Guest Post from Erika: I Love Living in a Small Town

We are having a holiday party on Sunday, and in preparing for it I have been frequenting the same stores two and sometimes three times in the same week (yes, yes, I am very organized in some ways, hopeless in others). There are very few "box stores" or chains in our little town, and so the stores I have been visiting are small and locally owned, and you can tell that they appreciate the business from the excellent customer service I have been experiencing, even at this crazy busy short-tempered time of year.

Here are some examples of my shopping experiences that I just can't picture happening in the big city or at a chain store. Ok, maybe they would at some place like Bi-Rite Market, but Bi-Rite is the exception to the rule in many ways.

Case Number One: Wreath purchase at Ben Franklin

As you may have read in my previous post, I am trying to exorcise my inner Martha Stewart, and decided recently to *purchase* a wreath (the horror!) instead of lovingly crafting one by hand from the cedars in our fire road (cedars were donated today to a Women's Shelter -- thanks Martin and Neil, for doing the heavy lifting). My, but I do digress. Back to my stellar purchasing experience. It was a small thing, but so appreciated.

Now that you know that I am the type of person not only to purchase a wreath, but to purchase a fake plastic wreath, I might as well admit that I got the kind with the pre-installed LED lights. This is our nod to Christmas lights on the house this year, as we are unable to find the ones we purchased six houses ago in Portland.

Time-crunched, I pleaded with the cashier at the wreath store (Ben Franklin) for batteries to power the lights on the wreath. In order to figure out what size I needed, she attempted to pry open the battery case on the wreath, to no avail. Another cashier came to assist and after considerable effort, she succeeded. Unfortunately they did not carry the correct size battery, but the sweet cashier offered to tape the battery case loosely back together so that I did not have to ruin my nails going through the same effort she did to pry the thing open. How thoughtful!

Case Number Two: Above and Beyond Copying Service at Country Copy

Country Copy knows me well. They did my holiday party invites (and even came up with cute red envelopes instead of the boring white ones I had found). They did my soap labels (and cut them to size, saving me a bunch of work). And now I was asking them to do my song books. Basically, I threw a bunch of song sheets at them and told them I wanted copies, kind of like a little book.

When I came to pick up the copies (a full day early), not only had they folded them into nice little booklets, they found the perfect cover art and text and created little covers for them (no extra charge). I love these people!!! I'm sorry, but this really would NEVER happen at Kinko's.

Case Number Three: The Hunt for Star Anise at SPD Market

I saved the best for last. In another time-saving effort, I was trying to purchase all of the party supplies at one market. Ok, two markets, but only one *grocery store* (the ham is coming from the German deli). I found everything I needed at trusty SPD (and ran into the one requisite acquaintance while I was at it -- you can't shop at SPD without seeing someone you know). Everything that is, except star anise. A little-used spice, but an essential one for my favorite mulled wine as well as my Christmas morning citrus salad in star anise simple syrup.

I asked the nice ladies in the deli, and they didn't think SPD had it, but told me to look in the spice section (which I had just torn apart) and the bulk section (which I was 99% sure did not have it since they don't carry any spices beyond chili powder in bulk). I thanked them and moved on to the refrigerated section, planning to circle back to bulk on my way to the cashier.

Probably five minutes later, a green apron-wearing young man approached me in the household cleaners aisle. "Are you the lady that was looking for the star anise?" I answered hesitantly: "Yes?". "Oh, Ma'am, we don't have any." This clerk hunted me down on the opposite end of the store during their busiest time of the year to let me know that I didn't need to keep searching. Now that is customer service. The best part? The customer next to me told me that she had plenty of the stuff at home that she was never going to use, and I was welcome to it if I happened to be going through her part of town. !!!

I love living in a small town.

postscript: Don't worry, I found the star anise in bulk at the hippie grocery store. There will be mulled wine on Sunday.