On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 11:28:41 -0700 (PDT), sm_jamieson
wrote:



No wonder some of these 'local traders' are going out of business

Thats just the "builders merchant" attitude you find all over the
place.

I have had:

Friendly but useless..
Unfriendly and useless..
Unfriendly but useful..
and on a rare occasion ..
Friendly and useful!

You can often tell you have got the last one because they:

1) Listen to what you have to say (when I mentioned this particular
water heater today this 'store man' said, "I've never seen one, never
ordered one, never sold one or likely to see one"? What sort of
comment was that and what purposed did it serve? Or maybe it's what I
should expect? The good one will then go straight to a solution for
you, even offering alternatives, all of which are equally workable.

One local merchant is open to the "public" as well as trade,
and you see them sizing up the clients for trade or public before
deciding how to treat them !

I generally go into said places looking like 'a tradesman' (because
I'm not going to wear a suit to do plumbing / painting / bricklaying
etc) and *generally* know what I'm after. If I don't I am often
surprised what range of bizarre things they can come up with (too used
to thinking inside the box possibly)?

I ask for advice elsewhere (including this group) and go in asking
for exactly what I want. If I use the wrong terminology and get
a funny look, I add, "or whatever you call it down here" ,
implying I'm from some unspecified area of the country where
they may well call purlins "porloynes" and roof tiles "wigglers".

LOL! I needed that, thanks ;-)

All the best ..

T i m