Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

You know – times are tough, and the economy is hurting a lot of good biz owners. However, I can’t help but think some Darwinian herd thinning is a good thing – as I visit local shops where I’m met with dead-eye stares and supreme indifference (and this often from the owners!)

Last week a friend and I were hitting shops all over town, looking for 1950s costumes and accessories for a friend’s 50th b’day party (”Come dressed as…”). We ended up (ready to give up) at Off Broadway (which was recommended by other shops as “great”). Only one problem: O-B doesn’t seem real interested in selling anything. We walk in, obviously looking for something (but, wow! and ouch!…the prices…) but the person behind the counter was far too busy gabbing with a friend to even acknowledge we were there.

We then went a couple of doors down to Larry’s Hats (loads of 50s’ vintage jewelery, etc), where Larry himself is behind the counter. He not only talked to us – he tried to help us. He also told us that we might be able to rent what we were looking for at Off Broadway…so (sigh) back we went. This time an unsmiling (and seemingly very bored) young woman said, “Here, look at the book and let me know if you find anything.”…and disappeared into the back. (?!)

Guess where we spent our money? At Larry’s of course. And, we bought other things (like a hat!), in addition to our 50s’ accessories. AND, we’ll go back.

(Here’s hoping Off Broadway was simply having an off day…they did have some interesting things…)