haven't you noticed the deafening silence around any sort of proposed rollback of the minimum wage?

That's because any rise in the minimum wage travels all through the economy in the form of increased business, starting at the neighborhood grocery and going all the way up through heavy equipment and the steel to make it.

The economic pump works from the bottom up. Mom & Pop have to be reminded of it almost as frequently as corporate barons do.

You make strong points. But keep in mind that Walmarts are the same everywhere, but the next small business you visit might be able to serve you better.

Your experience with this singular RW run mom and pop store shouldn't be taken by ANYONE as representative of independent stores elsewhere.

I love my indies, the ACE hardware, the indie drug store, and any other non-chain that I can find and support.

I don't care about low prices.

I do care about US jobs and the middle class.

Even the RW middle class.

We have more in common with them than we do with the owners of Walmart.

even if pricier on some things. That is not an absolute as there are many businesses in this town of 40,000 that I won't support because of attitude, poor service, dishonesty.

I so miss the old hardware store that wws driven out of business, I could go in for just a small piece and ask in my own ignorant way and the clerks in the store knew everything, had worked there all their lives. They knew so much, I used to like to bounce ideas off of them when fixing up my old house. For a while, you could get help in Home depot, but lately the clerks are just ignorant. I know more than they do about stuff. That is a very sad statement. So I miss the old hardware store, plus they didn't have cookie cutter parts, I could get unique door pulls and other stuff. After they closed, I started to go to plumbing supply stores for purchases. Even they are closing.

Even the people they employ. The people they employ need to pay for gas, food and roofs over their heads. Don't go into damn business if you find your business assessment and model don't make a profit. You don't have to offer certain benefits to employees if you employ under 50 people. Major restaurants rip off their employees every day. They pay them 3 dollars and hour plus tips then don't work them for 40 hours so they don't have to pay benefits. Big box stores also work people under 36 hours and some over 49 yet do not pay benefits. The system is broken for everybody.

I'm a small one person business. I can't compete with big businesses that can negotiate low prices by buying in vollumes of 500,000 units. My bulk is 5 - 20, and its made by me locally. It's going to cost way more than what Wallmart would sell their version for.

Just like people some small business owners suck. I know quite a few. But more are genuinely good people trying to do the right thing, and just trying to get by on the verge of going out of business themselves.

Because they can treat their customers (and their employees) like shit because they have you over a barrel with nowhere else to shop.

Walmart has driven out the competition that may have raised the level of customer service in ALL of the shops.

Can you edit to remove the sexist bitch term please?

Certainly not a pattern from which you can conclude that mom & pop stores are as bad as big corps. Part of the joy of living in a community, large or small, is knowing who the cheats are and who your good neighbors are, and supporting the good mom & pop shops.

Ok, so you got shafted. Well, I've got a mom & pop shop where they've gone beyond reason to be good to me and not charge me for work, just because of a delay that wasn't even their fault. Another one does my oil changes, and are as sweet, helpful, quick, and cheap as can be. Another shop has virtually everything a person might ever need, for prices almost as good across the board as the Walmart down the road. I could go on and on about the great mom & pop business owners in my very republican area, of both political affiliations by the way, who are magnificent. Those who are mean SOBs, nobody buys from and they whine about it endlessly. (Wah.) just because you've chosen to do business with people you haven't checked out (i.e., gotten to know since they're neighbors in the community regardless) who turned out to be stinkers, doesn't mean you can write off mom & pop stores with a broad brush.

I understand the OP's frustration and believe they have every right to vent about their experiences. I certainly would take my business elsewhere and encourage others in the community to do so as well. That said you are correct about using the stated examples to paint all mom & pops with a broad brush. Too often we see examples of sweeping generalizations and they are simply not very helpful to supporting an point of view.

In other words, nothing.

We hate what the system is and don't realize we have it as a reaction to the old system which also sucks.

You know what's as bad as an HOA? No HOA. You know what's as bad as cops? No cops.

It's human nature, whether you're getting spat on in person or crushed beneath the wheels of some giant corporation. People suck.

That's painting it all with a massively broad brush. So these guys were idiots, that doesn't mean that the next store you visit will be. And is it better to give your money to soulless corporations? Nope. I'd rather pay for a little girl's violin lessons.

Doesn't deserve to do business in America.

I'm sorry. "I at least want to be treated with respect while I do so."

Costco, Sears, Fred Meyer, etc.

The shop I work for is a small owner-operator, and we compete with a big chain store in town and with W-mart, which is next door.

We compete just fine on prices most of the time, and its usually pretty easy to beat the big store's service.

in case we lock ourselves our or the keys in.

He will order practically anything you want and try new products on a recommendation.

When my husband and I went out of town, we left our 19 year old daughter home and John gave me his phone # to pass on to her and said, "If she is stuck anywhere or needs to be bailed out, have her call me. Even if its 4 o'clock in the morning.

Safeway is only two blocks from his store and even though it is cheaper there, I'd rather buy my kitty litter and kitty food and a quick run for some staples than buy from Safeway.

some are just fine, some you can live with, and some you just want to avoid.

Its not easy running a small business, so they always get the benefit of any doubt from me. But if the service isn't there, and if the prices aren't fair, I just shop somewhere else.

And it is important to remember that money spent at a small business has a much larger chance of staying in the community. Owners live, work, shop and pay taxes locally. A small business typically doesn't get public subsidies or have access to fancy accountants or lobbyists, so the business also pays a higher percentage of taxes than a big box would.

