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Gordon Lightfoot after a recent party at Massey Hall talks to the CBC talk show host George Stroumboulopoulos (right) while Bernie Fiedler, manager and the founder of the Riverboat Coffee House in Toronto watches on at the gathering.
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| Canadian Music Legend Gordon Lightfoot performed on the popular TV Show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last Wednesday night. A very rare and special moment for all us Canadians who’ve following the Orillia native over the years. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot’s famous 12 String Gibson Guitar (photos contributed by Fred Schulz) |
DID WE LOSE PEOPLE SKILLS USING ONLINE AUCTIONS TO SELL ANTIQUES?
WHAT ABOUT THE ONE ON ONE RELATIONSHIP OF THE MOM AND POP ANTIQUE SHOP?
OF COURSE WORKING ONLINE, TO SELL OUR ANTIQUES AND COLLECTABLES, CREATED A NEW CUSTOMER CHALLENGE FOR US. IN SOME CASES IT WORKED OUT BETTER, WITH MORE SECURITY, THAN WHEN WE OPERATED OUR MAIN STREET SHOP, AND CONTENDED WITH ALL KINDS OF STRANGE OCCURRENCES OVER AND AROUND THE COUNTER. ALTHOUGH I'M AN ADVOCATE OF THE OLD FASHION MAIN STREET ANTIQUE SHOP, BECAUSE I LIKE PERSONAL CONTACT, TO GO WITH MY PURCHASES, FROM A SELLING PERSPECTIVE, THERE WERE SOME DEFINITE ADVANTAGES DEALING VIA EMAIL AND AUCTION BIDDING WITH OUR CUSTOMER BASE. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF ROOKIE EBAY'ERS, MOST OF OUR TRANSACTIONS, EITHER BUYING OR SELLING, WERE WITHOUT INCIDENT. THIS WAS LARGELY DUE TO THE FACT, NONE OF THE EBAY VETERANS WANTED TO RISK THEIR FEEDBACK PERCENTAGE, BY BEING A TOOL, AND OPENING THE DOOR FOR A NEGATIVE REVIEW. THAT CAN BE CATASTROPHIC IN EBAY, AND SOME WOULD RATHER START ALL OVER, THAN CARRY THE BURDEN OF A LESSER AVERAGE THAN ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. OVER THE COUNTER, IN THE SHOP SETTING, WE USED TO GET SOME BAD ACTORS, WITH NASTY ATTITUDES; YES WITH GREAT FREQUENCY. THE BURDENS OF PROTOCOL WORK "FOR" EBAY AND ITS MEMBER VENDORS. THE SAME PROTOCOLS, IN A SHOP SETTING, ARE NO INSURANCE WHATSOEVER, THAT A CUSTOMER ISN'T GOING TO COME FLAILING OVER THE COUNTER, ANGERED BY A DEALER'S UNWILLINGNESS TO NEGOTIATE.
ON EBAY, WE HAD A VERY SMALL NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS OUT OF EVERY HUNDRED LISTINGS. IN A WEEK AND MONTH, IT WAS REFRESHING TO BE ABLE TO CONDUCT BUSINESS WITH HAPPY CUSTOMERS, SOME WHO HAD BEEN BUYING OFF US SIMILARLY FOR YEARS. WE DIDN'T SEE THEIR FACES, BUT WE KNEW THEIR NEEDS, AND SPECIALTY WRAPPING INSTRUCTIONS. AT THE SHOP, THERE WERE DAYS AND WEEKS, ESPECIALLY IN THE BUSY SUMMER SEASON, WHEN YOU COULD EXPECT TO BE SCOLDED, LECTURED, INSULTED AND CRITICIZED BY HALF OF THE PATRONS WE MET……SOME WHO WEREN'T EVEN BUYING ANYTHING. WE WERE ON-SITE PUNCHING BAGS FOR "THE FRUSTRATED AMONGST US!" THEY'D MAKE SURE TO PASS COMMENT ABOUT OUR CRAPPY SHOP, BEFORE THEY EXITED THE BUILDING. IT WAS ALWAYS SO HEART WARMING, THAT THEY FELT THE NEED TO MAKE FUN OF OUR COLLECTION…….AND THEY DID IT SO INTIMATELY, AS THEY PASSED SUZANNE OR I, SOMETIMES BEING JOINED BY A GROUP GESTURE, WHICH WAS TWICE AS MUCH PLEASURE. WELL, I'M BEING SARCASTIC WHEN I USE THE WORD "PLEASURE." IT WAS ALL PRETTY NASTY STUFF, WHEN WE WERE HAVING A GENERALLY BAD DAY. THE GRIPING COULD START FIRST THING IN THE MORNING, AND BE ENRICHED THROUGHOUT THE DAY. NOW HERE'S AN EXAMPLE.
