Abbie's Real Life Blog

I am in sort of a rotten mood today.  Uck.

I dropped off two pairs of pants to be hemmed at a tailor at Crossroads Shopping Center.  If you’re familiar with Columbia, it’s at the corner of Broadway and Stadium Blvd.  I hate Crossroads.  There’s only one way into the parking lot, and that’s from Broadway, and you have to approach it from the east because there are no stoplights and you can sit in traffic trying to make that left for many minutes.  And then when you are ready to leave, you have to take a right onto Broadway going west because you will sit there for many minutes before you will be able to cross the street to go east.  You can try going out the exit on Ash St., but with the new shopping center across the street, it’s hard to get into the lane to go left or straight, so you end up going right onto Stadium.  And making a left onto Ash is too difficult because the exit is too close to the stoplight there, so you can’t make a left if there’s traffic waiting at the light.  And if there’s no traffic waiting, then there’s probably too many people coming the other way.  It’s just a big pain in the ass. 

Unfortunately, the shopping center is home to the best Chinese restaurant in Columbia and the only standalone big box pet store in Columbia (although that’s a bit misleading because it’s a very small Petco- roughly half the size of a typical Petco), as well as the AAA office, a branch of my credit union, my favorite frame shop, and a UPS Store, as well as random other shops.  Anyway, I avoid Crossroads when I can.

I dropped the pants off at the tailor in the middle of the day last week, after a dentist appointment, and I didn’t notice the hours.  I figured I would pick them up today after another dentist appointment, but I ended up there during the lunch hour and the shop was locked up.  That’s when I realized that the hours of the damn tailor are 8:30am to 4:00pm.  ARRGGHHH.  Do you WANT customers?  What the fuck?  Clearly they don’t want ME as a customer, and I will be very happy to not give them any business from now on.  Fine.  I just have to figure out when I’m going to TAKE OFF WORK to pick up those pants.  RAAARRAGHHH.

In other news of my relationship with members of Columbia’s small business community, I also sent emails to a business in town when I realized they were plagiarizing some stuff on their publicity materials and website.  I noticed that they had done so because I frequent one of the websites that they were ripping off.  And they were doing it in a really obnoxious way: using full paragraphs of text verbatim without any attribution, but then including a quote from a different source at the bottom of the blurb, with correct attribution.  Over and over again.  I thought that was deceitful and I called them on it. 

The business in question (which I will not name here because I am not that big of an asshole) is a cool quirky little place with lots of cred with the cool quirky indie kids.  Let’s just say that they are big supporters of arty indie entertainment, ok?  So it’s pretty hypocritical for them to collect all the cred that comes with running a cool quirky little place but yet directly steal from cool quirky little websites.  I mean, right?  That’s a bunch of bullshit, right there. 

And, of course, I got a very defensively written response from the owner, who basically accused me of being petty.  Which, fine.  Ok.  In the grand scheme of things, a little bitty business using blurbs without attribution isn’t that enormous of a deal.  It’s not corruption on Wall Street leading to massive bailouts totalling billions of taxpayer dollars, or a corporate lobbyist benefitting from deals with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while acting as the campaign manager for a national Presidential candidate, or whatever.  No one said it was a gigantic big deal.  But notice that I didn’t take my findings to the local paper, expecting a full inquiry from the city council.  I wrote an email to the business owner, and I suggested that they start citing their sources.  Because to do otherwise isn’t just illegal, it’s unethical.  And it’s uncool (although coolness shouldn’t be an important factor in their legal decision-making processes).  And, as a small business, they should be aware of what might hurt other small businesses.  Seriously.

Let’s see.  Do I have any other small businesses to bitch about?  No, I don’t think so.  Except: why are the Quiznos restaurants in town only open until 8pm?  Why are the Subway franchises on campus the only ones that have that delicious ‘veggie patty’ option when they’re all owned by same guy?  And why haven’t I figured out if there’s another pet store in town that sells the particular brand of ridiculously expensive pet food and compostable cat litter that I buy, so that at least the markups are lining the pocket of some small business owner rather than the nameless, faceless corporate behemouths at Petco?  Also, maybe this make-believe magical pet store is more conveniently located?  

I am pretty disappointed in the thing about the plagiarism, because I have been a big fan of this small business and its various endeavors, and I am a regular customer.  And now I just have a bad taste in my mouth over the whole thing, and it’s irritating that they can’t just be cool and honest people.  I mean, didn’t we learn what plagiarism was really early in school?  And is this or is it not a college town?  Way to be a role model, there. 

Now I have to decide if it’s enough of a dealbreaker for me that I’ll have to avoid their business until they get their shit under control.  Is it?  I don’t know.

Fine, I’m done.  I’m going to go back to my work now.  Yes, I have work to do.  Shut up.