I own a small business. I get really, really tired of people assuming we are all rightwing. I am happy to pay my employees minimum wage as long as ALL business are required to do the same. The playing field is even, we will all have to raise prices slightly, but on the other hand, there will be more disposable income flowing, so we should make more too. Obamacare actually contains a give away for genuine small business. Nice change after a lifetime of politicians telling me that businesses like mine are the backbone of America and then shiving us in favor of a big corporate contributor as soon as the cameras are off.

The largest business owner in my town - largest in terms of number of businesses, not necessarily the largest single company - is a dyed in the wool Republican. I have no idea what she pays her employees, and perhaps that's as it should be. I know that we disagree about just about everything political, and I think she's super. She's funny, intelligent, enterprising, and she cares deeply about our community. She and her employees, in all the businesses, treat their customers as friends and family, and I, for one, am grateful for all of them, as it makes all the difference in the world.

I don't mean to sound like a Pollyanna, but my experience, thankfully, is that most of the locally-owned businesses in this area do pretty much the same. (I suppose that's sort of a self-fulfilling situation, as I generally patronize those stores that treat me this way and either don't patronize others because they don't, or because there's not real need for me to search out alternatives.) Sure, there are some cranky people out there, but for the most part they are working hard, in a tough economy, to serve their customers as they would like to be served. I guess, in contrast to lbrtbell's experience (also in the northeast, I gather, based on the reference to the blizzard), I guess I should consider myself fortunate.

Usually such shops are very honest as they can't afford to get a bad reputation. A big city garage can have a steady stream of new suckers, but small town garages depend on repeat business.

Your title implies that "Mom & Pop" stores AS A CATEGORY are a problem, rather than the -one- store you're venting about.

...privately owned shops think 'smaller is better'. And neither size is guaranteed to give you good service. People are still people. There are good mixed in with the bad. The polite mixed in with the rude.

I'm reminded of how many on DU talk about how they can avoid sales taxes by buying through the Internet but then berate corporations for using loopholes to do the same.

The only solution to corporations is to close the loopholes and that's a job for Congress to do. Level the playing field for big and small shops.

business practices. and money they make usually goes towards paying for their home, food, kids etc rather than buying off politicians and other shit.

out the wealth - vastly multiply the number of entrepreneurial opportunities and simply make for a more colorful and diverse culture than a few large businesses. Anyone who grew up in a small American town 40 years ago or more - in the days well before Walmart, malls or even plazas came to dominate the landscape can remember a whole different world where every small city in America had its own miniature Manhattan in a community owned by the community where the merchants and even the factory owners were closely bonded members of the community.

In fact, that's the way it is throughout my state.

Sorry - I'm not drinking the Kool aid

And that's why she's rude to you. Ever consider that the problem might not be her?

I go into Big Box Stores (rarely) and no one knows who I am which is OK, that's not their job, except when it comes time to find something or ask a question then all of a sudden, there's not a clerk in sight. And when you finally DO find one, the guy they hired for the automotive department is having to work the gardening department and looks at you like you're from outter space when you ask him where to find the vermiculite.

Otoh, I can go to my LOCAL hardware store which has been there since 1847 (moved several times and obviously upgraded) and they DO know my name. But more importantly, there are electricians in the Electrical Department and plumbers in the Plumbing Department, etc. They've saved me from my home-improvement self countless times by advising me the RIGHT way to do things.

Same thing with the LOCAL stores (2) from where I buy my macrame supplies. They do know my name and I know theirs and they are experts in their field. If they don't have something, they order it for me. Yes, I pay a little more than at Michael's (Blech!) or JoAnn's (Blech Blech!) but I prefer supporting locally-owned businesses whenever I can.

If we want to get away from being corporately-owned, we have to get away from BUYING corporate whenever there is an alternative. Local economic improvement is what will bring us out of this economic downturn. We've already experienced the "too-big-to-fail" model and we all saw how well that works. Let's go the other direction for awhile and see what happens.

welcome to it. Bon apetit".

...and less goes to Arkansas.

I can't look it up now but it's something like 0.72/$1 to 0.43/$1 remain in the local economy if you chose Sal's Sandwiches over Subway.

Being customer service friendly is easy for most any single transaction interaction. The question arises when you are on the 50th or 100th customer of the day, can you maintain it? I make and sell art jewelry at art festivals. Every time I am slotted in with different neighbors doing the same usually in other media.

Some of the artists maintain that bright cheery disposition all day. Others start a bit on the dour side and do not improve all day. The bright and cheery ones seem to sell better, first because they listen to and interact with the customer, they have made stuff their typical customer likes, and second because they work to make friends out of the customer some gather a small following that comes back year after year.

Others remain dour and change their calendar to do different shows hoping for better results and can't seem to figure out why the better results never happen. They blame the public, the venue, the weather, the organizer, when none of that would really matter.

Now I will grant that I have been to some bad shows, where no one was selling anything, even the hot dog vendors were coming up short. Out of this I have learned one very important thing. I never do shows where FOX is the media partner. They will bring out a crowd every time, but none of them will have money they want to spend. (...and there might be Sarah Palin t-shirts in the crowd...)

...with the nasty proprietor, sloppy misspelled signs, and the overpriced, past-expiration produce?

Are you sure that wasn't a Fox network station?

"for 5 years, I've been kissing up to this woman"

"The eggs had expired 3 weeks ago. She's always pulling stunts like that, which is why I always read expiration dates before buying any of her overpriced crap."

"But instead of learning this lesson, these small business owners keep acting as if it's 1965...that they own the town because there's no shopping alternatives out there.

There are"



Some people will never learn.