really.

so, there's this store that i have called, grün. it's chock full of clever gifts, stationery and stuff. i had this really crazy dream of finding cool products and putting it all into one place for people to discover them in all their swellness, but owning a retail store is really freakin' expensive. a business owner has to pay for rent, lights, heat, water, internet, phones, paper, ink, employees, taxes, licenses, fees, products, shipping and ..... you get to eat the cost when someone breaks or damages something... it's endless.

i really do get a lot of satisfaction from the people who truly appreciate the products i've chosen. when they really "get" it. but then there are the days like today when i wonder "what the hell am i really doing this for?" some lady marched into my shop today, acting like we were the best of friends. after she began to speak, i vaguely remembered her from before christmas, buying some stuff and i don't think i was really impressed at the time. i wasn't sure exactly what she wanted today.... something about some products i could order for her "blah blah. convention...i love your store... i feel like i've found a new best friend. i'm here blah..blah...order stuff for me."

she stops short and says.. "i also have a few things to return that i feel a bit weird about." hum.... why was she feeling weird about it? she went on to explain that she had purchased a stick of blue q "get real" lemon lip balm the day before.... "i love lemon but this doesn't taste like lemon." really? are you kidding me?... she continued, "it was only $3 so i thought i would take the chance but you know." reeaaallllly? yeah it was only $3 and this ain't whim-mart.

then she plopped a tin of diablo ignited citrus sour candies onto the counter... "i tried one and was really disappointed... i feel a bit weird (in my head i think: "you should feel weird and really stupid!") but you understand, right?" i was so taken aback by what she wanted to return and what she was actually saying that i just stuttered and stammered and did the return. "take your damned $5.32 and get the hell out of my store and really you don't deserve to have chapstick that cool!"....at least that's what i was screaming in my head.

what store will really take a return on chapstick and candy that's been opened?.. starts with "w" and ends with "t" probably does... and since when is it okay to buy something, try it (like stick it in your mouth) and return it just because you don't happen to think it's what you expected? this unreasonable bending to the will of the customer cultivates a really weird retail culture that only benefits the big box stores. consumers expect bigger quantities, more selection and unquestioning compliance (screw originality or quality) ... then they want you to pay them for taking it off your hands. yeah! we got this really cheap! who cares if some kid in southeast asia get five grains of rice a day for gluing beads onto it.

add to the equation the big guys beating prices down by buying 1 million doodads in twelve different colors, that are cheap knock-offs... when you can only afford to carry 6 in green, but the doodads you have carefully selected are the original, quality stuff, that happens to not suck.

the buying power of the big boxes and the cheap cost of production (because it's crap) confuses and misleads the average consumer into expecting prices to be the same at the big box stores and stores like grün...and then expecting that they can wipe their lips on a stick of chapstick and return it a day later. really. (i won't resell it, maybe frame it to remember the horrific details of the event, but can you really trust that someone making $5.15 an hour in the back room of a big box store wouldn't just throw it back on the shelf?) how can the little guy really afford to compete?

then the clincher.... when these same customers find out that their kids are sucking on lead-laced toys from china, they're all up in your face with a lawsuit... it makes me want to be done as a retailer... and who really ends up sucking on it in the long run? it's not the big guys (they have lawyers and big, fat checkbooks), not china (they are in... well, china). it's me, grün, the attempt at coolness. who just lost another $5.32. what is the point, really.