ONE EARLY AUTUMN DAY, WHICH HAD BEEN A FIFTY-FIFTY SHOP EVENT, BY LATE AFTERNOON (FIFTY PERCENT GOOD REVIEWS, FIFTY PERCENT ON THE DOWN SIDE), I SAW A LOCAL ARTISAN I KNEW, COME INTO THE MAIN ROOM OF THE BASEMENT, AND HEAD AROUND MY FOUR BOOK SHELVES. A FEW MINUTES LATER, I HEARD A SIGNIFICANT CRASH OF GLASS ON THE CONCRETE FLOOR, AND A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF DRAMA FROM THE BACK OF THE STORE. "I'M OKAY," I HEARD HER SAY, "BUT YOUR GLASS VASE ISN'T." SHE SHOWED UP AT MY DESK, WITH A LOT OF GLASS SHARDS IN HER OUTSTRETCHED HANDS, AND SET IT ALL DOWN ON THE ACCOUNTING BOOK THAT I HADN'T BEEN ABLE TO CLOSE UP IN TIME. SHE NO SOONER CRASHED THE GLASS DOWN, THAN SHE BEGAN BERATING ME ABOUT THE WAY WE WERE EXHIBITING OUR GLASS PIECES, AND HOW EASY IT WAS TO BRUSH THE PIECE OFF THE SHELF, JUST WALKING BY. AS I FOUND MYSELF FREQUENTLY, AT THAT SALES DESK, MY JAW RESTED ON MY CHEST, AS I STARED IN GREAT WONDERMENT AT HOW SHE HAD TAKEN HER MISADVENTURE, AND SUDDENLY MADE IT MINE. I COULDN'T SNEAK A WORD IN, LONGER THAN "BUT," INTO THE FURY OF RAPID FIRE ADVJECTIVES COMING OUT OF THE WOMAN'S MOUTH. I WAS BASICALLY, IN HER TERMS, THE SCOURGE OF THE EARTH, FOR HAVING LEFT MY GLASSWARE WHERE SHE COULD BREAK IT.
THE SHOP KEEPER SUCKS IT UP, AND THEN SCOOPS UP THE BROKEN GLASS, AND DISPOSES OF IT CAREFULLY
As it had been one of those days, to that point, having heard far too many critiques for my balance of good humor, I had about ten seconds of space left in my patience, before this lady was going to find out just how close to a werwolf I was. Actually, I love the current television show, "Grimm," because most of the population of the fictional town, has the ability to change into fairy and horror-tale creatures…..when they get pissed off. Well this is about as close as I ever got to the big transition, and she wouldn't have liked what emerged. Instead of getting all hairy and fanged, I just turned the customer complaint over to the sergeant of arms, from the meek and mild accountant. I went from my passive "serenity now" self, to "a raging lunatic." So I closed up the accounting book, after dumping the glass off its pages (thanking her, by the way, for throwing it down on my book work), and I began a deep and resounding growl, with a directive that began like this……"Lady, we don't charge people for accidentally breaking something……it happens from time to time." She tried to intervene. I wouldn't let her. "Are you hurt?" I asked. "No" was the response. "Are you sure?" I asked again. "No" was once again her choice of answers. "Then don't worry about the broken vase, because I have four more just like it." But you see, it didn't satisfy her to have a standard or commonplace response. She wanted me to start crying. I really think she wanted me to pay her the price of the vase, because it was positioned too close to the edge of the shelf. I guess I owed her for the "fright" she had experienced breaking my inventory. I said to her, after she had made a few ridiculous counter points, "How do you know I placed that vase near the edge of the shelf?" She didn't understand that track of reasoning. "What do you mean?" she responded. "We've had a busy day. Someone else may have moved that vase, and left it in that unfortunate position. You're assuming the only person who could have done that, was me!" She didn't like me defending myself in this fashion. So I offered an apology once more, and as she continued mouthing off, I simply turned my back, and went on with my accounting chores.
