My first bike shop job was at one of the larger shops in the area, and the owner is/was a pretty hard-headed, sharp-elbowed businessman. I remember one time hearing him telling an aspiring-but-procrastinating customer "I'm not operating a museum." That has stuck with me over the years - in this business I can have nice bikes on display and offer lots of good advice to anybody who comes through the door, but merchandise has to be sold and cash has to flow in. Tire-kickers and gawkers need to be subsidized by the people who buy stuff. Recently my staff and I spent a couple hours with a customer, answering questions, letting him ride different bikes, etc. On his third call, he started asking about different handlebars, and I answered his questions based on my experience. Ten minutes into the call he tells me he decided to buy the bike, which I had in stock, from another place. I just remembered, I'm not operating a museum (or, for that matter, a free consulting business), and the remainder of the conversation was incredibly brief. I am glad that I got off the phone quickly, because I was somewhat angry about it...
On Oct 29, 6:02 pm, reynoldslugs <be...@perrylaw.net> wrote: > Jim Hill's comments remind me, for some reason, of a quote they used > to hang on the wall in City Lights Bookstore, in SF: > > "People who say they love poetry and never buy any are a bunch of > cheap sons-of-bitches." > > - attributed variously to Kenneth Patchen and Lawrence Ferlinghetti > > Hope that doesn't offend anyone, it's offered in humor. Anyway I > needed some new woolie stuff, so I ordered it. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
