Give Me Strength Free Rangers,
Ya know, we’ve lost so many customers over the damn fridge. As recently as the very last week in our old space, where the fridge was precariously near the front door. She was a long time regular too, and apologized repeatedly before turning it around on us, and demanding a refund, while she awkwardly stood there awaiting confirmation. If that was really your big stand, I hope it felt better than it looked. So, when designing the new (current) space with the benefit of hindsight, mission one was to have the fridge somewhere near the register, but completely inaccessible from the sales floor (and as invisible as possible), which is why we built a wall around it and turned it to face only employees behind the counter. And said new configuration seemed to be working. In the first two months here, a total of 3 people tried to walk behind the register to get at the fridge, but they all reversed course and (mostly) understood. Even this was a little confounding. What happens when you walk behind the register at Macy’s or the local corner store, or 7-Eleven, or the bank. If you decide to try it, please say hi to their head of security and/or the NYPD for me.
There is simply no context in which it seems reasonable for a sentient adult who has shopped in the physical world at least once or twice before in their lives to think it reasonable to walk behind a sales counter. But the collective hubris out there seems to be gaining steam, as we had 3 people try this same absurd move in one weekend, not too long ago. After this we posted a series of colorful signs, to join the blue ‘Staff Only’ sign that already lived there, to further indicate that the area behind the sales counter is not a public one. That next weekend, we had more people try and violate this space than can be accurately tabulated without rolling back the video tape (which isn’t going to happen). Now that there are five signs in two languages, there is no more gentle suggestion, and most who tread heavily are met with a deadpan, “Are you kidding me?” It’s almost always somebody who is on the phone and is ALWAYS somebody who refuses help of any kind and makes the entitled assumptions that lead to standing between a proprietor and his cash register. And you know what happens when you make an assumption….
So, after preposterous months of digital ado, we finally have some kind of a rep coming from Beam-Suntory to show some of their wares, and Derek just posted the applicable sale page. Tomorrow, Thursday, May 16th (5-7pm), someone we’ve never met and can’t really vouch for will be here in the shop to pour you FREE tastes of Suntory Toki Japanese Whisky, Suntory AO World Whisky, and Suntory Hibiki Harmony. We can most decidedly vouch for the whisky(s) and that you can taste them all for free, so it’s still worth your time to come down and sip with us. In store on tasting day and all week ONLINE ONLY enjoy 15% off all of the above via the link below:
(!) Click here for Suntory sale page (!)
Cheers,
Jack
Proprietor
Free Range Wine & Spirits
P.S. Free Range E-mail Archive
P.P.S. Seriously, what part of the below pic looks like a public area?!