When doing EBAY, I've got to tell you, I didn't miss this kind of customer problem at all. It was so wonderfully calm and I adored the independence, and frankly, the adventures of the storefront were getting a little wild, by the time we decided to close up the store in the mid 1990's. We had a business community network, that dealt with shoplifting for example. Shoplifting always ruined our retail experience. Some would steal from me, and sell to my book shop neighbor down the street. They would steal from her, and try to sell it at another second hand shop that fronted on Bracebridge's Manitoba Street; where one of the group (there were usually three thieves in a group), would steal from them, at the same time as another cronie would try to sell something borrowed from us. Six days a week this could happen, until we finally busted the ring. Within two months, another ring would pop up, and we'd start losing inventory again. This was also a joy of EBAY auction selling. We never had to worry about the horrors of the five finger discount. We lost everything from quilts to hockey cards, Dinky Toys to toy soldiers. I started to hate main street retail, so when we finally commenced selling on EBAY, it was hard to deny just how easy it was……even though it was far tougher in some areas than the traditional shop. It didn't matter. At least we didn't have to face the regularity of scoldings and criticism. We didn't lose it entirely, but the percentage was very small, and the occurrences far enough apart that you never had one of those really bad days or weeks, I'd have at the shop almost every week, through every season.
As most EBAY sellers will attest, you can make good friends online, over many transactions, and for us, with a formal main street shop once again, we even have visits from people we sold items to online…….and thus we resume the relationship, this time in person. I did like the convenience of EBAY selling, and my wife is persnickety enough, that she played the role of seller perfectly. She delighted in the bookwork and regimen associated with email communication, and both shipping and handling. At the shop, she works differently, and spends a lot more time these days, between customers, knitting our inventory. She sells a lot of knit-wear like scarves, toques and mitts. So far, we have only had one summer season, and the crowd to our newly opened shop was pretty thin. So we didn't have too much in the way of controversy, although that's not to say we didn't have some ignorant patrons who felt obliged, like my artist friend and the vase incident, to give us a piece of their respective minds. Honestly, there are some who do this, who really shouldn't give any of their brains away……because it could leave them in negative territory.
As I have mentioned the reason we pulled out of EBAY selling, due to our difference of opinion with their new shipping estimate policy, we weren't surprised recently, when we received a parcel from a vendor, for the shockingly low price of fourteen dollars shipping fee. Yet when we purchased the multiple items, that were then shipped as one parcel instead of four, the original cost would have been $77.00 according to this same shipping estimate protocol. This is how they had to list it, but they changed it in fact, after the sale, charging us only fourteen dollars. This is what a lot of EBAY sellers do these days, to get around the new requirements…..changing the shipping fees accordingly……much as if the change never occurred in the first place. We let EBAY know we weren't happy about the change, and the fact we hadn't been warned what the changes would mean for us, in terms of extra work and risk as a small business. So you can tell I'm still unresolved with the issue. For most of a decade we were happy sellers, content to do our daily listing and selling, and with one hundred percent favorable feedback, we felt it was good business…..working as we had been for so many years. They didn't feel any need to change for little guys like us.
We have opened this new shop, which is actually an extension of our boy's vintage music enterprise. It is the business my wife will take over this summer, after retiring from teaching, (instead of our EBAY store, that we had always expected would occur). As far as tough days manning the sales desk? Well sir, I look enough like Charles Manson, today, that I've greatly reduced the negative comments from unhappy customers. They have that look in their eyes, of expectation, that I might leap out from behind the counter, and bare my fangs. So it's been a pretty fair return to the main street, and so far, knock wood, there have been no incidents of shop lifting. And that's refreshing from the old days.
I don't know if we will ever return as EBAY sellers, but you know, for the most part, we really enjoyed those years online. And we made a lot of friends, even though we didn't meet up with them face to face. We still get emails from them, now and again, asking when we're going to be listing more from our Muskoka collection. We never say never. Maybe there will be a more vendor-friendly future ahead, for small vendors like us, who liked it the way it was. I'm not sure, to be honest, if we would have co-oped on this new venture, if we had remained as EBAY sellers. Maybe, maybe not.
I'm not suggesting that EBAY doesn't work for vendors. But what I have seen, on shipments we have received recently, is that vendors are circumnavigating the rules, and doing their business the way they were before the changes a couple of years ago. Oh well, so far, we're doing well as "mom and pop in the shop," so we won't try to fix what isn't broken. Thanks for taking a few moments to visit us today. We have only just come back from a day out on the antique hunt, and by golly, joy oh joy, I bought a neat, colorful, small totem pole for the shop. Lots of cookbooks, also, for our July 1st transition of room one, of our antique section of the building, to a cookery resource site……within the antique business context. You will be able to look through our large collection of vintage and out-of-print cookbooks, (from our private archives) plus many binders of conserved "handwritten" recipes dating back to the mid 1800's. We're pretty excited about this new side of the business that we've been working on, as collectors and historians, for the past twenty-five years. It will be launched on July 1st.
Come in for a visit if you're in the neighborhood.
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