So last week I decided that I really did want and need a nice suit. I never wear dresses anymore–ever–so I need a little variety in the dressy pants suits I have to wear. On a whim I went into Coni and Franc–one of the local stores that sells women’s clothes. Expensive, and I knew it, but I thought I’d look anyway. The short of it was that I told the saleswoman what I wanted. She showed me three items, the second of which I liked, and tried on. And really liked. And they had a seamstress in store, so I got it fitted then and there. (Just taking in the jacket. I’ll hem the pants myself–couldn’t justify paying somone to do that.)

So I go to a store, the salesperson helps me immediately find precisely what I want, and while trying it on I get it fitted.

Sale.

But what really got me, was that today I got a thank you card in the mail from the saleswoman.

Yeah, it was a big purchase for me, but I didn’t think that in the grand scheme of things I’d spent that much money. But I got a thank you card.

You know what? It worked. They now have a very satisfied customer who will go back there to shop next time I need a dressy outfit.

Just another reminder of how strange the business world is. We have stores like Wal Mart and K-Mart where the shopping experience is typically a nightmare (narrow aisles, too many people, ugh). At both the big grocery stores in town they have self scan aisles, where you get to do all the work yourself AND put some college kid out of a job.

And then there are places where you get helped as soon as you walk in the door and you get a thank you note for your purchase.

What a strange world.

And in the world of cooking purchases, Several months ago I bought a nice microplane zester grater. I’m trying to make the world’s best lemon cake, and that requires zested lemon, and I thought that a finer zest might be better. Now I really like this zester, exept that apparently I’m not qualified to use it. It zested the lemons very nicely, but it also zested the end of one finger, and sliced two other fingers. Which means that I had a bunch of little paper cuts, and then had to squeeze lemons.

Sigh.

I hope the cake turns out well.