The advantage of consistency

[offcntr]

Had a customer come in today with a "Good, you're still here." He'd bought some soup bowls from us three years ago, and his four-and-a-half year-old daughter loves them.

When someone comes back after a long stretch, I assume an out-of-towner. Sure enough, he's a philosophy professor from Boston, in town to give a guest lecture on Emerson and Thoreau for the latter's bicentenary.

Fortunately for me, he doesn't subscribe to Henry D.'s philosophy. He takes seven soup bowls home with him.

There are advantages to keeping the same reserved booth for twenty years. ..

Comments

[lydamorehouse]

That's a great story. I love the idea of this person coming back and looking for you in the same place in the hopes of finding the same thing they loved from years ago. It's the fairy tale ending you want. Unlike the time Shawn left behind an egg cup in big flea market in London, Portabello Road, and when we came back, three years later, not only was the egg cup vender not there, but the entire feel of the Road had shifted from the lovely chaos of grassroots rummage to shiny and commercialized. :-(

[offcntr]

This actually happens fairly regularly. People come for the Bach Festival every year, or bring their kids to college, or, heck, come to the Track & Field trials at Hayward Field. Take an afternoon off to visit Market, buy a pot, then decide they want one to go with it (or seven) the next year. Repeat custom is a big part of my business plan.

Also-- if you can find a pic online of the sort of egg cup you'd like, I can try to make one for Shawn.