I Met a Grouch Entrepreneur

Maybe this isn’t my day but somehow I have kept my composure. Yeah keeping your temper will ward off those negative vibes you will encounter each day of your life. I was also thankful that I’m an entrepreneur myself and not a slave anymore to a company where I have a grouch manager that I can’t resist because may career will be at stake. What I wanted to talk about is that grumpy old lady, maybe on her mid sixties or late sixties. She owns a glass supply shop. It was really not my plan to visit the shop because I’m on my way to the wet market to buy dressed chicken for our lunch and inquire in a nearby shop of K-Servico ( an appliance installment company) if they have a digicam. So far there isn’t any but I still spend sometime to inquire about other appliances price and installment plan.

Now when I finished talking to the sales rep of K-Servico, I went to the adjacent shop of Mrs. Grouch (a scrawny old woman wearing glasses), the glass supply owner and ask how much is the price of a custom made mirror for our elliptical shaped framed mirror. Then she immediately said “what’s the thickness of the mirror?” then I said “about 1/8 inch”. She took a plastic bag with small square samples of their mirror to show me the thickness and scattered it on her table. She said with an angry voice “which one?” . Then I selected the one I needed. Then she told me sternly “where is the frame? you should have brought the frame mirror with you. How can we measure the mirror?” . Then I said “do I have to bring it? I already have the dimension. I’m only asking for the estimate of the price” .  Then she said “O yeah? can you measure it without bringing the frame? here is the measuring tape and let us see if you can measure it!” I feel really humiliated the way she talks and makes me feel stupid. But I still have my composure because if I will retaliate, I’m sure I’ll also have a bad day. Then I said while holding the measuring tape on my hand  “here is the dimension, 30 inch by 20 inch and has an elliptical shape”. Then she gave me the price quotation and I immediately left.

Maybe she was having a bad day or because of her age why she was acting like that. But in the business world, how can you explain that to your customer and make them understand? Is it too hard to be nice? And as for me, that incident will the last time I visited that place. How about you? how many times have you met a grouch entrepreneur?