TSWLTH, revealed!!

Retail sucks! I worked in bike shop the past year (Harley Davidson). It was a rude awakening. We're not a bike shop anymore.We're retail. What blew me away is we're not a car dealer so the customer is supposed to know their bike since bikes are very, very personal. People were downright rude, not even able to describe a spark plug. Some didn't even know what bike they had other than "a blue one". You're right people are very rude. I always greeted them first though as it's my duty or anyone else's in retail to welcome and greet the customer. Without the customer there is not business. No business, no job. No job no money. No money, no sewing projects. LOL! I still haven't made one really good dorag yet. Got one that works, one that attracts laughs and one that fits only on my knee. Keep smiling and sewing. John ps Remember Satan masquerades a being of light so lets make sure we're real beings of light to the world. Be blessed.

I have no problem with saying ,Good Morning, Good Day, Good whatever. I tend to do that. I don't expect anyone to be my buddy. I'm extremely polite. I just get rather annoyed when I do greet a clerk first, in a friendly manner, to have them act as if I was from outer space. That's the general attitude in many JoAnn's and other places as well. I also hate it when someone, who has waited on me, with an obvious chip on either or both shoulders, finished a transaction with "have a nice day" and you know they mean go away and don't bother me again. Juno

"Midlant" wrote in news:nDw0f.47$vE5.35@lakeread03:

bike shops weren't retail before? or you mean they were a bit more like car dealers where it's assumed the customer has done a bit of research first? i notice Harley Davidson is doing a John Deere & marketing like crazy though... not sure i like that trend (especially after my 5 year old informed me my Massey tractor is inferior to a Deere )

would that be a knee cap then?

lee

Might depend on where the Deere comes from. I learned this summer that the Deeres sold by H-Depot are manufactured to diff specs and that at least some Deere repair shops will not and cannot service them as they cannot get parts.

Jean M.

I think this was a troll. The part about "the customer expects us to say Hello first" or something akin to that..

This is a total mystery to me. Salespeople in these stores are paid by the hour, not by commission. They have to be there for the allotted number of hours in the schedule in order to get paid. Now, to me, the busier I am, the faster the time goes, so I like to be busy. Slow days in a store are an agony of standing on one foot, then on the other, tidying stock, waiting for a "live one."

Bike shops were always bike shops. They were more personal and required more customer interaction vice just being a counter sale. Bike shops don't jump on you when you walk in the door like car lots do. However that is changing as our customers are more car people than bike people. Car people just want to be waited on, not educated. The bike side is different. You need to know the differences in frames and how they fit you and your riding mindset. All touring or just local barhopping to show off? If you don't understand, then you won't. As an example. People come in wanting exhaust pipes. I no longer ask them what they want because they don't know. To help them along I'll ask them if they want sound or power. Inevitably they will say both, missing the clue as it soars over their head. They want the sound of drag pipes, but the power of a 2 into 1 tuned system at a cheap drag pipe price. Everything is pros and cons. Car people now buying bikes don't have a clue and don't understand. They throw money at everything thinking that money is the cure. It's not. You have to sacrifice one for the other. What is it you're trying to do? Go fast or attract attention for being the bad yuppie biker you think you is? Agh...oh well. It's over.

"enigma" wrote in message news:Xns96E58C36EBE1Cenigmaempirenet@199.125.85.9...

This is so true Joanne, however there are many people in this world who feel that they are entitled to be handed a paycheck with no effort on their part. It seems to be a directly related to the fact that they think the are somehow more deserving and should not have to stoop to actually working for a living. Now I want every one to understand that I'm not making this a generalization of anyone, especially those clerk in my Joann's. They are lovely ladies. It's not their fault that the store stocks to much "stuff," most of which is "crap." Juno

"Jean D Mahavier" wrote in news:nlz0f.5880$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews1.bellsouth.net:

well, yes, much like the merchandise from Wal-Mart. same brands, different specs. there's a reason it sells for less. i forgot HD was selling John Deere lawn tractors... i was thinking of farm tractors. i am very happy with my Massey Furguson 1249. it's not a big tractor, but it does what i need (backhoe, bucket loader, fence post drill, road rake, etc). the similar sized John Deere don't have the PTO torque or the power my tractor does, and they cost more :) lee

