Some of my earliest childhood memories are of my mother and I at the Dime Savings Bank in Brooklyn, trying to get service. Despite standing on incredibly long lines, it was often impossible to get good, prompt? service at the bank. I think they tried to appease my mother with calendars and other gifts, but the service never got any better. Needless to say most of the men and women standing in those long lines, and I mean long, were black.
It goes without saying that I’m sensitive to bad service. Depending on how I’m feeling that day, my response varies. Sometimes, I’m quite loud insisting that I was there first (before whatever white customer they’ve chosen to serve — like I did at the Sherman Oaks, Whole Foods last week). On other days like today, I just leave it — and put it on my ‘do not shop’ list.
I drove over to the Farmer’s Market today, to check out some new Grove stores recommended by a friend. On my way back through the mall, I decided to get my Farmer’s Market usual. Duck breasts from Puritan Poultry, and some dried pears for my favorite scones, and some filberts for Adam.
Now, I will say that every time I go to the Ultimate Nut company, I have to deal with the same woman, who never wants to serve me. I thought, frankly, that she was not great at customer service, but I never said anything. Come today, she’s just jolly and joking with a man buying a half a pound of dried fruit. Now, I stood there patiently waiting for my turn, she looked at me, and just walked over to some white woman who had just come to the counter. Excuse me, I said, and she just ignored me. All I could think of is why in the heck am I shopping here? Clearly, these people don’t want my business, despite the fact that I buy thirty or forty dollars of nuts and dried fruit every time I go there. So I took myself home, back over the hill.
Los Angeles has dozens of businesses. I can’t imagine what I was thinking spending my time with one that didn’t want my business. Today was the last time I’ll ever deal with that rude woman — no filbert is worth it.
