This is not a funny blog. This is a mad as a hornet blog.
Today I went to a quilting class at a quilt shop that is not in my town. I bought all the fabric at said quilt shop. I bought a special ruler for the class at said quilt shop. I drove 40 miles to get to said quilt shop to attend the class. (Gas Money People, Gas Money). I paid 45 bucks for the class. There were 8 women there. That's 360 bones that Karen, quilt shop owner made just on the fee, not to mention the fabric everyone bought at her store........which would have been hundreds of dollars.
Karen collects money from everyone for lunch and takes orders and runs out to pick up lunch for everyone. Very nice of her I think. As I am eating my taco salad, (which was in a container that was almost as big as a 9x13 pan...I don't know why but it was) I hear her say: "No one is to throw any of their food garbage away in the store's garbage can. If you have food garbage (such as a 9x13 pan with taco salad drippings in it?) then you have to take it home with you and throw it away there. I don't have any garbage service here, and I'm not taking it home."
I rode up with my friend in her very nice Acura. I cringe and think: "What if my gooey garbage leaks in her nice car? I have no bag to put it in. So this 9x13 pan is just going to float around in her Acura with her 9x13 pan and we're just going to hope and pray that neither one of them tip over and get salsa or sour cream or goo on the carpet of her car? Sour cream will really stink up her car for good. Or wait. Maybe in order to save the interior of the car, I will have to HOLD the garbage on my lap for 40 miles, smelling it (after it has sat around for 4 hours) wrenching all the way home. It will leak on me now instead. I'm not so down with that idea. This is so very awkward. Is she serious? Tell me she's not serious."
After Karen's announcement, the room goes silent. Then I hear a timid voice behind me say "Are you SERIOUS?" I felt like applauding. Standing ovation even.
Apparently Karen was serious. She was having nothing to do with our garbage. Apparently it was more appropriate for us to bundle up our stinky lunch garbage that had been sitting in the sewing room with us for 4 HOURS and put it in our cars with us and drive 40 miles with it, so we would not burden The Speckled Hen with it. Heaven Forbid.
PEOPLE. What has happened to service? I'm serious here.
If The Speckled Hen were my quilt shop, and I was hosting 8 really nice women for the day, (8 really nice women that I had made a bunch of money off of) and my shop didn't have garbage service, then the 8 really nice and beautiful women would have been able to take throwing out their lunch trash for granted. I would have gone and gotten a garbage bag and filled it with every one's stinky lunch garbage and I would have put it in my own car to take to my own home rather than causing all that awkwardness and displeasure.
The customer is always right. Service with a Smile. What has happened to these values?
My heartfelt thanks go to Taco Bell, who let us throw away our trash when we went inside to purchase a beverage. I will return to Taco Bell for any future beverage purchases....again and again.
As to you Speckled Hen: you and I? We're done. Voting with my feet here.
5 comments:
I'll hit up Taco Bell with you anytime. That's why I love that place...they don't disciminate! :-)
Diana (not Brent) says:It's time to write a letter to The Speckled Hen. Be sure to tell them that you have other fabric purchasing and class attending options. Then start a "stop The Speckled Hen anti-garbage" movement. There should be petitions and picketing involved. This could become your "cause." Everyone should have a cause.
I like Auntie Diana's idea but another option to consider is some good old fashioned passive-aggressiveness. Go to the Speckled Hen. Meander through the rows of bolts. Do not purchase anything as tempting as it may be. Pass up the purple gingham, the purple batik and the purple toile for his lady Gloria. Locate trash receptacle. From your purse, retrieve your ammunition: food waste such as sandwich crusts, empty yogurt containers, apple cores, banana peels, maybe an empty can of tuna if you really mean business. Casually stand next to waste bin, look up intently at the ceiling and dump your debri. Now, if there is only one trash can that is kept underneath the cashier's area (to keep it securely guarded from such food stuffs, no doubt) consider sticking your ammo in between bolts of fabric. There's always that option.
I did in fact write a letter to the Speckled Hen and in it I think I quoted you Diana. If I am found murdered in my sleep, you know where to look.
There is no room for stingy-ness in the quilting world. I mean, com'on, its not the cheapest hobby around. I love that you were put out by having to carry your garbage back to the car. Dominica is covered with trash. You should've just left it right outside of Speckled Hen's establishment like the Dominicans do. (hey, maybe I can write a children's book about the mean ol' Speckled Hen) Love you mom-ers
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