"Midlant" wrote in news:nsB0f.62$vE5.38@lakeread03:

ah, i understand. i'm not a bike person because i won't buy a bike i can't pick up again if i lay it down... unfortunately, i don't like any of the toy bikes i can pick up (although my friend Hayden had a Yamaha street/dirt bike in 73 that was ok) i like bikes, especially late 50s Harleys & Indians. oh well.

so, have you tried taking apart a dorag you like & using it as a pattern? lee

You have excellent taste! Those are classic bikes indeed. I had a 1950 Pan and sold it when a man came over with a backpack packed full of brand new $100 bills.

I made a pattern using painter tape over each segment of my dorag, then transferred to a brown paper bag. I made on tonight. Worked fine! I followed the tape around each seam just as you would mask something you wouldn't want to get paint on. Peas off, and lay on paper, add 1/4" or so for seams, and cut out.

John

You're so right, Juno! I don't know what happened to it.

Good for you! I'm glad you've got some good folks in there. :)

I do have to say that I did find two great stores. They are both home dec stores. That's all they carry. But they were the nicest folks in both places! When I was hunting for fabric to do my son's chair, I shopped in both stores. The first one, I asked if I could have a small swatch of one fabric. The gal said Oh of course. And cut me a huge swatch off the roll! Probably 6" wide and as long as my forearm. The second shop was where I found the perfect red chenille fabric. They were great. They had a sale on all the remnants going on. I asked where the clearance stuff was. They told me, and said "you have to find the good deals first!!" Our kind of folks huh? I found a piece on clearance that was about a yard, maybe a smidge more. Then found a whole roll of the stuff too. The little piece was from the last roll of it they had. When she measured the little piece, it was uneven. So she found where it was a whole width and measured from there. I got almost a 1/4 yard that wasn't the total width of the fabric for free. Now that's good service.

So it's still out there, we just have to hunt it down. ;)

Sharon

"Midlant" wrote in news:9UI0f.86$vE5.37@lakeread03:

my 2nd cousin (whom i adored growing up) had a 54 Pan, but he sold it for drugs (along with my grand-uncle's antique gun collection/museum). i don't blame him for that, really. it was the whole VietNam thing. what i *do* blame him for is stopping his dad (my grand-uncle) from selling me the family farm. he's never been back there since the mid-70s, but he's holding it hoping to make a killing on development. *that* is why we don't get along anymore. that place has *good* land!

great! i've done similar with that blue masking tape... is that the painter's tape? there's a nifty little notion called a Quilter's seamer (or something like that. dream seamer maybe). it's a brass disc with a pencil lead size hole in the middle. the hole is 1/4" from the edge of the disc. you just run the edge along your pattern & it marks a 1/4" seam allowance. i have 6 or so of them, since they're little & i lose them all the time (cats like them for hockey) lee

I'm sorry to hear that. You forgave him one thing; might as well finish completely. Unforgiveness is like drinking poison waiting for the other person to die.

Yep, that's the stuff!

I'll check the local store and see of they have them. Thanks! John

and I'm sure there's more to the story than is being shared, always is. For example it's pretty hard for one person to completely stop another person from selling something unless they have power of attorney.

"Midlant" wrote in news:%xg1f.580$vE5.82@lakeread03:

well, i have my own farm now... not my dream farm yet, since we want to move to upstate NY. it's getting too developed here. i'm not really angry at him for not selling to me. i just think it'd be a waste to develop good land like that... of course that side of PA is pretty poor & not near enough to anything to actually support any kind of big development boom either... maybe my cousin will figure that out & retire there eventually. it'd be a good place to retire.

The farmers here have been selling out to developers for years. Growth outripped the communites abilities to suuply chairs for school, water treatment, traffic and roads, etc...... Schools have lots of temp classrooms. It's a shame as the kids don't get the personal time they need and the country is gone; replaced my home owners associations and condo's. Oh well. We're way off topic here.

Just Curious: Hancock's in what city/province(state)? Tamie