HWSI )
On entering HWSI, someone rushed to the front of the counter. “Yes, what can I do for you”?
>> Do you have any grey poupon?
>> Yes, we do.

I purchased and left. At this time it was probably close to 2pm and HWSI didn’t show any signs of closing soon.

I had to swim across the Panama Canal for this item, or was it the Lamaha Canal – I can’t remember. But nothing is too great or too small when you are a small business owner.

Moral of story: Small business owners and entrepreneurs go out of their way for you many times to please you, so thank God for small businesses – go out and support a small business today!